We Septimus

Frederick Septimus Kelly was one of Australia's great cultural losses of World War One: a composer the equal of Vaughan Williams, who survived Gallipoli but was cut down in the final days of the Battle of the Somme. His music – crafted entirely in his head, and only committed to paper once perfected – displays touching lyricism and profound invention. Even during the war, he never stopped writing music: on troop ships during long ocean crossings, in training camps, in the trenches of Gallipoli, in a military hospital recovering from war wounds, in a bombed-out cellar barely 300 metres from enemy lines in France. This album presents his complete catalogue of orchestral works, many recorded here for the first time.

The Australian Voices, known globally for vibrant performances that reflect on contemporary themes, present their tenth album: Reverie. Reverie is a collection of twelve works that bring together themes both banal and transcendent, juxtaposing music that is by turns deeply lyrical and ecstatically ludicrous. A highlight of the album is a setting by the group’s conductor, Gordon Hamilton, of the Elegy – In memoriam Rupert Brooke, written by Australian soldier Frederick Septimus Kelly on the battlefields of Gallipoli and set here to words by Kelly’s close friend Rupert Brooke.

Theodora was Handel's last oratorio but one. He composed this large-scale work in just over a month in the summer of 1749 and it was premiered in March the following year in the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Only Jephtha was to follow two years later. Handel valued Theodora very highly and stated that the chorus that ends act II, He saw the lovely youth, was the favourite among his own compositions.