ANAM Recital: Francis Atkins
Tue 23 Sep 2025, 11AM

As a musician’s instrumental proficiency develops, so too does their artistic taste and temperament. Each ANAM musician’s recital is a snapshot in time – simultaneously summarising their year of training and revealing glimpses of their future selves. What music excites them? What do they want to communicate? How does their art help them understand the world better? Hear what the next generation of virtuosi have to say, and how, in the 2025 ANAM Recital series.

Roaring seas, rich earth, lightning, sunshine
"This recital explores a rather bizarre collection of the piano literature, from cliche virtuoso solo works to electronics/piano crossover.

Franz Liszt's second ballade is often described as a musical setting of the Greek legend of Hero and Leander; two lovers who swim through rough seas to be with each other each night, drowned by a Winter storm.

Karlo Margetic explores timbral and textural elements of the piano to conjure up different types of rocks. Smooth river rocks, layered sediment, and sharp brittle obsidian.

Michael Kieran Harvey experiments with the meeting point of electronics and acoustic piano, and what kind of crazy sounds can come from distorting and playing with live sound. This piece is a nonstop challenge for the performer, negotiating tricky metric modulations, virtuoso passages, and daring modal harmonies. Michael sat down at the piano one day and said "let's see how many notes I can fit into one bar!"

The opus 53 is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most famous sonatas, with its exciting motoric opening and dazzling semiquavers. It's affectionately known as the "dawn sonata" for a gorgeous moment in the rondo, where the resolution of tension feels like a rising sun spilling over the landscape; it's simply joy encapsulated in sound!" — Francis Atkins

Franz LISZT Ballade No. 2 in B Minor, S. 171
Karlo MARGETIĆ Box of Rocks
Michael Kieran HARVEY Elektra
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, op. 53 'Waldstein'

Francis Atkins (NSW) Piano
Nathan Ellul (AV and Operations Coordinator) Electronics

Photo by Pia Johnson