McLeod: 24 Tone Clocks Michael Houstoun & Diedre Irons

• 1 Tone Clock Piece I 02:23
• 2 Tone Clock Piece II 02:42
• 3 Tone Clock Piece III 05:09
• 4 Tone Clock Piece IV 02:26
• 5 Tone Clock Piece V 03:46
• 6 Tone Clock Piece VI 03:11
• 7 Tone Clock Piece VII 03:42
• 8 Tone Clock Piece VIII 04:38
• 9 Tone Clock Piece IX 05:48
• 10 Tone Clock Piece X 03:48
• 11 Tone Clock Piece XI 03:43
• 12 Tone Clock Piece XII 06:18
• 13 Tone Clock Piece XIII 05:00
• 14 Tone Clock Piece XIV 05:14
• 15 Tone Clock Piece XV 05:44
• 16 Tone Clock Piece XVI 05:44
• 17 Tone Clock Piece XVII 04:04
• 18 Tone Clock Piece XVIII 05:12
• 19 Tone Clock Piece XIX 05:06
• 20 Tone Clock Piece XX 01:32
• 21 Tone Clock Piece XXI 03:59
• 22 Tone Clock Piece XXII 04:21
• 23 Tone Clock Piece XXIII 04:36
• 24 Tone Clock Piece XXIV 04:43
• Total Runtime 01:42:49

Info for McLeod: 24 Tone Clocks

Featuring two of New Zealand’s finest pianists, Jenny McLeod’s 24 Tone Clocks is the definitive recording of an extraordinary series of compositions. A lifetime in the making, 24 Tone Clocks is a summation of Jenny’s decades-long immersion into Peter Schat’s ‘tone clock’ theory of chromatic harmony.

In the early 80s Peter Schat introduced Jenny to his compositional theories, and she immediately recognised many ideas she had already discovered for herself. “It dawned on me,” says Jenny, “that Schat had come up with the basis for a new terminology and framework of thinking with reference to the (equal-tempered 12-note) chromatic system—something that I felt was not only simple, practical and workable, but also fresh and full of imaginative potential for the composer. Later in Amsterdam, Schat showed me the rest of his writings, which were largely in Dutch. I came home and immediately started learning Dutch, so as to translate and understand all of it. These translations were eventually published in English as Peter Schat’s The Tone Clock.”

Michael Houstoun, piano
Diedre Irons, piano

Michael Houstoun
is New Zealand’s most respected and acclaimed classical musician. His commitment to excellence and enthusiasm for the work of contemporary New Zealand composers has seen his path cross with Rattle's numerous times, and has resulted in many of our finest releases.

Michael became interested in the piano when he was a small child and began lessons at the age of 5, and by the age of 18 had won every major competition in New Zealand. He performed abroad for almost a decade before following his heart back home in 1981, where he has lived and worked ever since. He plays from a large repertoire that stretches from JS Bach to the present day, including 40 concertos and chamber music. A strong advocate of New Zealand music, works from Douglas Lilburn to John Psathas regularly feature in his programmes. During the 1990s he concentrated on the music of Beethoven, playing the complete sonatas in five cycles around NZ. He has recorded the cycle twice, most recently in 2013 with Rattle, for which he was awarded the 2014 Classical Album of the Year.

In late 2015 Michael recorded another cherished programme of Beethoven, the great Diabelli Variations. It is a stunning performance, beautifully captured by Rattle's in-house engineer Steve Garden, and produced with great concentration and perception by Kenneth Young. Michael, Steve, and Ken have enjoyed a very fruitful recording partnership since they first worked together on the award-winning INLAND in 2007. They picked up the Best Classical Album Award again in 2012 for LILBURN (a programme of Michael's favourite pieces selected from Douglas Lilburn's piano music), but their most ambitious and widely-acclaimed project was of course the monumental 14-CD set of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas.

This album contains no booklet.