''With Love and Fury'' is a collaborative studio album by British string quartet the Brodsky Quartet and Australian singer songwriter

Katie Noonan Katie Anne Noonan (born 2 May 1977) is an Australian singer-songwriter. In addition to a successful solo career encompassing opera, jazz, pop, rock and dance, she was the singer in the band George and remains the singer in the band Elixir; perf ...

. The album has been described as a fusion of their styles into an incredibly composed and creative collaboration. The album is a reimagining of the words of Australian poet

Judith Wright Judith Arundell Wright (31 May 191525 June 2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Wright was born in Armidale, New So ...

and features compositions from contemporary Australian composers including

Carl Vine Carl Edward Vine, (born 8 October 1954) is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music. From 1975 he has worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles. Vine's catalogue inclu ...

Elena Kats-Chernin Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is a Soviet-born Australian pianist and composer, best known for her ballet ''Wild Swans''. Early life and career Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent (now the capital of independent Uzbek ...

Richard Tognetti Richard Leo Tognetti AO (born 4 August 1965) is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director. He is currently artistic dire ...

Iain Grandage Iain Grandage is an Australian composer and music director, best known for his compositions for theatre, dance and concert. In May 2018, the Perth Festival appointed Grandage as Artistic Director. Early life Grandage initially lived in Brisbane ...

, Andrew Ford,

David Hirschfelder David Hirschfelder (born 18 November 1960, Ballarat, Victoria) is an Australian musician, film score composer and performer. As a musician he has been a member of Little River Band and John Farnham Band. He has composed film scores for many films ...

Paul Grabowsky Paul Atherstone Grabowsky (born 27 September 1958) is an Australian pianist and composer. Biography Born in Lae, Papua New Guinea, Grabowsky is a pianist and composer of music for film, theatre and opera. His father Alistair had lived in Pap ...

, Paul Dean and

John Rodgers John Rodgers may refer to: Military * John Rodgers (1728–1791), colonel during the Revolutionary War and owner of Rodgers Tavern, Perryville, Maryland * John Rodgers (naval officer, born 1772), U.S. naval officer during the War of 1812, first ...

. The project combines several of Noonan's passions; contemporary Australian composition and the work of iconic

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

poet Judith Wright. The title, ''With Love and Fury'', is named after the manner in which Wright habitually signed off her letters. Noonan said that "The idea was born from a love and deep appreciation of Judith Wright's writing and the legacy she left for Australia that seems so pertinent today" ... "She was such an advocate for the environment and also such a fierce supporter of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians." The Brodsky Quartet and Noonan toured the album around Australia from 28 April until 5 May 2016. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2016, the album was nominated for

Best Classical album The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical *In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...

, losing to '' Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra'' by

Flight Facilities Flight Facilities is an Australian electronic producer duo that also performs as Hugo & Jimmy. In 2009, they began mixing songs by other artists before crafting their own original material. The duo consists of Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell. Th ...

Background and release

Noonan had met Paul Cassidy of the quartet in Brisbane in 2011, while both were performing at the Queensland Music Festival. Noonan's original idea was to create a project celebrating the work of Australian poet and cartoonist

Michael Leunig Michael Leunig (born 2 June 1945), typically referred to as Leunig (his signature on his cartoons), is an Australian cartoonist. His works include ''The Curly Pyjama Letters'', cartoon books ''The Essential Leunig'', ''The Wayward Leunig'', ' ...

but distance made writing together difficult. In 2013, Noonan found herself in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, at the Judith Wright Centre: "I realised with great embarrassment that I didn’t actually know who Wright was. So I went inside, found an anthology of her poetry and read it cover to cover. Her work just blew me away." With financial support from the Australia Council, Noonan set about choosing the project's composers and poems. She got in touch with Cassidy again and then flew to London to record the album with the quartet. Noonan said of the collaboration that "I am so thrilled with the outcome of this project and believe we have created a truly beautiful and significant body of uniquely Australian work and I can't wait to share this new music with you on our World Premiere Australia tour in April/May. Ever since I first heard the Brodsky Quartet with Elvis Costello on the seminal album '' The Juliet Letters'' and ... with one of my musical idols Bjork, it has been a dream of mine to sing with this incredible string ensemble." Paul Cassidy of the quartet said that "We are so happy to be working with Katie Noonan, and are proud to be involved in this wonderful new Australian song cycle in memory of the inspirational Judith Wright."

Critical reception

A reviewer from ''Australian Stage'' said that "Poetry has often been the inspiration for Noonan’s work. In 2011, with her trio

Elixir ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is an initiative that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organised network. Its goal is to bring t ...

, she recorded Australian

Thomas Shapcott Thomas William Shapcott (born 21 March 1935) is an Australian poet, novelist, playwright, editor, librettist, short story writer and teacher. Biography Thomas William Shapcott was born in Ipswich, Queensland, and attended the Ipswich Grammar ...

's poems ... This time it is Wright’s poetry that has been set to music.

hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...

all capture the sunlight and shadow of Wright's poetry, its joy and despair, with Noonan’s voice swooping and soaring within a web of finely balanced delicate string parts." A reviewer from ''Sounds of Oz'' said that Noonan has "created what is arguably one of her most ambitious albums to date with her new release ''With Love and Fury'' ... I'm still not sure this is the kind of music I'll reach for time and time again. It's just so different, with songs that veer wildly from the classic structure of verses and choruses. While that meant I struggled to get into some songs, others really moved me. This album is brave and creative. And in a musical landscape that has a little too much beige, those virtues count for something."

Track listing

# "Late Spring" - 4:08 # "To a Child" - 4:57 # "Sonnet for Christmas" - 9:01 # "After the Visitors" - 3:27 # "The Surfer" - 6:16 # "Night after Bushfire" - 6:59 # "The Company of Lovers" - 4:25 # "Failure of Communication" - 4:46 # "The Slope" - 6:22 # "Metho Drinker" - 5:37

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2016 albums Katie Noonan albums