Australian composer Brett Dean wrote Fire Music in response to the disastrous ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires of 2009 in Victoria. He’s here to conduct the work with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra tonight. Dean says ‘fire can also cleanse and replenish’ and so restoration and new life is a theme in his work. Brett played viola in the Berlin Philharmonic in the 80s and moonlighted as a DJ in Berlin nightclubs; you can hear that in his use of electric guitar, and a keyboard playing sampled sound effects in Fire Music.
Brett Dean Photo: Supplied
