Garry Laycock: Australian musician 1944-1988
Performances
Sydney Conservatorium 18 October 1973. The
Australian Broadcasting Commission in conjunction with the NSW Conservatorium
of Music present a master class by Geoffrey Parsons. Includes Verschling de
Abrund and Ich hab’ in Penna einen Liesten wohnen / Wolf; Die Georgine /
Richard Strauss. With Gaye MacFarlane (soprano).
Sydney Conservatorium 4 December 1974. Alan
Rawsthorne Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Conservatorium Orchestra
conducted by Robert Pikler. For Performers Diploma.
University of Sydney Orientation Week 26
February 1975. Sonata for clarinet and piano Op 120 no 2 / Brahms. With
Catherine Morphett.
Sydney Conservatorium 29 August [1975?].
Impromptu in E flat minor and Shepherd on the Rock / Schubert; Estampes /
Debussy; Scaramouche / Milhaud. With Rita Baldacchino, Desmond Beasley and
Sharolyn Kimmorley
University of Sydney Great Hall 27 April 1976.
Presented by University of Sydney Department of Music and Pro Musica Sydney.
Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano / Milhaud. With Even Esley, Catherine
Morphett.
Sydney Conservatorium 21 May 1976. New
Music by Student Composers. Includes Piano Sonata no 1 The Age of Youth, Op 12
/ Abeshouse (performed by Garry Laycock). Program also includes Suite for
Piano and Three Wind Instruments by Elena Kats.
Macquarie University 21 September [1976?].
Sonata in F major Op 54 / Beethoven; Intermezzo from Goyescas / Granados; La
soiree dans Granade and Jardins sous la pluie / Debussy and cello works
performed with Margaret Powell.
Cammeray Community Centre 26 September 1976.
The Village Scene / Bartok. With soprano Maureen Wright.
Australian Society of Music Education [undated].
Piano recital of 20th Century French Music. Works by Auric, Ravel,
Tailleferre, Roussel, Debussy, Milhaud, Faure, Satie and Poulenc.
University of Sydney 21-22 July [1977?].
The Pipes of Pan: a grand soiree presented by the University of Sydney Union
Ballet Company and the Celebrated Palm Court Orchestra. Included a selection
of solos, ensembles and songs performed by Garry Laycock and others.
Arrangements by Garry Laycock. Master of Ceremonies: Dennis Watkins.
Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra 23 October 1977.
Recital by members of the EMO. Includes works by Schubert, Mozart, Arnold,
Noel-Gallon, Handel, Mendelssohn and Falla.
The Australian Ballet 1979-1980 seasons
[dates to be verified] including performances of Anna Karenina, Les Sylphides,
Threshold, Les Hermanes, Ballet Imperial, Beyond Twelve and the Concert, when
he performed among other accompanying works Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no 2
in G major (Ballet Imperial), Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major (Beyond
Twelve) and Frank Martin’s Harpsichord Concerto {Les Hermanes).
At the Sydney Opera House May 1979. “And
the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra’s inspired playing of Frank Martin’s
harpsichord concerto, with Garry Laycock as soloist, makes me look forward to
sitting down and listening to it with my eyes shut some time” [Jill Sykes,
Sydney Morning Herald]. “…everyone else tries – and succeeds – to follow their
lead, even Garry Laycock, who has the unenviable task of playing a grand piano
on stage without being distracted by Kelvin Coe’s hilarious Groucho Marx
husband (complete with cigar), cavorting around dressed as a butterfly!”. –
John Cargher, Best of Europe and America, [Source?]. “And Garry Laycock at the
on-stage piano, with admirable sang-froid, dusts, plays and hunts butterflies”
- Mary Emery, The Ragged Ballet is Magnificent, The Australian
At the Sydney Opera House Nov 1979.
“Woolfenden gives great credit to the Australian ballet’s pianist, Garry
Laycock, who worked with Prokovsky and the company before the
composer-arranged arrived in Australia for the last three weeks of the
rehearsal. ‘Garry is absolutely brilliant, one of the best ballet repetiteurs
I have ever heard. I think Andre has completely changed the feel and tempo of
many of the numbers during the creative process of working with a brilliant
pianist’.” – Jill Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald 24 November 1979.
Palais Theatre, Melbourne, June 1979. The
Australian Ballet. Performances of the Concert -“an hilarious send up of
attitudes at a Chopin recital (gallantly performed amid the stage madness by
Garry Laycock) – Laurie Landray, The Herald 2 July 1979. “From the first
moment of the pianist, Garry Laycock’s appearance on stage, when he swept
clouds of dust from the keyboard and noisily adjusted the piano stool, the
accent was on comedy. As Laycock drifts through a number of Chopin pieces the
members of the audience who have to listen to the recital act out a series of
fantasies ranging from pure farce to satire upon the art of ballet itself” -
Graham Sharp [column headed Theatre, undated].
Theatre Royal Hobart, 1979?. “The
Highlights and The Concert the orchestra played well, and the solo pianist,
Garry Laycock, impressed with his Chopin interpretation”.
Sydney Opera House, May 1980. “The other
highlight of the program was the powerful playing from the pit by Garry
Laycock, soloist not only in the Ravel, but the Tchaikovsky piano concert no 2
in G major, which accompanied Ballet Imperial.- Jill Sykes, SMH 10 May 1980.
“The music had a glowing reading from the Sydney Elizabeth Trust Orchestra and
the pianist Garry Laycock, while he had some sticky moments in the Tchaikovsky
2nd concerto for Ballet Imperial, had all the dash, fire and
bittersweet purity of tone that one could wish in the Ravel Concerto.” W.
Shoubridge, The Australian.
Palais Theatre, St Kilda, July 1980. “Dobbs
Franks conducted sympathetically and Garry Laycock made an important
contribution, playing both the Ravel and Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto
on a small grand somewhere in the orchestra pit.” – Geoffrey Hutton, 15 July
1980. ”Pianist Garry Laycock has a busy time with this programme as Graeme
Murphy’s new work is also danced in a piano concerto – the G major of Ravel.”
Neil Jillett, 14 July 1980, The Age.
Chalwyn Castle 28 June 1981. The
Elizabethan Sydney Chamber Group concert.
Sydney Opera House Record Hall 10 July 1981.
Friends of the Australian Opera concert. Arias and songs. With Australian
Opera artists.
Concert at Springwood 27 September 1981.
Arias and songs. With Australian Opera artists.
Australian Broadcasting Commission recording
October 1981. Songs by Erik Satie. With Marie Driscoll, Soprano.
Ryde Lantern Club Concert October 1982.
Arias with Australian Opera artists.
Cronulla Lantern Club, Sutherland Civic Centre
June 1983. Concert by Artists of the Australian Opera.
University of NSW Clancy Auditorium16 September
1983. Concert by Artists of the Australian Opera.
Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre, 9 October
1983. 6th Annual Highlights of Opera concert. Accompanying
duties shared with David Kram. “Such a selection would have been even higher
with orchestra, though the two accompanists, David Kram and Garry Laycock
played, as it were, with a claws-retracted sensitivity that stole no thunder
from such voices as possessed any.”
Mosman Concert by Artists of the Australian
Opera 13 October 1983.
Sydney Bowling Club 16 November 1983.
Concert by Artists of the Australian Opera.
Sydney Opera House Recording Hall 11 December
1983. Concert by Principals of the Elizabeth Melbourne Orchestra. Works
for Wind and Piano, featuring Garry Laycock, including Rimsky-Korsakov Quintet
for Piano, Flute, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon. “Take this, if you like, as a
compliment. Throughout their recital in the Opera House Recording Hall on
Sunday afternoon, the wind principals of the Elizabeth Melbourne Orchestra and
pianist Garry Laycock played in a manner that was capable, careful, correct
and conscientious…And Garry Laycock showed a responsive nimbleness in the
wind/ piano quintet Opus 41 by Danzi and a sly rhythmic sense in three brief
pieces collectively titled L’Heure Du Berger, best translated as Happy Hour at
the Corner Pub.” Fred Blanks, SMH.
Newcastle Town Hall 12 August 1984. Concert
by Artists of the Australian Opera
Sydney Opera House Recording Hall 22 October
1984. Australian Opera Guild and Armstrong-Martin Scholarship Committee
present finals of the 6th annual Armstrong Martin Scholarship.
Artists include Jeffrey Black and Suzanne Johnson. “The lack of an orchestra
helped to downgrade the event and, in its lamentable absence, by far the best
musical performance of the evening came from the quick-witted, sympathetic
accompaniments of Garry Laycock’ – Patricia Brown, Sydney Morning Herald.
A tribute to Peter Dawson with Anthony Warlow
and Leon Gibbons. Presented by Kahma International. [Venue and data not
indicated].
Chisholm Institute of Technology April 1985.
Singers of the Australian Opera in Concert, Included performance of Nocturne
no 3 in A flat by Faure and The Banjo by Gottshalk.
Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre, 24 August
1985. 9th Highlights of Opera.
Mosman Town Hall 17 October 1985. Festival
of Mosman Opera in Concert. Included solo performance of Seguidillas by
Albeniz.
Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre. 20 October
1985. Music Hall at Twilight. Presented by the Australian Opera Benevolent
Society. Master of Ceremonies Michael Lewis.
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall January 1986.
Mostly Mozart Elizabeth Sydney Orchestra concert. Includes performance of
Mozart piano concerto no 21 in C K467, performed and with cadenzas by Leon
Gibbons. “…Leon Gibbons, a member of the Australian Opera music staff, was a
technically secure and efficient pianist whose playing was totally without
Mozartian grace or personality, in the cadenzas even totally without Mozartian
music.” Fred Blanks, SMH, Jan 1986.
St John’s Anglican Church, Heidelberg 20 April
1986. Singers of the Australian Opera in Concert.
Sydney Conservatorium 22 June 1986. Singers
of the Australian Opera in Concert. Proceeds to the Malcolm Sargent Cancer
Fund for Children. Leon Gibbons, in addition to accompanying role, performed
piano solo from the Holberg Suite by Greig and Two Tangos by Leon Gibbons.
Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre 13 September
1986. 10th Highlights of Opera. Includes performance of La
Vesta Della Luce: grand tarantella by Giuseppi Giacomo Gaetana Gibboni [Garry
Laycock] performed Narelle French and Leon Gibbons.
Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre 19 October
1986. Music Hall at Twilight: Chearful Little Earful or The Big
Broadcast.
Queensland Performing Arts Centre,1986? The
Big Broadcast.
Royal Viking Sky 29 January 1987. Stars of
the Australian Opera aboard the Royal Viking Sky Leon Gibbons, in addition to
accompanist role, performed Etude in E major by Chopin and Banjo by
Gottschalk.
Abbotsleigh School 10 February 1987. Starts
of the Australian Opera in Concert, Leon Gibbons, in addition to accompanist
role performed Etude in E major by Chopin and Banjo by Gottschalk.
Theatre South. A Song to Sing O, 19 March-11
April 1987. Work by Melvin Morrow. Performed by Anthony Warlow.
Accompanist Leon Gibbons. “Song to Singo a tour de force…[Anthony Warlow] is
deftly aided at the piano by Leon Gibbons” David Vance [Source unidentified].
Government House, Sydney, 1 August 1987.
Stars of the Australian Opera Sing at Government House. Leon Gibbons, in
addition to accompanist role, performed Idylle by Chabrier.
Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre 20 September
1987. 4th Annual Twilight Concert toward the Australian Opera
Benefit Fund. The World Discovery Show. Include Fairly Grand Taratella from A
Night or Two at the Opera by Giuseppi Giacomo Gaetana Gibboni [ie Leon
Gibbons] performed by Narelle French and Leon Gibbons.
Sagafjord 23 February 1988. Stars of the
Australian Opera Aboard the Sagafjord [Cunard Line|. Leon Gibbons, in addition
to role of accompanist, performed Cordova by Albeniz and Ritual Fire Dance by
de Falla.
Macquarie University 8 June 1988. Recital
by Deborah Riedel and Paul Ferris [Linnhe Robertson, piano?]. Last minute
job?
[Unidentified venue].
Stars of the Australian Opera. Includes performance of Triumphal Procession
from Le Coq d’Or by Rimsky-Korsakov, arranged by Leon Gibbons, performed by
Leon Gibbons and Narelle French.
Biography
Compositions
