The latest recording of my piece for solo bass clarinet, beautifully performed by Fabrizio Bardelli.

Czaplowski  Ocean Greyness (2003) Fabrizio Bardelli 2014

Innocence II was composed for Elizabeth Sellars and Kenji Fujimura, who premiered the work on 10th September 2006 at St Michael's Church, Melbourne.

Innocence II for violin & piano

Monologue for solo oboe was written for Jeffrey Crellin, principal oboist of the Melbourne Symphony, who gave the first performance on 16th September 1997 at the Australian National Academy of Music.  Subsequent performances include those by Linda Walsh at the 1998 International Double Reed Society Conference in Arizona, US; a recording for ABC FM radio by Rainer Gibbons, and Kazimierz Dawidek in Belfast, 2003.  In June 2000 the composer undertook a substantial revision of the work, and this revised version was premiered by Jeffrey Crellin on July 25th 2000, during an Australia Pro Arte concert at Melba Hall.

Czaplowski - Monologue for solo oboe (1997)

'Chloe' is one of four works commissioned by Australia Pro Arte that together make up the Federation Suite. This is a set of pieces composed by Philip Czaplowski, Brenton Broadstock, George Dreyfus, and Calvin Bowman, portraying in music the four corners of Melbourne's most famous intersection - that of Swanston and Flinders streets. The three other pieces are Federation Square, The Clocks, and The Cathedral. The new works were premiered during Australia Pro Arte's 2003 concert series at BMW Edge, Federation Square.

Jules Lefebvre (1836-1911) was born in Lille, France, and in addition to his paintings is noted for his statues, war memorials, and coin designs. Chloe was painted in 1875, and immediately won great critical and popular acclaim. Having been exhibited in Australia, the painting was eventually purchased in 1882 by a surgeon named Thomas Fitzgerald (later Sir Thomas), who subsequently loaned it to the National Gallery of Victoria. After Sir Thomas's death in 1908, Chloe was aquired by Henry Figsby Young, an hotelier who made his fortune at the gold diggings. Ever since, Chloé has hung in the public bar at Young and Jackson's Hotel - at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne. Sadly, it seems that the 19 year old model for Chloe--a young French woman--fell in love with the artist, and, when he chose to marry her sister, she committed suicide at the tender age of 21.

Chloe is an attempt to convey in music a sense of the times in which the painting was created, the hustle and bustle of its eventual home at Young and Jackson's, and the tragic fate of the young woman whose beauty is forever immortalised in this ever-popular painting. 

Czaplowski - Chloe for string orchestra (2003)

A funding grant from Arts Victoria was recently awarded for the composition of this work, which was premiered by soloist Mark Mogilevski and Australia Pro Arte, with Jeffrey Crellin conducting, on 28th September 2003 at BMW Edge, Federation Square.

Czaplowski - Violin Concerto (2003)

"My concerto for clarinet and strings was written for David Thomas, principal clarinettist of the Melbourne Symphony, and Australia Pro Arte. It was completed in July 2001 and the first performance was given in Melba Hall on 9th September 2001.

The concerto is in a single span lasting about 17 minutes, within which there are three easily discernible sections that correspond approximately to the traditional fast-slow-fast movement structure of a classical concerto. These sections are linked by clarinet solos, the second of which is extended to form a cadenza. The concerto also opens with a clarinet solo that presents much of the material that will subsequently be explored during the work.

Reflecting my desire to use multifarious techniques to express divergent psychological states, the concerto makes use of a range of harmonic materials from tonality through chromaticism to atonality, and the work's rhythmic structures range from the quasi-improvisatory and rhythmically free solo clarinet passages, to the insistent, almost mechanical rhythms of the work's closing section." 

Czaplowski - Clarinet Concerto

Every Now and Then... for solo bass clarinet was composed in 1983 for the renowned Dutch Bass Clarinetist Harry Sparnaay. Harry was in residence at the Victorian College of the Arts that year, and along with a number of other composers I attended a workshop he gave. I was one of the last to arrive, and before taking my seat I gave him my score.
To commence his workshop, without saying a word, Harry proceeded to perform my piece from sight! He then made the current recording at the VCA studios on 5 April.


Every Now & Then (performed by Harry Sparnaay)

"My Concerto for oboe and strings was written at the request of Jeffrey Crellin, principal oboe of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He gave the first performance on Tuesday August 19th 1997, with Australia Pro Arte, at Melba Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. The piece has since been performed by Jeffrey and the Geelong Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony, and the Christchurch SO.

The concerto is one continuous movement about 12 minutes in length, but containing three easily discernible sections. The first part is fairly slow. After a broad and contrapuntal opening by the strings, the oboe enters, and the music continues in a lyrical vein. Eventually, the tempo increases somewhat, and the second section, a mostly contrapuntal passage, leads to a brief cadenza for the soloist. This eventually leads into to the last section, an allegro. Here, the music is more urgent and virtuosic. At one point the allegro is interrupted by a brief reminder of the slower music of the first section, before the allegro returns, and the work ends in an energetic and driving coda." 

Czaplowski - Concerto for Oboe & Strings

'Momentum' was commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony, for their 2000 'Metropolis Festival'. The premiere was given on Saturday 1st April 2000 at The Malthouse, South Melbourne, with conductor James Judd.

The piece has a duration of just over 10 minutes, and was completed in February 2000. 

Czaplowski - Momentum (2000, Ending)

Personae is a trio for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and was written for the Australian Chamber Soloists 1996 season and completed in July 1996. Personae was first performed by Jeffrey Crellin (ob), Phillip Miechell (cl) and Amanda Lee (bsn) in Melba Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, on Sunday July 7th 1996.

Czaplowski - Personae

requiem for solo bass clarinet was composed in March 2018, in memory of the great Dutch bass clarinettist Harry Sparnaay, who passed away in December 2017 at the age of 73. I first met Harry when he was artist in residence at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 1987. I met him twice more after that when he visited Australia, and wrote a number of bass clarinet works for him.  Shortly after he passed away I decided to write this short piece to honour him, a wonderful musician who pushed the bass clarinet to the forefront of contemporary composition—and also a beautiful human being.

Czaplowski - Requiem (2020) performed by Fabrizio Bardelli

Philip Czaplowski (born 1958) is an Australian composer.

Czaplowski was born in London in 1958, and emigrated to Australia with his family in 1969. He lives in Melbourne, where he completed a PhD in music composition at Monash University (2007). During 2005 he also attended the Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland, where he worked with Zbigniew Bujarski, Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Wojciech Widłak, and Anna Zawadska-Gołosz.

Philip's music is modern but approachable, eclectic but not conservative. "Although I try to write music that is obviously of our time, the most important aspect of composition for me is expression. For me composition is very much a form of communication, allowing me to express my thoughts and feelings."

Performers of Philip's music include the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Orquestra Antunes Câmara, Australia Pro Arte, the Canberra Wind Soloists, the Chamber Strings of Melbourne, Geelong Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Soloists, Australia Felix, the Monash Festival Orchestra, Kazimierz Dawidek, Harry Sparnaay, Prue Davis, James Strauss, Jeffrey Crellin, Carla Rees, and many of Australia’s leading musicians.

Philip Czaplowski’s music has featured in a number of festivals including the Encuentros Festival Internacional (Brazil 1995), International Double-Reed Society Conference (Arizona 1998), Federation Music Week (Melbourne 2000), Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music (Belfast 2003), Szymanowski Festival 2003 (XXVI Dni Muzyki Karola Szymanowskiego, Poland), International Double-Reed Society Conference (Melbourne 2004), the Melbourne International Festival of Single Reeds (2005), and the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival (Tuscany, Italy 2006).

Philip Czaplowski - Composer

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