Ngā Whetū e Whitu is fantastic for duos looking to enhance their recitals with an expressive contemporary work. It contains tonal colours and harmony that are reminiscent of Olivier Messiaen's music. It also showcases Farr's highly engaging style of writing with beautiful lyrical passages and contrasting faster section that drive forward with propulsive energy and virtuosic intensity. Farr exploits the full range of both instruments to great effect which brings together the extreme sonorities with rhythm as a feature of the work.
Gareth Farr is an indisputably colourful figure in New Zealand music. And whether scored for percussion duet or the resources of two large orchestras, Farr's music reflects his personality – bold, brash, or delicate and sensuous, but inevitably, immediately, engaging. Rhythmic elements of his compositions can be linked to the complex and exciting rhythms of Rarotongan log drum ensembles, Balinese gamelan and other percussion music of the Pacific Rim. In addition to his music for the concert chamber, Farr has written music for dance, theatre and television.
