Riversypmhonyis a work for massive forces: soloists, choir, thirty-strong brass band and orchestra. It is designed for outdoor performance - in this case along the banks of the Brisbane River. The Symphony symbolises the rivers of the world. It is in eight short movements across 24 minutes. The effect is lavishly romantic-heroic and broad, moving amid styles we recognise: Walton, Vaughan Williams, Rutter, George Lloyd, Mussorgsky, Debussy and Smetana. The film music of John Williams,  Howard Shore and John Barry is also referenced. Jane Sheldon who made such a hit with the Wild Swans music of Kats-Chernin here sings the honeyed role of Child of the River. The music has an inspired marine quality though the manner is often related to the better known composers mentioned above.

 

The work ends is a heaving blaze of unashamed exultation with great surging waves of brass and rolling choral weight. This is music that is pleasingly wild and candidly indebted when it comes to the style palette. It was after all meant for major public celebration outdoors. The Concerto is a different and more substantial matter, speaking as if from Australia's far distant past.    

Rob Barnett, Music Web International

 

“Lovers of film music in the modern Romantic idiom will thrill to Australian composer O’Boyle’s River Symphony. The orchestra sounds as though it believes in every note, as wave of melodically inspired invention rolls over the listener in demonstration-worthy sound. No less arresting is the Concerto for Didgeridoo, composed with the soloist, William Barton…..”

 

Classic  FM, Aug 2008