New Zealand music recordings

• Ross Harris, Music for Jonny Opus Orchestra (recorded at a concert in Hamilton, 2024)
• David Farquhar, Moonshine Suite Opus Orchestra (recorded 18 May 2025)
• Lyell Cresswell, Kaea Opus Orchestra (recorded at a live concert in Hamilton 7 October 2022.
• Ross Harris, Chamber Symphony Opus Orchestra (premiere, recorded at the same concert)
• Philip Norman | Margaret Mahy Mahy Magic Opus Orchestra with Georgia Jamieson-Emms and Robert Tucker (recorded to an empty auditorium during lockdown 2021)
• Gareth Farr, Marimba Concerto Opus Orchestra with Yoshiko Tsuruta, soloist (premiere recorded 30 January 2019)
• Ross Harris, Three Pieces for Orchestra Opus Orchestra (commissioned by Peter and Kathryn Walls for the NZSO, 2010; arranged for chamber orchestra 2021)
• Ross Harris, To the memory of of I. S. Totzka 1998, Susan Roper (soprano) with musicians from The New Zealand String Quartet and the Victoria University School of Music. Winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, 2000.
• Gareth Farr, Tabuh Pacific, 1995. Gamelan Padhang Moncar and the Victoria University Orchestra (Ode CD Manu 1514)
• David Farquhar, Auras, (1994) Barbara King, Victoria University Orchestra, CD Manu 1550.
• John Psathas, The Grocer’s Apprentice (short film, 1997), Victoria University Orchestra.

Discography

Handel, Semele NZ Opera 2020 with Emma Pearson, Amitai Pati, Paul Whelan, Sarah Castle, Stephen Diaz, Chelsea Dolman.

‘The players in the small but tireless and inventive orchestra, under Peter Walls, understand what is happening in the story at every moment; the concertmaster Peter Clark is particularly distinguished. Walls has added some lush recorders to the mix for arias such as Semele’s “With fond desiring” and a somnolent bassoon for the Cave of Sleep. The strings are fine-grained and pliant; not only in Somnus’s aria are we put in mind of a “soft purling stream.”‘ Joe Cadagin, Opera News (Metropolitan Opera Guild Magazine)

‘The small body of orchestral players, helped by the church acoustic, retain plenty of body under the enthusiastic baton of Peter Walls.’ Paul Corfield Godfrey, Music Web International

Available on Opus Arte Blu-ray and DVD

‘Peter Philips: Cantiones Sacrae Quinis Vocibus’, The Tudor Consort conducted by Peter Walls (Naxos 8.555056)

“Conductor Peter Walls understands both the overall period style and Philips’ own proclivity toward occasional word painting–and he obviously cares a lot about ensemble balance and uniformity of tone and color.” Classics Today January 2002

“As to the interpreations, they more than stand comparison with their rivals . . . the rich choral fabric lends a greater opulence to Philips’s harmonic inflections.” Gramophone April 2002

“Il émane de tout cela une beauté qui distingue le travail de chef de Peter Walls” [Above all there is a beauty of sound that distinguishes the direction of conductor Peter Walls.]  Le Monde de Musique 2002 (CHOC award)

“La direzione di Peter Walls . . . riesce a creare un bell’amalgama sonoro” [Peter Walls’s direction succeeds in creating a beautifully blended sound”] Compact Disc Classics

“They are beautifully drilled and blended, and led with great sensitivity to the flow of part lines, together with appreciation for the composer’s frequent penchant for subdividing his five voices into an approximating of double-choir writing.” American Record Guide June 2002

Lara Hall (Baroque violin) with NZ Barok, conducted by Peter Walls

atoll ACD419

Takako Nishizaki (violin) with The Strings of the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand, Takako Nishizaki plays Suzuki Evergreens Vol. 3 Naxos 8.57380 (Vivaldi, Concerto in A minor Op. 3 No. 6, RV 356), Vol. 4 Naxos 8.572381 (Vivaldi, Concerto in G minor, Op. 12, No. 1, RV 317)

‘Auras’ David Farquhar (conducting the Victoria University Orchestra) CD MANU (1998)

‘Opera Pieces’ (operatic arias and duets for soprano and tenor sung by Ursula Allan and Simon O’Neill with the Victoria Unversity Orchestra conducted by Peter Walls) CD Victoria University M198

‘Tabuh Pacific’ (conducting the Victoria University Orchestra in a new work by Gareth Farr). CD MANU 1514 (1996)