Peter SCULTHORPE (1934-2014)
Complete works for solo piano
Full contents list at end of review
Tamara-Anna Cislowska (piano)
rec. 19-21, 23-24 June 2014, Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney, Australia
ABC CLASSICS 481 1181 [79:21 + 79:26]
An extremely generously filled and lovingly recorded 2 CD colection.
It sets out the complete solo piano music by a twentieth century Australian
composer. Is this going to be difficult? No — but then again neither
is it facile or faceless. In a very fully populated musical world Peter
Sculthorpe, who died last month, has been bearing his own standard as
well as that of his country in concert halls and radio stations across
the world. Much of his intensely imaginative orchestral music has been
recorded and much of it is down to ABC
Classics. Until now his piano music has had little exposure.
The pianist in this case is Tamara-Anna
Cislowska, a close and long-time friend of the composer who recorded
Sculthorpe's piano concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
at the age of 14 (review)
and more recently in 2003 for Naxos.
Her name may be familiar from her CDs which track widely including several
from the rich tapestry that is Australian piano music of the first half
of the last century. She also joined fellow Australian Geoffrey Tozer
for the Chandos recording of the two piano concerto by Rawsthorne.
The gatefold sleeve of this ABC double has a pocket for a booklet that
includes a substantial eight page essay by Chris Latham. This nestles
the piano works in the context of Sculthorpe's life. There's
also an introductory preface by the pianist.
The two discs in their three panel digipack are laid out chronologically.
CD 1 covers 1945–1981. The first thirteen tracks up to the Sonatina
are impressionistic and sentimental. Listen to the little convulsions
and rapid rivulets of Falling Leaves and the slow and velvety
Debussian romance of Nocturne. Epigram is rife with
rills and rivulets - a cheeky Pierrot of a piece. The slow movement from
Sonata No. 1 has a Moeran-like Irish curve to its melody. In
Aboriginal Legend a heat-haze hits the listener. This is very
much an essay in gently touched-in subtleties. Nocturne (Seascape)
reflects a slow and unthreatening marine-swell.
The Sonatina marks a transition into greater tonal complexity.
It traverses "lost in dreams" moods, a peg-leg dance and a quirky
Shostakovich-style finale. The two movement Piano Sonata is freighted
with darkness and troubled waters. The simple Haiku, sing-song
Sea Chant and sweetly nostalgic Left Bank Waltz lead
us to the five Night Pieces. These comprise a magically blended
drift of dissonance and oblique asides - at times like the piano line
in Warlock's chillier songs. Landscape takes the listener
into avant-garde realms with deep blows on the wood of the piano, clattering
impacts, huffs, rumbles and unnatural sounds conjured from the innards
of the instrument. In Koto Music I and II the notes
are wide-spaced and do not jostle each other. Resonances hang in the air
and the intervening silences are as important as the sounds. Mountains
(1981) is deeper and clothed in dissonances that again unfold without
haste.
The second disc presents the piano works of 1986–2011. Djilile
is shaded with minimalism. It has the impress of a child's self-hypnotised
singing; there's even an Einaudi-style swell at 4:02. In Callabonna
those deep bass notes and pearly pebbles well upwards as they do in Mountains.
Nocturnal is an exercise in swelling profound notes with a delicate
tracery of high notes resolving into misty contentment. Next comes a shock
gear-change in the shape of the rather stiffly Victorian Rose Bay
Quadrilles. These are Sculthorpe's editing of five stately
and lively quadrilles written by one William Stanley in 1885 to mark the
laying of the foundation stone of Woollahra House in Sydney. Simori
is a set of five pieces based on the songs of the Simori people of Papua
New Guinea. Of these Pota impresses with its phasing between
placid and troubled. The six pieces of A Little Book of Hours
takes us by the hand back to the Einaudi-like simplicity of Djilile
but with greater emotional depth. These were written for young pianists
to play. Here the composer demonstrates the artistry in modesty without
bluster. Harbour Dreaming revolves around a hypnotic gentle chime
that ends in stillness. Song for a Penny is sentimental and lightly
jazzy - more of a caress than a bruise. Sometimes When I'm
Dreaming began life as a song from the days when Sculthorpe first
went to Sydney and wrote pop music for theatre revues.
The Little Passacaglia was a form of balm after the Bali bombings
in 2004 when 89 people of the 202 killed were Australian citizens. It
is a work of soft undulations with dark blue notes adding depth. It is
of the world of A Little Book of Hours and Djilile.
The five movement Riverina is Sculthorpe's largest work
for solo piano. The Riverina of the title is a region of New South Wales
whose principal city is Wagga Wagga. The first movement opens in a unfolding
sentimental sing-song but as it progresses salty harmonies intrude. The
second movement is populated with trilling bird calls, statuesque defiance
and wide-spaced notes. Murrumbidgee River At Night is more intimate
than I had expected from a picture of great river. Fitzmaurice Street
picks up on the mix of races in that part of Wagga Wagga and its annual
jazz festival. The final Thanksgiving is again melodic with no
brutal shifts or crunches. The music feels healthful and good to live
with. It ends with what feels like a smile before contented sleep.
Sculthorpe and his eloquent advocate pianist give voice to a composer
drawn to quiet and slowly measured expression.
Rob Barnett
Track-Listing
CD 1: (1945–1981)
1. Falling Leaves (1945)
2. Nocturne (1945)
3. Short Piece No. 1 (1945)
4. Short Piece No. 2 (1946)
5. Prelude to a Puppet Show (1945)
6. Evocation (1946)
7. Epigram (1946)
8. Siesta (1946)
9. Slow movement from Sonata No. 1 (1946)
10. Aboriginal Legend – Sketch (1946)
11. Untitled (1948)
12. Nocturne (Seascape) (1948)
13. Nocturne (1949)
14-16. Sonatina (1954)
17-18. Sonata for Piano (1963)
19. Haiku (1965)
20. Sea Chant (1965)
21. Left Bank Waltz (1957-71)
22-26. Night Pieces (1971)
27. Landscape (1971)
28. Koto Music I (1973)
29. Koto Music II (1976)
30. Mountains (1981)
CD 2: (1986–2011)
1. Djilile (1986)
2. Callabonna (1989)
3. Nocturnal (1983-89)
4-8. The Rose Bay Quadrilles (1989)
9-13. Simori (1995)
14-19. A Little Book of Hours (1998)
20. Harbour Dreaming (2000)
21. Song for a Penny (2000)
22. Sometimes When I'm Dreaming (2002)
23. Little Passacaglia (2004)
24-28. Riverina (2011)
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