A Land Down Under

The Australian Chamber Orchestra led from the violin by Richard Tognetti, performing smaller scale works by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe than on the other disk of his music that I have. There are six string pieces on this disk, one with adde3d percussion. The music is rooted in western classical tradition but the programmatic aspect has been influenced by the harshness of much of the Australian landscape and by aboriginal melodies and instrumentation and exotic bird song. Unlike his large orchestral piece Earth Cry, there is no didgeridoo feature but the bass and cello impersonate the sound quite effectively at several points. Tognetti solos on violin on the piece Irkanda I, being joined by the rest of the string orchestra for the expanded Irkanda IV. Significant solo cello contributions are made by Emma-Jane Murphy on Lament and Cello Dreaming. Second Sonata for strings does what it says on tghe tin and the closing piece Djilile translates as "whistling duck on the billabong", which risks sounding a cliche but somehow encapsulates Sculthorpe's creative response to the abiding influence of Australia.