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TP206 Peter Sculthorpe
The String Quartets, Vol. 3
Goldner String Quartet
$23 (Australian dollars)
(buy now at buywell.com)
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WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS IN THE PRESENCE OF THE COMPOSER
Tall Poppies is delighted to present this third volume of Peter Sculthorpe's string quartets as a tribute to him on the occasion of his 80th birthday in April 2009.
This recording was made in the Sydney City Recital Hall in Angel Place in December 2008. The four quartets presented here were written between 1998 and 2007, and present a showcase of Peter’s compositional interests, from close four-part harmony through to dramatic contemporary rhythms and on to melodies of love and anguish.
The performances, as one would expect from musicians of this calibre, are exceptional, and Peter Sculthorpe, present throughout the recordings, is thrilled with the results.
The recording was funded by the Browne family in memory of the music critic Lindsey Browne (1915-2003) |
CONTENTS
| Peter Sculthorpe | String Quartet no 14
String Quartet no 15
String Quartet no 16
String Quartet no 17 |
REVIEWS
The third volume of the Goldner Quartet's traversal of pre-eminent Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe's complete music for string quartet brings things right up to date, with four works from the last eleven years (two more quartets are in the pipeline, the booklet note promises). The music here is more direct and straightforward than the sometimes more abstract works of the earlier discs, and often has a story to tell.
The Quartet no. 14 'Quamby', for instance, is based around memories of Sculthorpe's childhood in Tasmania, but also deals with the story of a massacre of native Tasmanians by settlers at Quamby Bluff. Quartet no. 16 was inspired by the hopes, fears and anger of asylum seekers in Australia's detention camps, in music ranging from a heart-rending Afghan love song (delivered eloquently by violinist Dene Olding) to some fiercely dissonant shrieks of despair. The Goldner players convey the drama of these works magnificently in playing that is committed, passionate and superbly controlled. Julian Smiles is particularly impressive in some of Quartet no. 4's rich, resonant cello lines.
However, it's in Quartet no.17, a glowing homage to friendship based around the 'Es muss sein?' motto from Beethoven's last quartet, that the ensemble really shines, demonstrating some radiant, expressive playing in music of great subtlety and depth. Recorded sound is clear and warm, although there's a slight ambient hiss in the background throughout.
David Kettle
The Strad November 2009
Goldner String Quartet’s project to record all the quartets by Peter Sculthorpe is brought up to date in this third instalment, covering 1998 to the present, There are four works, String Quartets No. 14-17, and all are recorded here for the first time, One hears a composer who has found his most natural voice in the string quartet medium. These later quartets have a distilled character: textures are cleanly formed and melodies are tunefully simple, at times impassioned. Big sociopolitical themes sparked these works. Quartet No, 14 (Quamby) is Sculthorpe’s response to folkloric stories from the 19th century about the massacre of Aborigines in northern Tasmania. It broils with intensified emotion. The more prayerful Quartet No, 15 laments the dispersal of the Simori people from their homeland in New Guinea. Haunting and anguished, Quartet No, 16 was triggered by the plight of asylum-seekers in Australian detention centres. Composed in 2007, the more abstract Quartet No, 17 is the most satisfying of the four. Quoting a theme of Beethoven, it has an expansiveness and musical complexity that seems to open the door on the composer’s inner self. Flowing, unforced musicianship from the Goldner players allows them to unlock fully the spirit of this music. Their playing is eloquent, human-faced and expressive.
Graham Strahle
The Australian July 25, 2009
Peter Sculthorpe celebrated his 80th birthday in April, and this recording of his four most recent numbered string quartets was released to mark the occasion. He has been the leading Australian composer of his generation; his works manage to evoke his country's extraordinary landscapes while never shrinking from its social issues. So the 14th Quartet is subtitled Quamby, and evokes not only the Tasmania in which Sculthorpe grew up, but also its brutal colonial past: it identifies a place where Aborigines were massacred. The 15th looks across the Torres Strait to New Guinea, incorporating song sequences and scales from a local tribe; the 16th is designed as an appeal for justice for Australia's asylum seekers; the 17th is more personal, and incorporates the motto from the last of Beethoven's 17 quartets, Op 135. Yet the soundworld of all these works is identifiably Sculthorpe's own, with its highly wrought, often densely chordal string writing lit up by sudden scatters of harmonics, like cascades of birdsong, and all superbly delivered by the Goldner Quartet.
Andrew Clements
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/26/
Amidst all the hoopla for Handel and Haydn in this anniversary year, it’s easy to forget that Australia’s own Peter Sculthorpe has turned 80. This latest instalment in the survey of his quartets comprises the last four works of this genre. Written in the space of just over a decade, the breadth of Sculthorpe’s creativity is matched by the depth of his passion for the landscapes, musical styles, friendships and social issues that influenced him. Whether it be the terrain of his native Tasmania (now devoid of indigenous inhabitants), the dispersed Simori of Western New Guinea or the detained asylum seekers in our own country, Sculthorpe uses his genius to evoke and celebrate the human spirit in the midst of a contrary world. The Goldner Quartet, seasoned exponents of Sculthorpe’s work, gives thoroughly engaging accounts of Quartets 14-17. Recorded in the presence of the composer this is superb Australian art that no music lover should be without.
Tony Way
The Age 4 June 2009
Somewhat belatedly, one of the Goldner String Quartet's Sculthorpe series, celebrating Peter Sculthorpe's 80th birthday last month, has been received for review. It comprises the the prolific composer's last four quartets (1998-2007) of the seventeen to date (two more are commissioned).
All of them have a strong basis in his pursuit of 'an identifiably Australian idiom'; in 1967 he said "I never want to hear another note of Beethoven in my life!". However, No. 17 is based, quite transparently and openly, on the famous "Must it be? It must be!" motif from Op. 95, and makes a good culmination to this album. The others have more exoticisms, reflecting Tasmania's landscape and history, e.g. songs from Western New Guinea in No. 15 etc (No. 8 - of which a movement was given in the Goldners' 2007 Wigmore Hall recital reviewed above is Balinese-inspired).
This is a terrific sequence which we played right through with consistent interest and pleasure. I remember enjoying Sculthorpe's music several decades ago, but he is not often heard in UK now. I would think that the full cycle of his quartets to be given by the Goldners would be welcome in London, rather akin to my like recommendation of Murray Schafer's seven.
The first seventeen of Sculthorpe's quartets are available in well presented Tall Poppies releases, each with expansive analytic essays and evocative cover images of paintings by his "friend and mentor" Russell Drysdale.
Peter Grahame Woolf
http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/ |
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