Peter Sculthorpe (1929 - 2014)

[Mirror Image]

Yeah, I listened to that quartet recently as well. It's an effective work, if too consistently slow and melancholy for my taste. It would have been nice to have at least one quick movement for contrast. Overall, I prefer his supremely evocative orchestral works.

I think his SQs are outstanding and evocative. I haven't heard them all as I only own the three volume series on the Tall Poppies label with the Goldner String Quartet. Sculthorpe, like Vaughan Williams, Tippett and Britten, wrote magnificently for strings and the SQs are no exception.

[kyjo]

I think his SQs are outstanding and evocative. I haven't heard them all as I only own the three volume series on the Tall Poppies label with the Goldner String Quartet. Sculthorpe, like Vaughan Williams, Tippett and Britten, wrote magnificently for strings and the SQs are no exception.

I didn't say they weren't evocative. Cool, I hadn't realized the Goldner SQ had recorded a (partial) cycle, but I can't find those recordings on Spotify or YT unfortunately. 18 SQs - damn, he was prolific! All the more remarkable since most of his other works aren't in "standard forms", aside from his Piano Concerto.

[Mirror Image]

I didn't say they weren't evocative. Cool, I hadn't realized the Goldner SQ had recorded a (partial) cycle, but I can't find those recordings on Spotify or YT unfortunately. 18 SQs - damn, he was prolific! All the more remarkable since most of his other works aren't in "standard forms", aside from his Piano Concerto.

This is what I like about Sculthorpe. He was his own man from the beginning. If you remember his work Sun Music, it used his own notation. This caused quite a problem at the first rehearsals with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra before it's premiere.

Sculthorpe talking about this particular experience:

https://www.youtube.com/v/IHbKLH_2ZPw

[calyptorhynchus]

He actually wrote 12 quartets that have survived as 1-5 are either lost or were subsumed into other works and haven't been published as SQs.

I've been listening to a fair bit of Sculthorpe recently and it has had a funny effect. You know the bird call noises Sculthorpe introduces in many of his works? They're not actually the calls of any particular birds but are a pretty good generic bird call. Anyway, after listening to a lot of this and walking around the suburb the birds are actually beginning to sound a bit like the Sculthorpe bird calls. Nature imitating art.