PETER SCULTHORPE (1929-2014): Complete Works for Solo Piano - Falling Leaves*, Nocturne*, Short Pieces Nos. 1 & 2*, Prelude to a Puppet Show*, Evocation*, Epigram*, Siesta*, Slow movement from Sonata No. 1*, Aboriginal Legend - Sketch*, [Untitled]*, Nocturne (Seascape)*, Nocturne*, Sonatina, Sonata*, Haiku*, Sea Chant, left Bank Waltz, 5 Night Pieces, Landscape, Koto Music Nos. 1 & 2, Mountains, Djilile, Callabonna, Nocturnal, The Rose Bay Quadrilles, Simori, A Little Book of Hours, Harbour Dreaming, Song for a Penny, Sometimes When I'm Dreaming, Little Passacaglia, Riverina*. * - World Premiere Recordings.

Description: A full hour's worth of first recordings season this 159 minute release. Most are of the earliest pieces, dating from Falling Leaves (1945) to Haiku (1965), when Sculthorpe's long-developing mature style was working its way through Debussy, Grainger, Bartók and even Copland and he was making his first discoveries of aboriginal music (although not using it yet in actual compositions). But the composer's largest and final piano work, the 25-minute Riverina of 2011, is also a first recording and shows him returning to a direct and open expressiveness, still inspired by the historical, cultural, indegenous and geographical aspects of the Riverina region but, for the first time in his piano music containing the bird calls which are so ubiquitous in his orchestral music. As you might expect with Sculthorpe, several of these piano pieces found their way, in part or as a whole, into chamber or orchestral works. 2 CDs for the price of 1. Tamara-Anna Cislowska (piano).