New releases
I Was Dancing with a Gnat: Music by Ekaterina Komalkova
Duo pianists Aura Go and Ian Munro bring the music of Russian composer Ekaterina Komalkova to Western listeners for the first time in this generous collection of eighty re-imagined national songs.
Pearl of May
Satsuki Odamura and her Koto Ensemble return with new Australian works for koto by Sandy Evans and Ian Cleworth, and a solo bass-koto piece by Mark Isaacs. The title marks her thirtieth anniversary in Australia.
After Julia
After Julia gathers eight contemporary works by Australian women composers responding to Julia Gillard’s tenure as Prime Minister. Decibel Artistic Director Cat Hope was spurred by the gender discrimination around that prime ministership, and by what it revealed about politics and the new music sector.
David Stanhope: Live in Concert
In an era of ubiquitous digital streaming, it is good to be reminded of the energy and excitement of live performance. This concert, with its scintillating late-Romantic repertoire, recalls what a diet of studio recordings can leave out.
The Emerald Phoenix
In 2014 Tall Poppies released The Emerald Leopard (TP233), with Brooke Green’s music for soprano and viols. The Emerald Phoenix presents her recent works for soprano, viols and theorbo, featuring Josie Ryan and bass violist Laura Vaughan.
Le Tango Perpetuel
Ian Munro, superb pianist and imaginative composer, turns piano masterworks into chamber colour for the Australia Ensemble. The disc also preserves a rare late performance by tenor Gerald English in Satie’s Sports et Divertissements.
Twenty-Five (DVD)
After a break from the Chopin Op. 10 études and Godowsky studies, David Stanhope returns to some of the most fiendish piano repertoire: the Godowsky Studies on Chopin's Études, Op. 25.
Two Step
Recorded in Berlin, Brisbane and Tel Aviv, this is a truly international project. Cathy Milliken, an Australian oboist and composer based in Berlin, works with some of the finest contemporary performers available.
Porgy & Bess Fantasy: Music for Two Pianos
In the early 1980s two of Australia’s finest pianists joined forces in masterpieces of the piano-duet literature. The set draws on concert and studio sessions from a period when such collaborations were still readily captured.
In Memoriam
Roger Smalley AM (1943–2015) shaped contemporary composition in Australia. This project grew from his dual gift as a virtuoso pianist and as a composer of visceral solo piano music.
David Pereira Cello Works
Tall Poppies is proud to present the first recording of David Pereira’s compositions for cello. Written over twenty years, these works show a clear understanding of the instrument and often a mischievous side rare in classical music today.
Blue Sky Through Still Trees
Vanessa Sharman returns to the piano music of Tasmanian composer Don Kay in this second volume, with Sonatas Nos. 7 and 9. Recorded in the Salon at Melbourne Recital Centre, her playing catches the delicacy and emotion of these works.
W. F. Bach & J. G. Müthel: Complete Works for Two Fortepianos
Fortepianists Geoffrey Lancaster and James Huntingford join forces on a landmark Australian early-instrument recording: the complete works for two fortepianos by W. F. Bach and J. G. Müthel, played with rare virtuosity and stylistic insight.
Galop!: Virtuosic Orchestral Transcriptions
Stanhope is one of the very few Australian composers who takes on the challenge of transcribing piano works for orchestra. Composers once did this themselves to open other performing paths for popular pieces. Imagination, craft and creativity make the results thrilling.
Bushfire Dreams
Four marvellous works by Melbourne composers appear here in superb performances by the Ormond Quartet, resident at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music between 2016 and 2018. Lotte Betts-Dean joins them for Katy Abbott’s work.