Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe (1929–2014) was a Tasmanian-born composer whose orchestral and chamber music drew the Australian landscape, neighbouring Asian traditions and Indigenous materials into a clear, personal language. He wrote extensively for strings, piano and voice.
Peter Sculthorpe was educated at Launceston Church Grammar School, the University of Melbourne and Wadham College, Oxford. He was composer-in-residence at Yale University as a Harkness Fellow in 1966–67, and Visiting Professor at the University of Sussex in 1972–73. Appointed Reader in Music at the University of Sydney in the late sixties, he held a Personal Chair as Professor in Musical Composition there for many years.
He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and received a Silver Jubilee Medal the same year. Honorary doctorates followed from the University of Tasmania (1980), the University of Sussex (1989) and the University of Melbourne (1989). He became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990 and was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1991. In 1994 he received the Sir Bernard Heinze Award for outstanding services to Australian music.
His many prizes included an Australian Film Industry Award for best original film score (Manganinnie, 1980) and the 1985 APRA Award for most performed Australian serious work (his Piano Concerto). Recordings of his orchestral works and music for strings won Australian Record Industry Awards for best classical recording in 1991 and 1996.
He died in 2014, aged 85.
Peter Sculthorpe is featured on the following titles
Peter Sculthorpe: The String Quartets, Vol. 3
Tall Poppies presents this third volume of Peter Sculthorpe’s string quartets as a tribute on the occasion of his 80th birthday in April 2009.
Musica Viva: 60th Anniversary, Selected Commissions 1975–2004
This disc marks sixty years of Musica Viva Australia’s work commissioning Australian chamber music. Since 1945 the organisation had helped bring nearly a hundred new works into being, building a distinctive national repertoire. A full list of those commissions is included with the CD.
Terrains: Piano Interiors
Michael Hannan performs Peter Sculthorpe’s piano-interior classics Landscape and Koto Music I & II alongside eight of his own works, built from layered, atmospheric textures drawn from inside the piano, often with tape and tape loops.
Peter Sculthorpe: Music for Cello
The cello has been a major expressive tool for Sculthorpe throughout his career. Parting was conceived in 1947 and waited forty-eight years to appear in this form. The 1959 Sonata lay dormant after its premiere; its material later became the Sonata for Viola and Percussion.
Credit: Liner Notes, Cover [Concept]
Peter Sculthorpe: The String Quartets, Vol. 2
The Goldner String Quartet, the string players of the Australia Ensemble at the University of NSW, presents this historic survey of Sculthorpe’s string-quartet oeuvre, available as a set on CD for the first time.
Peter Sculthorpe: The String Quartets, Vol. 1
The Goldner String Quartet — the string players of the Australia Ensemble at the University of NSW — presents this historic first volume, making Sculthorpe’s substantial body of string-quartet writing available on CD for the first time.
Arranger: Arranged for string quartet
Violin Recital
Marina Marsden, then Deputy Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a seasoned chamber player, brings faultless technique and real insight to these less familiar corners of the violin repertoire.
Compositions by Peter Sculthorpe also appear on
Water Settings: Australian Music for Percussion Duo
Match is a new Australian percussion duo featuring two of the country’s finest players: Daryl Pratt, Head of Percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium and a prolific composer, and Alison Eddington of Synergy Percussion. Most of the programme is by Pratt.
Still Life: Australian Music for Viola
This is the third solo viola disc on Tall Poppies, and one of the few such albums ever issued in Australia. Patricia Pollett is widely regarded as among the country’s finest musicians, and the violist who has done most to draw new works for the instrument.
Lift Off: Australian Piano Music for Children
An engaging collection of piano music by Australian composers written to spark young imaginations. Elpis Liossatos, an Australian pianist then living in Greece, brings charm and enthusiasm to these performances.
An Australian Collection
Nineteen tracks drawn from the Tall Poppies catalogue, chosen to show the range and depth of Australian composition and performance across the label’s first decade.
A Garden of Earthly Delights
Three Australian concertos in exuberant performances by the Australian Youth Orchestra, conductor Diego Masson, and soloists David Nuttall, Ian Munro and David Pereira.
Viola Power
It's hard to imagine a CD of Australian music for the viola, but here it is. From Grainger's chirpy love song through Ross Edwards' intricate dance to Peter Sculthorpe's masterful work with percussion.
Uluru: New Solo Cello Works for David Pereira
Twelve new Australian solo cello works written for David Pereira, celebrating the handing back of Uluru to its traditional Indigenous owners. Responses range from didgeridoo-like sonorities in Hopkins to the modernism of Dean.
Mere Bagatelles
As an overview of Australian composition in the 90s, this CD could not be bettered: a musicianly survey of short piano works, with performances of real authority.
Cello Dreaming
Pereira has inspired more new works for his instrument than any other Australian musician. This is his first solo CD of works mostly written for him, and the first of three such discs then planned. His performances are powerful and persuasive.
Awakening
Marshall McGuire is a formidable asset to Australia’s contemporary music scene, and the only harpist specialising in both baroque harp and all forms of modern music. This Tall Poppies disc remains a catalogue best-seller.
A Patchwork of Shadows
In 1994 Ian Munro was one of only two or three major pianists based in Australia. Passionate about the music of his composer peers, he shaped one of the most carefully chosen programmes then available on disc.
Christmas Day
Ranging from a cappella singing to full orchestral colour, these carols make an ideal gift for music-loving friends. The programme is mostly modern, yet warmly listenable.
Stroke
A striking programme of contemporary Australian piano music, superbly played by New York–based Australian pianist Lisa Moore. Smetanin's formidable title work, among the most demanding in the repertoire, was captured here in a single take.
Synergy With Samuels
This CD grew from a concert collaboration between Australia’s best-known percussion quartet and America’s finest vibraphonist, Dave Samuels. Together they cook up a storm.
Only Cello
David Pereira, Australia's leading cellist, plays three masterworks of the solo cello literature, including Peter Sculthorpe's Threnody, written to commemorate the Australian conductor Stuart Challender.
Christmas under Capricorn
The Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott, plays nineteen Christmas carols arranged for orchestra by Australian composers. Two carols appear in paired settings, inviting comparison. Listenable festive music, easy to give as a gift.
Songs of Sea and Sky
Nigel Westlake and David Bollard present Australian music for clarinet and piano by Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, Mark Isaacs, Miriam Hyde, Margaret Sutherland and Don Banks.