Have now listened to the Essays and the Sinfonietta and am still impressed! Two remaining works to go.
The thing you need to know about the Australian arts scene is that Australian doesn't give a proverbial for the arts, and so what little attention they do get is usually channelled through two or three artists in any particular field: novelists, poets, composers &c. Thing is, most of these aren't very good, ie any Australian artist you've heard of won't really be very good (mostly having achieved their eminence by the old mates networks). The exception is Sculthorpe.
So bit of a surprise to find quality compositions from Australia, though I guess from his biography he was a bit of an outsider.
I agree, esp re Sculthorpe who fascinates me as few composers do.
The only other Aussies (hope I did not forget one) I like are Carl Vine, Graeme Koehne, Eugene Goossens and Peggy Glancille-Hicks - because their music is readily available. The newer ones they do promote such as Brett Dean and Ross Edwards bore me to tears.
By contrast, New Zealand does a much better job of promoting their fine composers and they have a baker's dozen with great talent.
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