Sleepers Wake – Karalananga (2003)
“Andrew Schultz’s cantata, Journey to horseshoe Bend, based on the lives of father Carl and son Theo Strehlow, had its premiere in Sydney this year and he pianised two extracts, Sleepers Wake and Karalananga, expressly for Antony Gray.”[Elizabeth Silsbury, “Gray lets light shine through,” Adelaide Advertiser, 18 July 2003]
“Sleepers Wake – Karalananga for piano (played by Bernard Lanskey) is a meditation on two themes from his cantata Journey to Horseshoe Bend – Wachet auf (the Lutheran chorale) and a Karalananga melody which is heard between phrases of the hymn. It has a sustained beauty which is truly memorable.”[Bob Briggs, Music Web International, September 2008]
“Amongst the most interesting aspects of this collection are the seven pieces written especially for it, and receive their first recordings here. Gray is at his most persuasive with these contemporary takes on Bach which include … an impressive evocation of Sleepers Wake by Andrew Schultz.” [Tony Way, ‘JS Bach: Piano Transcriptions (Antony Gray),’ Limelight, 30 April 2013]
“it is good to see a piano version of the ‘Sleepers’ Wake’ as Andrew Schultz so powerfully imagined it in the cantata Journey to Horseshoe Bend.” [Gordon Kerry, “Bach piano transcriptions,” The Music Trust of Australia, 1 September 2015.]
“These 15 pieces composed between 1987 and late last year comprise 72 minutes of solo piano music by someone who doesn’t think of himself as a pianist or piano composer. Andrew Schultz’s principal instrument was the clarinet. His aural compass traces the unruly terrain of his native Australia, the orderly grids of Europe and the majestic peaks of the Canadian Rockies. There are moments of exquisite stillness, drops of water dripping from ice, alongside ruminative flurries from baroque organ lofts. The listener senses a singular voice, one that values clarity over density. Listeners who recall the extraordinary oratorio Journey to Horseshoe Bend (2002) will welcome the piano extract Sleepers Wake — Karalananga, with its improbable but effective blend of a Bach chorale and indigenous chant. Also welcome is the third recording of the Barcarolle (1992) and the Sea-Change (1987). As he has done with neglected composers Goossens, Williamson and John Carmichael, Australian expatriate pianist Antony Gray has captured the essence of Schultz’s well-ordered and considered music. Just once or twice the ear hankers for a Britten-like cloudburst. As head of the school of media and performing arts at UNSW, Schultz is an eloquent commentator on music, but the liner notes here would have been enhanced by commentary from another voice, perhaps from Gray or pianists such as Stephen Emmerson or Bernard Lanskey, for whom Schultz has written works for piano four-hands, well documented on several recordings from Tall Poppies.” [Vincent Plush, “Andrew Schultz Piano Music”, The Australian, 10 September 2016]
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