Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Opening a door on an orchestra playing is, to composer Andrew Schultz, a step into a magical realm. A world in which fantastic and endless possibilities are at work just as much as in the enchanted forests of fairy tales. This landmark Australian recording, performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Richard Mills, captures such a world.

Beginning with a commissioned work by Symphony Australia for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Endling describes the 'last surviving individual of a species or plant' and the feeling of immense regret and sorrow about all that has been lost from the face of the earth. The theme of nature and the spirit of imagination continues in Violin Concerto, featuring internationally-renowned English violinist Jennifer Pike, as Schultz dreams of superb natural settings and the sounds of echoed music and voices across lakes, forests and mountains. Stories - abstract or simple, familiar or unknown - are told in Once Upon A Time. Dreams unfold and are crushed, characters ridiculous and sublime strut the stage, the tragic and the bizarre are juxtaposed, and the heroic and the desolate stand together. And all of this in a language that is ineffable and mysterious yet absolutely powerful and direct. The story is different for every pair of ears that hears this album.