Garden of Earthly Desire

Music of Liza LIM, Sandro GORLI, Franco DONATONI, Mauro CARDI and Gerard BROPHY ELISION Ensemble, Sandro GORLI conductor Dischi Ricordi CRMCD 1020 Total timing 70:28 Released 1992

Liza LIM Garden of Earthly Desire (1989) 27:19

for 11 instruments

Sandro GORLI Le vie dei canti n.2 (1990) 11:10

flute, oboe, viola, harp, percussion

Franco DONATONI Ali (1977) 14:55

viola solo

Mauro CARDI Effetto notte (1989) 11:08

for 8 instruments

Gerard BROPHY Shiver (1990) 5:56

mezzo soprano and eight instruments

Critical Acclaim

The first thing that struck me about this disc was the beautiful quality of the sound in the opening oboe solo in Liza Lim's Garden of Earthly Desire. In fact, the quality of recorded sound which producer, Riccardo Formosa, has achieved is indicative of the impressive standard of professionalism of the whole disc and of the Elision operation at the moment.

 . . .  The work itself (Garden of Earthly Desire) is a strikingly original exploration of the erotic in sound, at times haunting, bizarre, disturbing and funny. It confirmed absolutely my growing hunch that Lim is one of the major young voices in Australian music today.

Le Vie dei Canti n. 2 (composer, Sandro Gorli)  . . .  The title is a reference to Bruce Chatwin's book Songlines, and various instruments throughout the work take the role of singer/songmaker in lines which frequently become focussed on a single pitch. The effect is a mysterious "history" of songs and their transformations, with the effect of an unstated thread of continuity.

Mauro Cardi's Effetto Notte with its whispered tremolos and harmonics, punctuated by things that go plunk in the night, is a nocturne singularly well suited to the characteristically glittering nature of the ELISION ensemble with its special place for plucked strings.

---Peter McCALLUM, Sounds Australian, Winter 1992

Performers and Production

Paula RAE flute/piccolo, Stephen ROBINSON oboe, Jane ROBERTSON clarinet/bass clarinet, Stephen MOREY mandolin, Daryl BUCKLEY guitar/electric guitar, Marshall McGUIRE harp, track 1, Gabriella BOSIO harp, tracks 2 and 5, Peter NEVILLE percussion, Susan PIEROTTI violin, Jennifer CURL viola, Rosanne HUNT violoncello, Kees BOERSMA contrabass, track 1, Kirsty McCAHON contrabass, tracks 4 and 5, Julie EDWARDSON mezzo soprano

Sandro GORLI conductor

Riccardo FORMOSA producer, Jim ATKINS and Peter LIDDELOW engineers, Richard TOOP cover note, G. RICORDI, Milano publisher

Recorded September to October 1991, ABC Waverley Studios, Melbourne. Released by DISCHI RICORDI, Milano, 1992. CRMCD 1020. Total timing 70:28 (DDD).