The Enchanted Isle -- a set that combines two previously released recordings by
Tamara Anna Cislowska -- has an obvious appeal to those looking to learn more about music from Australia, but it should also attract fans of post-Romantic piano miniatures and especially those who have enjoyed
Ashley Wass' recordings on Naxos of
Alwyn and
Bax. The composers featured here are approximately contemporary with those two British composers, and as with most Australian music of the pre-World War II era, there is an aural connection to Britain, as well. The choice of title, The Enchanted Isle, from one of the pieces by Frank Hutchens, perfectly suits the music on the two discs, just as the art nouveau designs and watercolor of Pan used in the packaging fit the period of much of the music. Misty lightness and pastoral landscapes dominate, often with folk-song-like melodies or rippling waters running through the music. "Limpid," "wistful," "gentle," and "untroubled" are adjectives that would cover most of these character pieces by Lindley Evans,
Alfred Hill, Frank Hutchens, Roy Agnew, and would even work for Arthur Benjamin's A Song with a Sad Ending and
Percy Grainger's arrangement of The Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol. As the notes point out, Australian composers of the era were more often writing to assuage the heat and dryness of the landscape than to develop music more native or individual to Australia. The second disc has a little more variety and energy than the first disc, tempering the cooler, languid pictures with more vigorous pieces such as
Grainger's The Gum-Suckers' March, Agnew's Trains -- a picture-perfect snapshot -- and ending with his Dance of the Wild Men, a bizarre work that has no obvious key, no obvious tune, and abruptly finishes the disc.
Cislowska very sensitively paints pictures with the music, but without over-saturating the colors or moods. Her touch is light and deft enough to maintain the soft, watercolor glow that is often needed, but she also can be sharper and more passionate, as shown in Evans' Vignette and Rhapsody. She even brings out the ragtime in The Gum-Suckers' March. The Enchanted Isle may not contain rediscovered major contributions to the piano literature, but it does have fine examples of post-Romantic character pieces, performed with great sympathy.