Among the hundreds of collections of classical piano favorites on the market, this two-disc set from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation stands out in a couple of ways. First is the nature of the repertory, shaped by the collection's Australian origins. There are several works by Australian composers (the Russian Rag of Russo-Australian composer
Elena Kats-Chernin is a standout piece of border-crossing), plus works that have for one reason or another fallen off of Western concert programs; Christian Sinding's Frühlingsrauschen (Rustle of Spring), for example, was blacklisted after the senile composer was talked into joining the Norwegian Nazi party. More important is the inclusion of works by crossover composers who have become very popular but somehow rarely show up on collections of this kind. Composers who have come out of the minimalist tradition, such as
Arvo Pärt or
Michael Nyman, fit comfortably next ot the
Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, and
Ravel works that dominate this and other piano collections, and for many listeners they'll provide ideal entry points to the larger repertory of classical music for the piano. Even farther afield are an excerpt from
Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert and an arrangement of "Danny Boy," but these too have the same virtues. The performances, by a variety of Australian pianists, are shaped into a coherent whole by the mastering engineers. A negative is the total absence of commentary in the booklet, which includes only a tracklist and some unhelpful quotations about the piano. Especially for listeners within the Australian cultural orbit, however, this is a reasonable pick among recordings of this type.