Mangrove For Orchestra

Lush and pictorial, it consisted of sharply defined sections that courted the charge of mere exoticism - evocations of Oriental musics and sounds, full of throbbing strings, rapidly reiterated percussion and all manner of aural colour presumably inspired by alien cultures. But Mr Sculthorpe is no simple-minded purloiner of sonic artifacts; his piece coheres into a statement by a distinctive composer with something interesting and evocative to say.