Press reviews
Excerpts from reviews from the period 1985 - 1992
"The scenes from Whiticker's Gesualdo, an intensely dramatic and powerful work whose scenario shifts from this world to the next with intriguing rapidity and ease, were quite grippingly realised."
Opera Australia, 11.87
"Of the two works it was Gesualdo which grabbed the imagination and offered the most compelling musical experience … Whiticker created a model of astonishing intensity from the opening phrase onwards."
Sun Herald, 18.10.87
"Gesualdo, in contrast, immediately established a more pressing concern with the passage of dramatic time. The music has the tick of a predestined fulfilment running through it from its very first bars of darkly scratching and rustling instrumentation … The vocal lines have a compelling purposefulness and rhythmic impetus. They move toward a destination quite free from any sense of random internal-spinning."
Sydney Morning Herald, 12.10.87
"Whiticker's Bamboo Flute in its refined and highly stylized nature is gripping though its sheer economy."
Arts Illustrated, 4.11.85
"The Bamboo Flute was the most perfectly formed and moving of the three works."
Sunday Telegraph, 10.11.85
"Whiticker's Venus Asleep is thoroughly engaging. After a strident, edgy opening, the score becomes complex and imaginative with splendidly forceful percussive effects."
The Australian, 2.87
"Of the two works recycled from the previous concert, Whiticker's Venus Asleep gained in stature and virtuosity of performance. It is direct and stern in its language, imbued with energy and occasional soaring unison instrumental lines, leavened with jagged block-chords that whip across the sinewy texture: a most impressive piece that radiates vitality."
(Clive O'Connell) The Age, late 1987
"In Quidong, Whiticker creates a musical picture that emerges effortlessly and lingers on afterwards."
Westdeutsch Zeitung, 16.9.85
"The Whiticker piece Korokon was enjoyably a soft balance between intellect and emotions."
The Canberra Times, 22.4.87
"The most daring work in the program, Whiticker's On Slanting Ground stimulates the imagination with its nightmarish sounds."
Sydney Morning Herald, 6.6.88
"Whiticker's Miname proved to be an entertaining piece. Exploiting the tonal qualities of the three instruments without sacrificing a strong musical impulse it was one of the most rewarding works on the program."
Canberra Times, 11.11.88
"Whiticker's diptych Purgatorio Paradiso addressed the cherished notion that frequent changes of chord are a precondition for musical interest. He argues by example that it is not, and in part two, Paradiso, achieves a genuinely dramatic climax entirely by other means: dynamics, textural density, and the interplay of voices with the work's electronic tape component."
The Sydney Review, 4.92
"In terms of Whiticker's artistic development his confronting music/theatre work, Man, Skin Cancer of the Earth marks a certain loosening of style and a new and promising direction."
Sydney Morning Herald, 23.7.91
"Whiticker's All in good time displayed the most subtle and appealing sense of rhythm … it's a bright lively piece written with an admiral economy of ideas and instrumentation."
The Australian, 11.9.91
"All in good time … a stream of exultation runs through this piece, gentle and controlled but consistent nonetheless."
Australian Financial Review, 13.9.91
"Whiticker's Between Blue Rocks is an elegant and immediately accessible work … In it we find an instrumentation that is attractive and urbane, an indisputable evidence of sophisticated compositional skills."
Australian Financial Review, 11.92