Duration: 26’30”
Première screening Saturday 17 April 2004 (SBS TV, Saturday Masterpiece slot).
Repeat transmission: 9 July 2005 (extended 39' version), 25 Feb 2007, 4pm Saturday 12 Jan 2008, 11:00am Sunday 19 July 2009; also 17 November 2019.
Special screening for the 5th anniversary of Peter’s death: 3:30pm on 5 August 2019.
"An intriguing presentation that promises as scintillating visual essay on the city of Sydney, set to a splendid musical score by Peter Sculthorpe ... visually, it is stunning..."
- Sydney Morning Herald TV Guide April 12-18 2004.
"The magical photography by Adam Sebire of Sydney’s visual icons is matched by thematic, orchestral, and solo sounds which do not attempt to paint the visuals in sound... Sebire’s inspired filming of Sydney, both present and historical, provides a visual singing of Sydney. Especially magical were the scenes of 18th and 19th century paintings superimposed on the Opera House and Circular Quay locations."
- Robert Walker in MCA Music Forum, May-July 2006, p.75.
Peter Sculthorpe, who turns 75 on 29 April 2004, is almost certainly Australia's most internationally-recognised composer. Best-known for his broad landscape compositions such as Kakadu and Earth Cry, he now turns his attention to his own backyard in this new work tailor-made for the SBS Radio & Television Youth Orchestra. It is scored for string orchestra with clarinet, harp and percussion soloists.
"Sydney Singing" takes us on a journey through Sydney over the course of a day. From dawn over the harbour, to a lazy morning on Bondi Beach, a cultured afternoon at the Opera House, to dusk at the El Alamein Fountain, the neon lights of Kings Cross, and then through the wee hours of the city's existence to sunrise over the harbour city once more. The programme includes interviews with Peter Sculthorpe in each of the locations described by his music; young soloists perform outdoors in these locations. The world première of the orchestrated version of Sydney Singing used in this broadcast was recorded live at the newly rebuilt Sydney Conservatorium of Music by SBS Radio.
Directed, Edited & Filmed by Adam Sèbire. DVD authored by Adam Sèbire (with additional features including composer’s commentary, was released by SBS in 2005, and re-released again in 2009 by Universal Music.