"The work was inspired by a visit to Easter Island, famous for its great stone heads, monuments that can be seen as both an example of the indomitable nature of the human spirit and as part of its great folly - for
their making and transportation deforested and impoverished the island.
Sculthorpe's music reflects this dichotomy; it begins darkly, in the manner of his earlier work Mangrove, but it progresses steadily to a much warmer and richer sound palette. There are some hauntingly beautiful melodies and striking tonal contrasts. Some play is made of the plainchant Dies Irae but this is not overdone and the whole thing ends on a note of quiet resolution that's absolutely right."
Laurie Strachan, The Australian, 22 October 1993
