During his 1929 Australian tour, Spivakovsky adopted a policy of including at least one first-class modern composition in each of his programmes. He gave Australian premieres of numerous works including Max Reger's titanic Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme of Bach, Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Casella's Pieces Enfantines. From the Sydney Sun after a performance of the Reger: "The audience realised that a genius of the piano had come to them, and the demonstration of appreciation was remarkable in intensity."