German-Australian actress turned opera visionary Elke Neidhardt passes, aged 72. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Iconic works from over 90 major artists on loan from New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Mariss Jansons drives his 120-player musical Porsche into Brisbane with plenty of style and horsepower. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The prodigiously talented Shuan Hern Lee adds another international win to his résumé. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Armfield and Vinke find the Mensch in the Ubermensch.

Bowling up the dusty drive to the extensive Huntington Estate winery near Mudgee you’re immediately reminded it’s been a dry year out here in rural NSW. In her welcome speech, Nicky Boud the cheerful general manager informed us that “gentlemen should feel free to water the vines – all donations would be welcome.” Given that an evening’s event here can begin at 6pm with a pre-concert talk from Carl Vine, followed by canapés and drinks, a two-and-a-half-hour concert (with interval refreshments) and then a sit down supper with unlimited beverages, I should imagine those vines will be running positively rampant by Saturday night! Thinking about what to blog about, my first thought was the food – no the wine – no, maybe I should start with the music. Or should I just have another glass of the excellent Cabernet Merlot (a case of which is now in the boot of my car) and chill out a bit. Actually, I think I can manage a bit about all of the above. And the scores for all three should come out pretty high. The food is not only excellent – it appears to be unlimited. Looking at my fellow travellers, many of…

The ACO’s Richard Tognetti’s in the Limelight hot-seat for a special December issue. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

As well as being one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, Benjamin Britten was also a distinguished conductor, accompanist and chamber musician. Collected here for the first time, in this captivating 26 CD box, are the fruits of his most important labours in these fields. Britten’s singular talent was for getting inside the mind of his fellow composers, whether it be Mozart, Schubert or Elgar, and generating something entirely original. It’s not always what they might have wanted (he takes untold liberties with The Dream of Gerontius), but he seldom fails to excite, often with a heart-stopping moment of enormous originality. Highlights include a revolutionary reading of Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust – a masterpiece scarcely touched until this 1972 recording, his landmark Schubert and Schumann recitals accompanying Peter Pears and that radical Elgar, pushing the envelope farther than even Barbirolli was prepared to go. If his Bach is less well recorded and a million miles from the period instrument school of thought, his Brandenburgs are still one of the best pre-1970 versions. Other classics include Mozart piano concertos with Clifford Curzon as soloist, his visionary Mozart and Schubert for two pianos where he’s joined by Sviatoslav Richter and Schubert’s Arpeggione with Rostropovich. All in all, a must have. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Food, wine, good music and then more food and wine. What’s not to like at Huntington 2013? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Here are two exceptional reissues. The Brahms consists of 1980s recordings featuring András Schiff with the Takács Quartet in the F Minor Piano Quintet, and with Viennese colleagues in the Horn and Clarinet Trios. VPO principal clarinetist Peter Schmidl is heard in the Clarinet Quintet. If that weren’t enough, Schiff plays the four-hand Variations on a Theme of Schumann, joined by no less a partner than Georg Solti. This fine collection covers works from all periods of Brahms’s life, but is especially recommendable for the autumnal late works. An interesting comparison may be made with the heart-on-sleeve Clarinet Quintet played by a Viennese ensemble of an earlier era, in the massive but treasurable Westminster Chamber Music collection. Fascinating generational differences. The ASMF disc restores Argo recordings from 1968 when Neville Marriner still played violin with the ensemble. Boccherini’s late quintet (one of over a hundred of the composer’s works in this form) is typically gentle and mellifluous, while Mendelssohn’s Octet is a recognised masterpiece. Both are very well played, though I think the Academy’s English good manners suit Boccherini better. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Max Raabe and his Palast Orchestra have been cult artists for several years. Their work has appeared on German labels, along with a terrific Kurt Weill album conducted by HK Gruber for RCA in 2001. Now Raabe and his authentic 1930s band have signed with Universal. Their mission is to resurrect what Ian Wekwerth’s notes call the ‘shellac’ sound of crooners of the Rudy Vallee and Bing Crosby vintage. Hence, band arrangements feature oily saxophones and jazzy brass fills, plus a more present drum sound than we used to get on old 78s. Raabe himself is unique. His voice is at the same time resonant, with a wide range, and nasal. His ever so slightly Germanic pronunciation lends an air of high camp to the proceedings. This is also born out in his choice of repertoire. While legitimate hits of the 1920s and 30s are included, such as Singin’ in the Rain and Brecht and Weill’s Alabama Song – both of which he performs with authentic charm – there are also point numbers like Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf and Cosi Cosa from the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera. As a bonus we get Raabe’s hilariously po-faced 30s rendition of Britney Spears’ Oops, I Did It Again, but in a shorter form than the older version where he reproduced the dialogue. (Don’t ask how I know…) Some fun originals and vivid sound add to the disc’s…

A bildungsroman about beat era poet Allen Ginsberg in his formative college years.