Alumni past and present shocked at closure of one of the countries premiere youth music organisations. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The John Travolta of the clarinet trips the light fantastic through music old and new.

Feathers and speedos in the first part of Neil Armfield's Wagnerian vision gets this Ring off to a great start.

Musical customer's concerns addressed as airline makes changes to allow more carry on instruments.

Early music royalty in a program of English music to raise the spirits. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Witty words and postmodern pastiche fuse in Sydney Theatre Company’s latest existential offering. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Australia's most respected director on what music means to him and how he learned to love Wagner’s epic.

Historical recording found of Erich Leinsdorf’s announcement of the death of a President. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Art Gallery of NSW welcomes a diplomatic visual invasion from the USA. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A celebration of Australian composer Raymond Hanson in his 100th anniversary year. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic’s recordings for the yellow label from the 1970s, minus the operas.

The ABC’s decision to record the complete Beethoven piano sonatas with Australia’s foremost specialist Gerard Willems was launched in the late 1990s and hailed as a first for the country. The three-year project was given an added frisson by Willems’s decision to use pianos built by Aussie Wayne Stuart rather than the ubiquitous Steinway. Wayne Stuart’s skills as a piano maker were first tested when as a young man he played dance music published by J. Albert and Son at village halls around the country. The upright pianos were in varying states of disrepair and he often had to fix and tune them before the gig. Years later when his piano company in Melbourne wasn’t going anywhere Robert Albert, head of the publishing company, asked Stuart if they could come in on a joint venture. “I was hoping for ages that you would ask me that,” Stuart replied. A couple of ARIAs later and with burgeoning sales, the next logical step – the five piano concertos – was announced with Willems being joined by Antony Walker conducting Sinfonia Australis, drawn from the cream of our orchestras. In 2010 Willems was back in the Ultimo studio tackling the mighty Diabelli Variations….