Alexei Ratmansky’s new production sparkles, even when viewed from the back of the orchestra pit. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

An aristocrat of the piano turns Bachian teaser with part one of a two-part fugue-fest.

Orchestral musicians around Germany are replacing their instruments with picket signs in a nationwide walkout. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Queensland Ballet snags the Australian premiere of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet as part of its 2014 season. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

When Paul Dean pulled me aside in the corridor to quickly tell me that I would be joining the Australian World Orchestra for 2013 as a part of their academy, all I could do was blink and nod (although this is not an uncommon reaction from a viola player). It was a few minutes later that his words actually sank in.  The AWO is an orchestra founded two years ago, formed with the aim to bring the best Australian orchestral players together from around the world. Among them this year you might glimpse an awe-struck girl sitting among the violas – that would be me. Both in 2011 and this year, the AWO has included a few students as a part of the AWO Academy, designed to allow younger musicians the chance to play alongside some of the most successful Australian instrumentalists around. We’re there to listen, to learn, and to discover the depth of talent that we sometimes forget comes from our home, thinking that Australians could never live up to the standard of classical music centres like Europe and America. Since then, a few things have happened – emails have been exchanged, practice parts sent, printed, and scrawled…

After a stunning 2011 debut the Australia World Orchestra is back, with very special guest Zubin Mehta.

From Glass to Nyman, the über-Gothic Princess of the Piano corsets-up to talk about her latest album. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Britten’s scores for films and radio-plays written during WWII to get first public performance, 70 years on. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Maria Callas’ status as cultural icon endures 90 years after her birth. But how was the legend of La Divina born? Limelight finds out.

Not only did these composers write immortal music, they inspired history’s great artists to new heights of expression.

Making the move from international opera star to eight-shows-a-week Broadway baby.

If a label like ECM chooses to back a young composer it’s safe to assume she’s beyond just showing promise. And if Janine Jansen and Maxim Rysanov come to the party with works composed especially for them, their endorsement affirms a major new talent. Meet Dobrinka Tabakova, born in Bulgaria in 1980 but based in London since her early teens. At once forward-looking and steeped in old-school romanticism, the music is sensually attuned to timbre and sweeping melody, with just enough Eastern European bite and folk-derived earthiness lurking beneath the polished surface (listen to the lilting, modal solo in Suite in Old Style’s third movement). Tabakova has a gift for string writing that connects the English lyricism of Vaughan Williams and Elgar to the glassier, sombre textures of Arvo Pärt – the music is always brimming with personality, even if it’s not always immediately apparent that it’s her own. Jansen, the dedicatee of Such Different Paths, steps out of her spotlight to indulge her chamber proclivities, bringing sweetly focused lightness to the driving rhythms. In the dark- hued Concerto for Cello and Strings, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra play at the level of their solist, Latvian Kristina Blaumane (principal cellist of……