Much to enjoy, but some missed programming opportunities.

Emotive, thought-provoking music from Ashley Smith and Friends.

Individual, instrumental brilliance balanced by a group cohesiveness and single-mindedness.

Ahead of Chamber 8’s Australian tour, the violinist shares some little-known gems from the chamber music repertoire. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

American cellist and composer Clancy Newman at a recent concert described Dvořák’s Dumky Trio as something you might hear al fresco – three skilled musicians having fun in an informal and spontaneous way and maybe with the hat out. There’s not much of the street corner busk about France’s Trio Wanderer’s reading of the work on their new album, or if there is it’s one of those elegant Parisian ones built by Baron Haussmann. The piece is played with a little too much Gallic sangfroid for this reviewer who prefers a more hectic, Bohemian feel to the slow-fast six-movement work, the last of the four Dvořák wrote and completed shortly before he took up his post in America. There are no such reservations with the impeccable way they handle the other work on the album, the Op. 65 Third Trio which is, on the whole, darker hued and more in the Brahmsian mould. Its uncharacteristically melancholic third movement is thought to be an expression of Dvořák’s grief at the loss of his mother, followed by an Allegro finale which seems to say “OK, let’s get on with life.” This is their 15th release for Harmonia Mundi, and with occasional forays…

These are wonderful performances, beautifully and naturally recorded, showcasing an artist with beguilingly beautiful tone and rock solid technique and intonation. Beethoven’s cello sonatas punctuate his oeuvre and the two early sonatas were trailblazers (Mozart ignored the cello as a solo instrument: even his string quintets featured a second viola) and it was not until the “middle” period A Major work that the structure seems confident. Oddly, that said, even the second last sonata, composed on the cusp of the middle-to-late period, has a slow movement lasting just over three minutes and it’s only in the final sonata that we find a full blown Adagio. Among many features that impressed me here were the mysterious depths plumbed in the sometimes awkward-sounding opening Adagios of the two early works, (especially the darker G Minor), which can seem like mere introductions in the wrong hands. Other structural tripwires successfully negotiated include the way Capuçon and Braley make a seamless transition to the ensuing Allegros after the opening Adagios and their ability to contrast the consecutive fast movements of the first two sonatas. The rapport between cellist and pianist is impressive throughout, with especially brilliant and spontaneous interplay in the Op. 69, whose…

If you’ve seen any Australian period-instrument orchestras you’ve probably seen Tommie Andersson playing the theorbo as part of the continuo. He’s quite an institution by now, having co-founded the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra as well as co-directing Ludovico’s Band. This CD, however, is a recording from the mid-1980s of Andersson performing as part of a guitar/lute duo with Hållbus Totte. What’s particularly unusual, however, is that the disc is of traditional Swedish folk fiddle music. It was planned to come out on a specialist folk-music label, but for one reason or another was never released. Now, more than 30 years later, the album is finally available. Apparently Swedish folk music doesn’t usually use much in the way of plucked instruments, so the duo were something of a rarity when they first arrived on the scene. If that’s the case, you’d never know it. Switching freely between classical guitars and lutes, the polskas here sound completely natural in their new duo format. On several tracks the duo is joined by fiddlers – and the owners of the record label the album was intended to be released on – Magnus Bäckström and Per Gudmundson, a quartet collectively known as the Nordic Strings. These…

This new disc from Erato brings together the most prominent members of the Bach family – JS, JC, CPE in concerti and WF in a short keyboard piece. Johann Sebastian ran a musical society named Collegium Musicum (which was founded by Telemann!), and often gave concerts at the local Café Zimmermann. I have to say that I rather like the idea of drinking a coffee and listening to a newly-written Bach concerto. The art is a nice change from the portraits of Bach that so often wind up appearing on the cover of CDs. Flip open the cover here and there’s Rondeau himself relaxing in a forest, looking like he could fit right in with hip folksters like Devendra Banhart or Iron & Wine. That being said, the styling of the performers makes absolutely no difference to the sound, so how does he play? Very well, as it turns out… but with some decidedly odd phrasing in some places. In the tutti passages everything goes swimmingly. The orchestral playing is powerful and decisive, the harpsichord nicely recorded. However, once Rondeau hits the cadenzas, he injects ritardandos in every few bars. I found this a little affected and, at times, quite…

In the era of Spotify playlists, we might expect to be living in a golden age of the “sample album”.

My Fair Lady, The Book of Mormon, Barrie Kosky's Saul and Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife lead the charge.

On the road with pianist Simon Tedeschi, the actor puts the case for resurrecting 19th-century melodrama with music. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A welcoming evening of friendly music making in an ornate setting.