Joseph Nolan plans to welcome the Queen of Sheba amongst a programme ranging from Bach to Britten. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Newly recovered and recorded, the composer whose life was cut short at the Somme is assuming his rightful place.

A powerful, immersive soundscape that harnesses the resonant space of the Sydney Town Hall.

You never know what you’ll get when a label releases music by unknown composers. Here the Szymanowski’s and Plowright bring us piano quintets by two Poles plucked from the relative obscurity of the early 20th century. At a time when trailblazers like Stravinsky and Schoenberg were making their modernist mark, many others were remaining faithful to the good old ways of 19th-century Romanticism. Ludomir Różycki and Ignaz Friedman are two such late, Late-Romantics. First up on the disc, Różycki’s Quintet is a wonderful find. Its opening movement has a brooding, romantic character, marked by dramatic swells with gentle hints at the French impressionist sound that had also inspired his more famous compatriot and the quartet’s namesake. The second movement is more solemn, with a greater sense of darkness and melancholy. Plowright and the Quartet are in perfect synchronicity here, elegantly capturing the Adagio’s various moods, particularly cellist Marcin Sieniawski in his impassioned solos. The third movement is perhaps the freshest sounding, having some of the effervescent character of Ravel’s String Quartet second movement. Ignaz Friedman was a pianist-composer with an Australian connection. As a Jew during Nazi-occupied Poland,… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

The Heath Quartet’s lush, integrated sound in the opening chords of Tchaikovsky’s optimistic String Quartet No 1 in D, Op. 11, sets the tone for this disc – the English ensemble’s debut on Harmonia Mundi.Written for an all-Tchaikovsky concert intended to bolster the young composer’s reputation, the First Quartet is bright. The players trace sensitive arcs with muted strings in the delicate, folk-inspired second movement while the Scherzo hums with energy, the quartet producing a full, vibrant sound before the joyous romp of the quartet’s finale. From Tchaikovsky’s first (full-length) quartet, The Heath Quartet takes us to his last, composed only five years later. The Quartet No 3 in E Flat Minor, Op. 30, is darker and more nuanced than the First, composed in response to the death of violinist Ferdinand Laub. It opens with a melancholy Allegro Sostenuto that the Heath Quartet swells with passion, infusing the weighty 15-minute movement with moments of fragility and power. The funereal third movement maintains a pulsing intensity, the quartet driving forward rather than letting the music bog down in tragedy. The players bring out the ambiguities of the finale’s determined brightness, quiet pizzicatos before the final coda, a… Continue reading Get unlimited…

Formerly known as orchestra seventeen88, young period ensemble ARCO has announced its ambitious 2017 season. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Bologna’s musical history is a particularly rich and cosmopolitan one, and this recording by Roman period instrument ensemble Musica Antiqua Latina brings together the music of some of the Baroque composers associated with the city. There is a trio sonata by Giovanni Battista Bassani, long thought to have been Corelli’s teacher (though this is unlikely). A fine ciaccona by Maurizio Cazzati, who as maestro di cappella of St. Petronio had such an effect on the development of music in Bologna. Two trio sonatas from the famous Opus 3 and a ciaccona by Corelli himself, who studied in Bologna as a young man before moving to Rome. A trio sonata by Giovanni Maria Bononcini, whose son was a member of St. Petronio’s orchestra. A sonata by Giuseppe Torelli, whose Bolognese music for trumpet in particular is well known. A balletto by the Bolognese cello virtuoso Domenico Gabrielli. Another balletto by Giovanni Battista Vitali, also a Bolognese cellist of some repute who strongly influenced the development of the trio sonata. Finally, there is a delightful trio sonata by that most prolific of composers, ‘anon’. Founded by Giordano Antonelli in 2000, Musica Antiqua Latina also comprises four baroque violinists –… Continue reading Get…

Andreas Staier established himself in the 1990s as a perceptive Schubertian with revelatory recordings on period pianos of the late sonatas and Lieder performances with Christoph Prégardien. His hyper-sensitive touch coaxes a myriad of colour and sonority out of the fortepiano so my expectations were high for this set of Piano Trios. Using a lovely copy of a 1827 Conrad Graf, Staier’s colouristic playing gives us plummy bass notes and pinging treble, creating fascinating tints, his companions adding delicate brushwork. Moments such as the second statement of the main theme of D898 with pizzicato strings supporting Staier’s impeccable articulation are breathtakingly beautiful and many such moments abound; the funeral march of D929 is gaunt and sepulchral. However his companions seem to be channelling an earlier era; both are superbly expressive exponents of Baroque string playing but their approach here seems at odds with Staier. Their lithe dynamic thrust in fast movements make for an exciting ride but they refuse to indulge us with any hint of Romantic expression, their blank phrasing with barely any vibrato and minimal tonal variation works against Schubert’s long, singing lines and large-scale structures so that periods of reflection drag despite flowing tempi…. Continue reading Get…

I thought the Takács Quartet set the bar pretty high with last year’s Hyperion recording of the two Janáček string quartets, but that was before Swiss outfit Quartetto Energie Nove released this gem on the Dynamic label. Made up of the principal string players of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the foursome has a slim discography – just the two Prokofiev quartets – but the sheer quality of their playing and the marvellous production standard of both these albums argue strongly that we should be hearing a lot more of them in the future. Energie Nove – violinists Hans Liviabella and Barbara Ciannamea, violist Ivan Vukčević (an Aussie!) and cellist Felix Vogelsang – bill this release as a world premiere of a “critically edited and ‘Urtext’ version” of the two quartets. The main changes are in the second, Intimate Letters, written in the last year of the composer’s life and which was being rehearsed for its premiere by the Moravian Quartet just before Janácˇek died. Some changes had been made at these rehearsals attended by the composer, the chief among them being his decision to abandon the use of the viola d’amore in favour of its more conventional four-stringed cousin….

The Finnish composer shocked many in the establishment when he embraced a popular mysticism with his musical angels.

The Canadian violinist reveals the importance of Elgar in his life and why Respighi isn’t for the living room. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Sydney ensemble round off a stunning season with plenty of Sturm und Drang.