On the eve of their national tour, the Australian Chamber Orchestra give a sneak peek of their Golden Age programme.

We take a look at the rulers who brought musical talent into the palace.

A fine Sydney day out for Melbourne’s liveliest string quartet. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

This month's list of Australia's top 20 classical music albums.

David Robertson, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, is our Guest Editor. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Minimalism and complexity rub shoulders in a celebration of contemporary music.

The program's the thing in an evening of windy delights.

Chamber music past and present as noteworthy for its historical breadth as its polished performance. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Australia's fantastic four celebrates 20 years with Ligeti, Stanhope and Beethoven.

Theory versus practice? Sally Whitwell weighs in on what exactly being a composer is all about. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

In his booklet note, West Australian luthier and broadcaster Graham Hawkes writes, “A long time ago I realised that many of the songs I loved were in fact tangos.” To enrich the repertoire, Hawkes commissioned new tangos from a number of composers, many of them fine guitarists in their own right. Invitation to TANGO, shows just how adaptable this Argentinean form is. Of the works for solo guitar, Alan Banks’ bluesy, highly virtuosic Tango Improvisation 1, Krzysztof Piotrowicz’s Tango dia Sergei Rudnev, Mardae Selepak’s Tango para Paco and Owen Thomson’s Midnight Tango stand out, not least for the composers themselves delivering such passionate, idiomatic performances. Banks also gives a riveting account of Rohan Jayasinghe’s substantial Hungarian Tango. Veteran composer Philip Bracˇanin is represented by Se baila como eres I & II, two finely crafted contrasting tangos performed with panache by clarinettist Catherine Cahill and guitarist Stephanie Jones, while mandolin and guitar duo Ruth Roshan and Tanya Costantino revel in Roshan’s playful Low tide and Sunset. For Hawkes this project has been a labour of love, and if Mark Viggiani’s festive Cabaret Closed brings a sense of finality to proceedings, well, as one of tango’s great exponents Carlos Gardel sang, “You always return…

Inspired by viol-maker Richard Jones’ copies of Venetian instruments, the Rose Consort of Viols presents a globe-trotting recital, centred on Venice (La Serenissima) – a hub for musicians of the time. There’s everything from lively galliards to free-wheeling fantasias, and covering a range of composers from Italy, Germany, France and England. Most of this music is heard far too rarely, and some of it is quite extraordinary. I was once told that Renaissance counterpoint “wasn’t nearly as complex as the Baroque”, and I suspect that such an ignorant statement could be easily shattered by some of the pieces here. For example, the liner notes point out that the tenor viol part of Henricus Isaac’s La my la sol doubles in speed each time it repeats, until it syncs up with the rest of the consort. So much for a lack of complexity! Not all of the works are so logically constructed. The Rose Consort give a fabulously rustic performance of some anonymous dances from the mid-16th century from both Italy and England, and it’s easy to imagine the music as the background to a ball or social event. Furthermore,… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe…