Daniel Barenboim and Charles Dutoit help us discover the private pianist behind the public persona.

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

A spritely and vibrant Creation from Sir Andrew Davis and the MSO.

Robertson, Clerici and the SSO deliver a cleverly planned programme, played with panache.

In some ways, this recording is quite a departure for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. In other ways, it isn’t. Who else but an ensemble specialising in historically-informed performances on period instruments could bring such innate understanding to the Baroque underpinnings of Grieg’s From Holberg’s Time – Suite in the Olden Style and Mendelssohn’s early String Symphony No 3 in E Minor? As for the ABO’s other novel offering – Paganini’s fiendishly difficult Violin Concerto No 4 – there’s a real lightness, crispness and suppleness required here that makes a HIP technique perfectly suited to Paganini’s OTT showmanship. This is especially the case with the ABO’s guest director and soloist, Netherlands-based violinist Shunske Sato. Concertmaster of both Concerto Köln and the Netherlands Bach Society, Sato is equally at home on modern and historical instruments. He is also clearly equally at home in repertoire as diverse as the three aforementioned works, here recorded live last year by Classic FM at Sydney’s City Recital Hall. The Grieg is given a delightful freshness, a newly-minted quality, by contrasting a generous use of portamenti with a parsimonious application of vibrato throughout. This lends a luminous clarity both to the lyrical movements such… Continue reading Get…

Christian Lindberg’s The Erratic Dreams of Mr Grönstedt is named for a Swedish cognac brand, the imbibing of which apparently triggered surreal dreams, which the composer spun into a concerto for Swedish clarinettist Emil Jonason. The concerto comprises a series of scenes from the life of a fictional Mr Grönstedt. Jonason’s clarinet emerges from brooding orchestral depths in The Mirror of Saturn. He’s smooth and flexible as he soars above the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, bringing a bouncy anticipation to Mr Grönstedt Dresses for the Spring Ball. He slashes pointed flourishes across the orchestra’s creeping dissonance in Lisa and the Magic Cape and brings a menacing unreality to the hazy Cadenza: The World of Euphoric Dreams. The finale explodes, the orchestra’s pumping forward-momentum giving way to spacious silence in which Jonason winds eerie solos before an energetic climax. Jonason joins the Vamlingbo Quartet for Osvaldo Golijov’s klezmer-infused The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. The Prelude is hymn-like – Jonason in the caramel low register of the clarinet – while Part II becomes an uneasy, slippery dance (drawing on the melody The Old Klezmer Band) set against menacing string pulses and glimmering harmonics, while the final movements… Continue reading Get…

The title refers to Richter’s attempt to create three distinct musical worlds based on three Virginia Woolf novels.

Every British conductor worth his or her salt has recorded the symphony, as have Solti, Barenboim, Slatkin, Ashkenazy and Sinopoli. The trick with Elgar, especially in this symphony, is to avoid lugubriousness and Gardner manages well getting the piece off to a quiet and measured start. The transition from the well-performed Scherzo into the slow movement is handled perfectly. However, after listening to Barbirolli’s beautifully nuanced recording, the ordinariness of this newcomer is clear. Sir John’s is the one to beat. Of the other performances I sampled all were of a very high standard. There is Boult, of course, and a splendid version from Mackerras and the LSO; he gets great feeling into the noblimente theme. Then there is the remarkable recording Colin Davis made with the Dresden Staatskapelle in 1997. The power of the German orchestra, its heft and discipline, is remarkable and it blows the competition out of the water. In this field, a new recording must stand tall and this one is a bit average. The Introduction and Allegro is long recognised as a virtuoso piece for string orchestra and there are no shortages of… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

You can only marvel at how far Alsop moves this music forward. This is Bernstein for our times.

Messiaen biographer Peter Hill explains the personal pain behind the pivotal work in the French composer’s career.

Clever programming and world class playing in the Midland Railway Workshops.

Taking inspiration from Strauss and New Orleans “slave songs”, Grenfell has written a new work for clarinet and bassoon. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in