The decision to discontinue the prestigious national award was made by the six CEOs of Australia’s major State orchestras. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, and “Bah, humbug!” to Il Divo.

Limelight’s Recording of the Year heads a bumper edition to take you into 2016. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Jessica Gethin and Jennifer Condon reflect on their time at the Dallas Opera's ground-breaking initiative.

The Sydney Symphony’s new Assistant brings a bit of Aussie entrepreneurship to London. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

José Serebrier’s new Dvořák cycle ranks with Kubelík’s, Kertesz’s, and Rowicki’s sadly overshadowed but excellent set. For me, the last three symphonies are usually the least interesting and revealing – as here, where they’re perfectly OK but unremarkable (the third movement of the Eighth lacks the sinuous elegance of other readings). Where this cycle scores is in the performances of the neglected Second, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and the generous addition of other major works such as the Legends, the delightful Scherzo Capriccioso, the masterful concert overture In Nature’s Realm and a selection of Slavonic Dances in radiant performances, the Bournemouth players in top form. No young composer was more prolix than Dvořák (one of his early string quartets lasts 70 minutes!), as demonstrated in the First Symphony, subtitled The Bells Of Zlonice where the youthful rhetoric runs unchecked. The three-movement Third and the Fourth (whose last movement always reminds me of a bizarrely titled song I heard as a child on the ABC Argonauts programme: “Dashing away with a smoothing iron, she stole my heart away”) are interesting, but the Second Symphony, long a favourite of mine, is more disciplined and Serebrier has its measure, making it a real……

We reveal ten truths that those who tread the career path of a composer will know all too well.

For the first time, we asked our readers to vote for their favourite artists. Combined with our critics’ votes, this is who you chose. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Messiaen’s masterwork goes for the lot: rocks, birds and throws in the song of the star Aldebaran for good measure. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The critics have spoken and the results are in. Here are Limelight's five top recordings of 2015.

The chart-topping king of the Viennese waltz boasts a global following of millions, but how does his latest record measure up? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Recording of the Month – January/February 2016 How wonderful for an organisation to be celebrating 200 years of performing The Creation! Part One of Haydn’s masterpiece was performed in Boston on Christmas Day, 1815 by the Handel and Haydn Society to a rapt audience of about 1,000 people. It’s hard to imagine how the 13 instrumentalists on that occasion coped with Haydn’s colourful score and supported the chorus of 90 men and ten women, but the pioneering spirit of that performance has born lasting fruit: H+H is still going strong, as this excellent recording attests. Harry Christophers, the current Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society eschews the ‘blockbuster’ approach of Paul McCreesh’s 2008 account and opts instead for medium-sized forces: a chorus of 42 accompanied by an orchestra of 47 that perform in Boston’s hallowed Symphony Hall. This means that tempi are on the whole slightly more flowing and less monumental, allowing some of the more intimate moments to shine through. Haydn’s English text has always been troublesome. Christophers adopts a less interventionist approach than McCreesh, with the happy result we still have some favourite… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber?…