The Sydney Conservatorium of Music, one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious conservatories, has been added to the NSW heritage register. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Bradley Kunda and Matt Withers from Brew Guitar Duo on their stunning new album of Australian guitar music Landscape. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
It was interesting, that despite his considerable discography, none of his recordings was considered good enough for the recent ABC Classic FM Symphony Countdown, confirming my theory that Rattle’s never recorded anything that hasn’t been done better by at least several other conductors. This Brahms cycle, virtually a rite of passage for Chief Conductors of the Berlin Philharmonic, doesn’t have any startling revelations, but is unlikely to disappoint either and improves as it progresses. To describe the playing as wonderful is hardly revelatory either. Rattle certainly unleashes the incomparable firepower in the finale of the First and, somewhat inappropriately, in the first movement of the Second Symphony – no pastoral idyll here. The Third Symphony receives a glowing performance with steady tempos and the intermezzo-like third movement has a particularly autumnal radiance. The visionary Fourth is sublime from start to finish, with the tango-like rhythm of the opening especially seductive in Rattle’s hands and the passacaglia finale (Brahms’s greatest symphonic movement?) sublimely phrased. My two quibbles are that Rattle does not observe the first movement repeats in the First and Second Symphonies, yet does in the third. The other is the atrociously niggardly playing… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access…
Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak is the latest artist to be signed by Decca Classics, Universal’s US-based classical label. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Pianist Nelson Freire has been made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
For regularly updated news, reviews, features and blogs, as well as up-to-date events and ABC Classic FM listings, the new Limelight website is the place to be.
Sony Classical has announced an exclusive long term agreement with Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Limelight editor Francis Merson speaks to Sir Simon Rattle about his past, present and future with the Berlin Philharmonic. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Ten years after his award-winning Beethoven sonatas, Gerard Willems braves the composer’s pianistic Everest, the Diabelli Variations.
Reportedly the world’s best-selling classical artist, Italian opera star Cecilia Bartoli is set to tour Australia in 2011.
The Australian pianist/comedian talks to Limelight about his upcoming national tour.
Orchestra Victoria will be forced to shrink their core ensemble in 2011 in order to avoid bankruptcy.
Swiss tenor Hugues Cuénod has died at the extraordinarily advanced age of 108.
