Young Swedish instrumentalist Jonas Nordberg (I hesitate to call him merely a lutenist, as he plays everything from the Renaissance lute to the 19th-century guitar) has already proven himself a formidable musical and dramatic collaborator – witness his work with recorder player Dan Laurin and, separately, with choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström. However this, his debut solo recording, demonstrates for those who have yet to hear Nordberg in recital, just what a gifted poet of the lute and theorbo he is. Indeed, one need only read his booklet notes to get something of the measure of his refined, somewhat melancholy, sensibility. Of Dufaut’s Tombeau de Mr. Blancrocher, he writes, “As the piece develops, however, unexpected harmonies appear like fierce stabs of pain. At some points the music is still as a millpond; at others, it seems as frustrated as a prisoner trying to break free from the chains of death.” But the performance is the thing, and if Nordberg cannot yet count himself as a member of that pantheon of players which includes such luminaries as Rolf Lislevand, Fred Jacobs, Nigel North and Hopkinson Smith, he’s well on his way to reaching the summit of Mt Parnassus. One only… Continue reading Get…

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

From Hobart to Berlin, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Principal shares her hopes, inspirations and passions. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

If you want to meet the man, says the British-Australian pianist, try really listening to his music. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Russian virtuoso discusses the transcendent joys of Liszt and why it’s important not to get carried away. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Pianist Stephen Hough has won Limelight’s International Artist of the Year 2016. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Poetry and pyrotechnics are perfectly combined in Daniil Trifonov’s five-star pianistic triumph. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Michael Finnissy was born in 1946 in London and has been active as a performer (pianist) and composer since the mid-1970s. He served as President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) from 1990-96, and is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Southampton. His works are renowned for their demanding technical requirements, and often consist of transformative rearrangements of material by other composers: his Verdi Transcriptions for piano (1986) is one of the better-known examples. Finnissy has also completely reworked two sets of songs by George Gershwin for solo piano – Gershwin Arrangements and More Gershwin – and it is the first of these that is presented here in a new recording by Belgian pianist Dirk Herten. Thirteen famous songs, including How Long Has This Been Going On, Love is Here to Stay, Shall We Dance? and Embraceable You have been examined and dissected under the Finnissy microscope, with extremely rewarding results. Spacious and delicately spikey, these arrangements are quite fascinating –Gershwin’s unmistakable melodies are instantly recognisable but embedded within new modernist frameworks that are at once compositionally sophisticated and completely accessible. Herten’s thoughtful and delicate reading prompted Finnissy himself to comment on its demonstration of a…

The Beaux Arts Trio pianist talks about getting a second chance, trios, surviving open-heart surgery and ditto Alma Mahler. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The well-loved violist and music teacher has drowned while on a school excursion near Alice Springs. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The 92-year-old pianist talks Fauré, Ravel, Nazi Germany and feeling the hand of God. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

In Volume 6 of her magisterial traversal of the Beethoven piano sonatas, Angela Hewitt reminds us that Beethoven could be the god of small (musical) things. Her performances of the three “little” Sonatas in this set illustrate this perfectly. The Schubertian (Hewitt’s apt term) Allegretto of the Op. 14 No 1 Sonata has an ambience similar to that of Mozart’s last Piano Concerto, the composer smiling through tears. Another example is the delightful, slightly torpid four-note intoduction of the Op. 49 No 1 Sonata. The final movement of the Op. 49 No 2 is the same Minuet as the one in Beethoven’s early Septet and Hewitt makes it just as charming. By the time we come to the Op. 31 No 1 Sonata, we’ve really turned a corner: the slow movement is marked Adagio grazioso – almost a contradiction in terms and, at 11 minutes, by far the longest movement on this CD. Hewitt plays along in beautifully cantabile mode with the notion that it’s both tribute to and parody of Italian opera. The Op. 81a Sonata Les Adieux refers to Beethoven’s separation from his patron and probable… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…