With all of the options that today’s orchestras have, what is it that makes Historically Informed Performances so special? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Australia’s most celebrated living composer will curate, conduct and compose during his tenure, until 2018. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Distinguished Service to Australian Music Award recognises the composer for his major musical achievements. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Sir Simon Rattle and wife Magdalena Kožená struck down with virus just hours before Melbourne performance. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Anderszewski, Qin and Dickson head an extraordinary musical evening.
Following the orchestra’s triumphant 2015 season opener, Sir Simon praised AWO as one of the world’s great orchestras. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Rattle’s wizardry conjures ethereal Debussy and earth-shattering Bruckner.
The illustrious British maestro has been Chief Conductor of the orchestra since 2013.
★★★★★ In Claire Edwardes’ hands, Iain Grandage’s eclectic, new percussion concerto is spectacular. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
New technology gives audience members a musicians-eye view during Adelaide Symphony Orchestra performances. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Australian World Orchestra's Guest Conductor helps shed light on the Eighth Symphony of the Austrian behemoth.
Lully joins the circus to make a divertissement fit for a king Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Throughout his career, Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas was engaged in exploring the music of his homeland, both ancient and modern. This second volume of works presents an insight into the eclectic, and frequently retrospective, sound world of his works for string orchestra. The first and last tracks feature Farkas’s arrangements of Hungarian 16th and 17th-century dances. These suites have a cute, antiquated feel – think Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, or Warlock’s Capriol Suite. The same is true of the Finnish Popular Dances. The Aria e Rondo all’Ungherese also looks backwards, but with a more romantic feel, channeling Grieg’s Holberg Suite. The Musica Pentatonica has a different language, energised by angular phrases and rhythms with a pentatonic harmonic framework reminiscent of Holst and the English pastoralists. The András Jelky Suite, named for an 18th-century Hungarian adventurer, is a welcome contrast. Embracing the language of dissonance but retaining a spirit of romanticism, it contains more colourful harmonies than Farkas’s arrangements of early music. The Concertino for Trumpet and Strings is similarly more adventurous, with a clear and articulate performance by trumpet soloist László Tóth. The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra’s performance is solid throughout, under the direction of violinists Gyula Stuller and…
