The second-string of Australian chamber music looks strong from sleepy Bellingen Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013) had a long and productive life but worked in a slow, meticulous manner, which explains why this almost complete edition of his music only runs to six CDs. Missing is an immature ballet score Le Loup (The Wolf). Georges Prêtre recorded excerpts from it in the 1960s for EMI but evidently Universal was unable to license them, even though this set contains recordings from several diverse sources. The bulk of Dutilleux’s oeuvre is represented here – from his early Symphony No 1 and Piano Sonata of 1947/48 to his final orchestral work The Shadows of Time and Le Temps l’Horloge, an orchestral song cycle completed in 2009 and dedicated to soprano Renée Fleming (who sings it here). Because of Dutilleux’s magnificent sonic imagination and perfectionist attitude, every piece in this set is significant. The major large-scale works are his two symphonies – the Second (Le double), is more of a concerto grosso – and his concertos for violin and cello. The First Symphony (1951) emerges from the world of Roussel and Honegger, yet the composer’s fastidiousness is evident in the carefully balanced textures and succinct musical argument. (These traits would become even more pronounced.) Martinon conducts the…

New York-based Australian soprano Jane Sheldon posts about Nature, her latest album, recorded with pianist Nicole Panizza.

New Zealand tenor, and one third of Sol3Mio, carries off 12,000 euros.

The Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt came to San Francisco in 1985, following a decade with the Dresden Staatskapelle. Although Blomstedt lacked a marketable outgoing personality, he was in the right place at the right time. A contract was signed with Decca, and here are many of the memorable results, recorded between 1988 and 1995. Blomstedt brought the central European repertoire back to the orchestra, and the set includes Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler and Brahms. These discs reveal a clear, lithe orchestral sound. SFS was light on its feet compared to its rival in Chicago, and in many ways better suited to recording. Blomstedt’s performances are not eccentric, but neither are they dull. Lively versions of Mendelssohn’s Scotch and Italian symphonies are here, and a terrific selection of Hindemith. He excelled in Scandinavian repertoire, so we have the complete Peer Gynt, Symphonies 2 and 3 from his excellent Nielsen set, and two delightful symphonies by the under-appreciated Berwald. From his Sibelius survey we get the First and Seventh Symphonies, plus Tapiola. (Many of these well-filled discs last over 80 minutes.) Rarities include works by Brahms for choir and orchestra, coupled with the Alto Rhapsody meltingly sung by Jard van Nes. Sound quality…

In a career that’s lasted more than half a century, Pepe Romero has proven himself to be an important part of the classical guitar’s 20th-century revival. With a prodigious, flamenco-based technique, his intense and raw performances are celebrated here in a generous 11CD box set, covering the greater part of the Spanish guitar repertoire. If you’re looking for the less Spanish-influenced music that was to appear in the guitar repertoire in the 1960s and 70s (Britten’s Nocturnal, perhaps?), then this definitely isn’t the place. A solid five CDs here are devoted to the guitar repertoire from Spain, but then again Romero’s at his very best in repertoire that’s written in a modern, yet lyrical style. He particularly shines here in performances of the music of Joaquín Rodrigo and Federico Moreno-Torroba, and it’s refreshing that it’s not only these composers’ big hits that are included. Of especial note is Rodrigo’s Invocación y Danza, perhaps his greatest composition. It’s written in an entirely different style to his sunny concertos, and is instead a dark and almost destructively powerful rumination on the music of fellow Spaniard Manuel de Falla. Romero’s performance here is stirring stuff indeed, showing the guitar in its best light. Other…

Opera in a boundless landscape I’m in “The Isa” for the last hurrah of the crazy-brave adventure that has been OperaQ’s Project Puccini, and I’m thrilled to crow that our improbably ambitious journey across regional Queensland, incorporating a total of 384 local choristers into our beautiful new production of Puccini’s La bohème, has been an unqualified success Like the extraordinary team of people who will bring the performance to life tonight, I’m simultaneously relieved and sad that it’s over, but the overwhelming emotion is the thrill of achieving a seemingly impossible goal. From its planning phases two years ago until the final strains of Puccini’s achingly sad Act 4 silence at the Mt Isa Civic Centre tonight, this project has been special, and ensuring its success will continue to focus the minds of everyone involved With Project Puccini ‘everyone involved’ means literally hundreds of people across thousands of kilometres: the army of locals who participated or worked on the show; the touring company of stage technicians; wardrobe/wigs; tour and stage management; principal singers; QSO musicians; the show’s assistant director and conductor; and the OperaQ support team in our South Bank HQ. Every one of them has contributed to the project heart…

And just what kind of music lover should be chosen to colonise the Red Planet? Apparently 43 Australians are in the running for a position on Mars One – the plan to put humans on Mars in the year 2024. I’m glad to say I’m not one of them, as this is a one-way mission. No return is possible. Every year or so, Mars One will send more supplies and more Martians. Some 200,000 people around the world applied and now they have selected 1,000 to undergo training and psychometric testing. (I’m a great believer in psychometric testing by the way. This is the same system that determined Jonathan Shier would be an excellent managing director of the ABC, and we all remember how well that worked out.)  Eventually four Marstronauts will blast off on a one-way ride to the Red Planet.  What criteria might you use to select four people to leave Earth forever? They’d have to be healthy, but musical compatibility must be up there. Imagine being a string quartet lover and having a country and western fanatic in the next bunk – your Grosse Fuge interrupted by the strains of Keith Urban. Musical tension… Continue reading Get unlimited…

Mendelssohn’s six string quartets don’t get the airplay they deserve, being overshadowed by Beethoven and Schubert’s. There are plenty of recordings out there, but few to rival this new double disc from Berlin’s Artemis Quartet, which has established itself as a leader among the new generation of ensembles. Formed 18 years ago, they have built a strong following wherever they’ve played – including tours here with Musica Viva. Natalia Prischepenko left last year and this is our first chance to hear the Artemis with their new leader, Latvian violinist Vineta Sareika. I can tell you that this stunningly good band – Gregor Sigl, violin, Friedemann Weigle, viola, and Eckart Runge, cello – has lost nothing in the transition. Their authority and musicality are intact and they still have that chemistry that makes them so special. They’ve chosen works from three periods of Mendelssohn’s short career. The Op 13, his second quartet, was written in 1827 when he was 18 and is a memorial to Beethoven, being inspired by the great Op 135 “muss es sein? (must it be?)”. Mendelssohn’s third quartet, is the composer at his sunniest and its blue skies first movement makes the perfect opening. The final quartet is a grief-stricken…

On the steps of Parliament House in Adelaide on Saturday morning, there will be lots of rabbits. Well, children dressed up as rabbits, protesting against the recent news of the imminent closure of the much loved youth theatre company, Urban Myth.  For over 30 years Urban Myth has seen thousands of young people come through its doors. Although many do go onto the country’s leading drama schools, the company isn’t just about turning children into actors; it’s about nurturing imagination, shaping characters, developing confidence and helping many make great friendships too. Through theatre, all are encouraged to play, act, dream and be whatever they want to be. However, despite valiant attempts to manage the company, major funding cuts over the last few years have made sustaining itself impossible. It needed $250,000 to continue for another year but, as of Monday, they had nothing. The announcement of its demise has come as a devastating blow to the community. Funding of the arts is an ongoing issue. In a world where financial accountability is king and box ticking a must, justifying tangible benefits to suit the required terminology is hard. How do you possibly quantify the joy a child can get from…

Prokofiev’s rarely performed Third Symphony (Mackerras performed it with the Sydney Symphony in 1977) is the symphonic equivalent of Almodóvar’s Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. Based on ideas from his opera The Fiery Angel, about religious hysteria, it’s nowhere near as maniacal as the Second Symphony but the frenzy is still just beneath the surface. It’s a tour de force the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra carry off with aplomb under their Ukrainian chief Kirill Karabits, illustrating the galvanic effect he’s having in that haven of gentility on England’s South Coast. The Seventh Symphony (Prokofiev’s swansong) Karabits describes as “tragic”. I think his conducting is more convincing than his commentary, as the work was composed for young audiences! It’s cool, enigmatic, almost elegant in parts, “late night” Prokofiev, if you like, occupying the same sound world as Cinderella. His reading is certainly darker than either André Previn’s 1970s LSO one, or Nicolai Malko’s pioneering Philharmonia recording made a few years after the composer’s death in 1953. Karabits solves the “problem” of the alternative endings by recording both: the original was a subdued “leave taking” but the ever vigilant “authorities” demanded something…

Classical music promoter Albert Imperato engages Steven with his ‘20 Questions’ treatment. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in