Philippe Jaroussky manages the exquisite shift from Handel to Hahn. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

American tenor performs for the PM at NSW Kids in Need Foundation’s fundraising concert. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The British composer and conductor takes the reins from Roland Peelman after 25 years. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The British tenor is the quintessential lieder singer. He shares his cerebral approach to song with Maxim Boon.

This month's list of Australia's top 20 classical music albums.

The Canberra Choral Society’s AD gets a handle on music, coffee and more coffee! Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

David Robertson, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, is our Guest Editor. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

From Messiah to Cats, this award-winning singer shares her multi-faceted musical passions. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

When Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor was premiered in Naples in 1835 there was as much drama off stage as on. The San Carlo opera house was on the verge of bankruptcy and the musicians hadn’t been paid. His diva, Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, was miffed that the tenor Edgardo’s death scene comes after hers – this in spite of the fact that he stabs himself when he hears her death knell! To make things even worse the glass harmonica player, so vital for the mad scene, quit and the composer had to rescore it with a second flute. Fortunately conductor Jesús López-Cobos seems to have had a much easier time with this fine new release starring German soprano Diana Damrau and the popular Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja. Recorded from live concert performances in Munich over four nights, this is a good if not exceptional production. The two leads make a handsome vocal couple but there are occasional ragged edges that would have been airbrushed out in a studio recording. In the big duet Verranno a te sull’aure, for example, Calleja finishes well before… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Con's combined forces meet the challenges of Bernstein's massive work head-on.

Rachmaninov devotees have long treasured the masterly survey of songs by the late Elisabeth Söderström, accompanied by Vladimir Askenazy, and the Chandos set from the early ‘90s that gave us the correct voice types. Some 20 years later this current set is a welcome release and a strong rival. Seven youngish Russian singers are heard here and all are fine artists and bring a great deal of Slavic intensity. Andrei Bondarenko’s rich baritone timbre caresses the ear and is superbly focused while Ekaterina Siurina’s bright forward tone is a delight and suits the lighter fare to a tee. Alexander Vinogradov, recently heard in a superb Shostakovich Babi Yar under Petrenko, has a sonorous instrument in the Russian bass tradition and does a fine job of vividly characterising those songs inspired by Rachmaninov’s friendship with Chaliapin. Daniil Shtoda who sung a fine Fenton on Abbado’s 2001 Falstaff sounds splendid if occasionally betraying a little wear and tear on the top of the voice. Justina Gringyte has a formidable dark mezzo sound that can tingle the spine. Rodion Pogossov and Evelina Dobraceva are both noticeably of the old school with occluded tone and some good old-fashioned Slavic wobble, however Dobraceva’s dramatic intensity…

Daniel Reuss has led Cappella Amsterdam for over half its 44 years, during which the troupe has released several dozen recordings of old and new music, mostly European. This catalogue of well-known secular Brahms choral works is bookended by two cycles of sacred motets. Brahms was himself the conductor of several middle-class choirs, and choral composition runs practically throughout his entire creative life. As in the grand polyphonic tradition of Palestrina and Bach, the harmony does the talking. Entire musicology lectures could be spun about any single phrase – so completely thought-through they are. Listening while following the text reveals how closely aligned are the harmony and the poetry. Reuss takes the unusual step of including a work for piano alone. But through the first ten minutes I had forgotten its existence, so alien is the world of liturgical choral music to that of the piano. Intermezzo is a welcome surprise, despite unadventurous playing. Though not always piercing in their intonation, the choir is persuasive, achieving in Schicksalslied a venomous timbre on the text “water hurled, from crag to crag” In the chorale of the title work, the phrase “Sanft und… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month…