Perennially young at heart, the ACO has 
just the right touch with these two works written while Mendelssohn was in his teenage years.

What the magnetic cellist learned from Anne-Sophie Mutter and Msitislav Rostropovich, and how he hopes to pass some of that on. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The British virtuoso gave Young Performers Awards finalist Jeremy So some pointers at the piano.

Richard Tognetti and choreographer Rafael Bonachela have constructed a balanced dramatic arc with their 70-minute suite of ballet music and entr’actes.

Budding concert pianists: win a one-on-one lesson with ACO touring virtuoso Steven Osborne.

Tognetti takes to podium as Gardiner bows out of 2013 season due to health concerns.

Richard Tognetti and Rafael Bonachela's pas de deux sheds new light on the French Baroque.

Don’t judge this CD by its cover. No doubt the packaging went through a rigorous design process by expert minimalists, but somehow the portrait of virtuoso Israeli-Swedish flautist Sharon Bezaly, who recorded this disc of largely contemporary repertoire during her 2009 Australian tour with the ACO, still looks like a bad Polaroid, with the shadows left in and a random font or two slapped on as an afterthought. BIS certainly can’t have been relying on the familiarity or commercial appeal of the composer names to compensate. Ultimately, this CD featuring the most famous golden flute since James Galway’s and music by José Serebrier, Adina Izarra, Carl Vine and Ginastera, has just two things going for it – the quality of the South American/Australian music and the excellence of the performances. As she’s demonstrated on many previous recordings for BIS, Bezaly is an incredible flautist – fearless and truly an “attacking” player when it comes to the technically challenging bits – so she’s always exciting to listen to. And some of the repertoire here, largely unknown though it is, is terrific. Serebrier was once a long-serving conductor on the ABC orchestral network and he remains a prodigious recording artist, but… Continue…

What does the Australian Chamber Orchestra's charismatic leader really think about music, orchestras and politics?

In 2013, the ACO premieres Brett Dean's electric violin concerto and brings Andreas Scholl out of his shell.

The inspired symmetry of three pairs of works – by Mozart, Schubert and two Australian composers – has made this ACO's national tour its 2019 trump card.

Richard Tognetti and the ACO are in sparkling form in this wonderfully enjoyable program of Grieg. The major work here is Tognetti’s skilful transcription of String Quartet No 1 in G minor, Op 27, the composer’s only extant complete work in the genre. Digging into the almost Piazzolla-like rhythms of the opening movement, the band delivers a zesty account of this colourful score. The contrasting episodes of the Romanze and the Intermezzo are handled deftly, while the concluding Saltarello has an almost manic intensity. By way of contrast we are then offered the Two Elegiac Melodies, Op 34. These popular but all too brief works are played superbly; their aching melancholy lit by beauty of tone and delicacy of ensemble. Erotikk from the Lyric Pieces is a scintillating miniature, more nostalgic than sensual, sensitively arranged by Tognetti for solo violin and orchestra. What better way to finish than with the Holberg Suite? At pains to preserve the dance-like quality of Grieg’s neo-Baroque masterpiece, the orchestra achieves a perfect blend of energy and lightness throughout. Admirable rhythmic acuity characterises the Praeludium, the courtly intimacy of the Sarabande contrasts well with the crisply accented Gavotte. The fervent Air, with its… Continue reading…