Music and art collide in a winning plot with more coincidences than the Da Vinci Code.

Enlightenment comes to Queensland as Brisbane breathes new life into Baroque blockbuster. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Triumph of Time and Truth might not be a masterpiece; but it’s the work of a genius, and so cannot be ignored.

I first made the acquaintance of Handel’s harpsichord music through the medium of guitar duet. “Just listen to this,” a friend said, handing me a record of the G Major Chaconne as arranged and performed by legendary husband and wife duo Alexandre Lagoya and Ida Presti. It was a revelation. Since then I’ve heard Handel’s so-called Eight Great Suites (1720), to which Danny Driver has added for this recording the aforementioned Chaconne as well as two additional suites in C Minor and E Minor, played on harpsichord and piano by such luminaries as Sviatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov, Laurence Cummings and Richard Egarr. Those of a less completist bent included Murray Perahia and Keith Jarrett. All, I felt, had something individual to say. But the question remained: did Handel’s music benefit more from the overtone-laden sonority of the plucked harpsichord or the pedaled richness and dynamically-shaded clarity of the hammered piano? Frankly it depends on who’s driving (pardon the pun), and with Danny Driver at the wheel you’d swear they had been composed for the piano. Handel’s suites show enormous variety, boasting variations on the French dance suite, the four-movement sonata da chiesa, improvisatory preludes, rigorous fugues and sets of…

Hard to believe that Alexander Balus has never been heard down under, until now that is.

The Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009) had an established career and several recordings behind her when she changed agents and signed with Herbert Breslin, who famously managed Pavarotti. (“Managed” is the word!) Breslin got Larrocha a contract with Decca and made her an international star. She was best known for her strength in Spanish music; I heard her play Albéniz’s immensely taxing Iberia live in London in the 1970s, and was amazed by her stamina. As these reissues reveal, another area she was at home in was music of the Classical and pre-Classical periods – perhaps because she had small hands. The three-disc set gives us Mozart’s Piano Sonatas Nos. 4, 8, 9, 10, 11 Alla Turca, 12, 14, 16 and 18, the Fantasia in D Minor, and two recordings of the Fantasia in C Minor. Larrocha’s Mozart is not over-refined, but focussed on clarity and legato of line. Her unaffected approach puts no interpretative quotation marks around the Rondo from the Alla Turca, or the first movement of the C Major Sonata facile, even though both are almost hackneyed in their familiarity. Her Haydn Concerto in D is delightfully breezy. In Scarlatti her pianism is fluid in an…

Handel’s Tamerlano, written for the Royal Academy in 1724, is something of a secret pleasure for fans of 18th-century Italian opera. Lacking the magical stage machinery of the likes of Rinaldo, and with a low quotient of showcase arias to tickle the sensation seeker’s ear, it nevertheless has a claim to greatness. Why? It has one of the composer’s most grimly determined plots and a set of characters upon which Handel lavishes his utmost psychological insight. In 1402, the Mongol herdsman Timur defeated his enemy, the Turkish sultan Bayezid, who history relates he had carted around in a cage for months afterwards. In the opera, the wicked (i.e. Eastern) tyrant Tamerlano has designs on Bajazet’s daughter, Asteria, and sends his ally, the Greek (hence noble) Andronico to convey his desires to the maiden and her vengeful father. Unbeknownst to Tamerlano, Andronico is himself in love with Asteria and from these complications a tense, potentially bloody political opera ensues. Handel wrote the work at speed, as was his wont, but revised it at his leisure on more than one occasion in order to create as tight a musical drama as he was capable of. It culminates in a thrilling scene of…

The voice and artistry of Iestyn Davies has always been one of the treats I look forward to when another recording by the King’s Consort comes my way. Here, in a well-deserved accolade we have a disc where we can savour his music making at length – and it does not disappoint. Apart from being a conspectus of Handel’s astonishing dramatic range and technical prowess in the realm of the oratorio, it is also a treasure trove of delights for the alto voice. Whether in the sober piety of O sacred oracles of truth from Belshazzar or the more bellicose Mighty love now calls to arm from Alexander Balus, Davies is totally in command of his material, spinning out beautifully formed musical phrases and displaying his deep love of the English language at every turn. This very well chosen program shows his honeyed tones in a variety of contrasted contexts. Amongst some of the highlights are the uplifting How can I stay when love invites from Esther, and the tender Mortals think that Time is sleeping from The Triumph of Time and Truth. A few well-chosen duets with Carolyn Sampson add to the pleasure. As much as this disc is…

Catching up with the globetrotting countertenor whose chart topping recordings are going off down under. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Bach and Handel on original instruments in a final celebration of the Town Hall series.

Vivaldi, Handel and Mozart give Lezhneva a chance to play a dazzling game of Russian roulades. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Catalan good guy brings baroque bad boys to Tassie with spectacular results. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in