David Robertson’s interpretation of Stravinsky's ballet is a fine one in conception if compromised in execution.

What an inspired idea! To capture the Zeitgeist of a troubled decade through the medium of a musical genre: in this case, the violin concerto. Gil Shaham explores violin concertos of the 1930s in Volume 1 of a series which contains works by Barber, Stravinsky, Britten, Berg and Karl Amadeus Hartmann, by far the least known of the group. A confirmed socialist, Hartmann was one of the few genuinely anti-Nazi figures in German music throughout the Third Reich and refused to allow his music to be performed there. I’d always considered what little music I’d heard of Hartmann (1905-1963) very difficult, however, this is a real discovery and Gil Shaham makes his Concerto Funèbre into a highly moving threnody, meditation and evocation of the horrors of war, using sources as disparate as a Hussite (Czech protestant) hymn and a Russian revolutionary song bookending an adagio and a Bartókian scherzo which lashes out in anger. Shaham’s tone and intonation throughout this tour de force are impeccable. Stravinsky and Alban Berg reacted to what they considered the excessive emotions of late Romanticism in contrasting ways: Stravinsky adopted neo-Classicism with baroque forms and his Violin Concerto, with its concision, ironic wit and dancing quality is… Continue…

This remarkable ballet could be seen as the beginning of contemporary dance, so unusual and challenging was the work not only in its music, but in choreography and design.Stravinsky was arguably the most influential composer of the 20th Century. He burst upon the world around the same time as the serialists were preaching their new religion in Vienna. At this distance, we can see that Stravinsky and his descendants have won that culture war handsomely and Firebird has been performed and recorded countless time since. This new recording was made from live performances in the Sydney Opera House and the SSO has its work cut out to find a place among the dozens of other excellent recordings currently available. The shadow of the remarkable recording made 50 years ago by Antal Doráti and the LSO, and Bernstein’s brilliant reading from 1985, hangs over all later recordings. The SSO’s recorded sound is good, although there is some background noise in the quieter passages. Leader, Michael Dauth’s solos are beautiful and fit the ravishing music well. I was generally happy with the performance until we got to the demanding Infernal Dance of Kaschei, one of the show pieces in the work. Here the…

There were greener pastures than that of The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A cracking inaugural concert gives the Robertson era the look of a potential age of gold. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Patricia Kopatchinskaja is the latest phenomenon in the galaxy of young violinists who seem to excel at everything they undertake. Following up her Gramophone Bartók/Ligeti/Eötvös Recording of the Year, here come the Stravinsky and Prokofiev Second Concertos. Both were composed within five years of each other but could hardly be more different. Indeed, the Prokofiev inhabits a different universe from its playful neo-classical precursor. Kopatchinskaja states that the work indicates an exquisitely creative “re-ajustment” to Prokofiev’s return to the Soviet Union, an acceptance that “this is the sort of music you have to compose.” She captures the emotional ambiguity of the work perfectly: the uneasy stirring of the G minor opening and the subsequent lyricism tinged with bleakness, her tone impressively kaleidoscopic, alert to every emotional nuance (as are Jurowski and the LPO). The spiritual core is the central movement with its ‘raindrop’ accompaniment – a radiant, rhapsodic oasis, shot through with shards of intensity. The finale seems to tap into Kopatchinskaja’s Moldovan roots: earthy and uncomplicated on one level yet maintaining headlong relentlessness to the last. The Stravinsky is, by contrast, a hard nut to crack, stylistically and psychologically. It took the composer down a path alien to the Russia he’d abandoned,…

At a Prom concert in the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago, a few seconds after the famous bassoon passage at the beginning of the Rite of Spring, a mobile phone sounded. Sir Simon Rattle simply stopped the Berlin Philharmonic and started again. It makes you thankful they didn’t exist when Szell and Klemperer were around. This was the work that catapulted the then 21 year-old tyro conductor into the limelight when he conducted it with the Youth orchestra of Great Britain in 1976. I remember it vividly: I was there. Since then, he also recorded it during his tenure with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Whereas that was a respectable reading, this is in another league. In terms of tempos, colour and rhythm, it’s superb. The barbarism is beautifully tempered with finesse. It’s one of the great Rites. The only version I’d put above it is the stereo re-make by Igor Markevich and the aristocratic Philharmonia in 1960 where the orchestral shriek at the opening of the second part is… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

From Messiaen and Boulez to Reich and Zappa, no musician after Stravinsky could fail to be influenced by his revolutionary score. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Mehta puts the Australian musical diaspora through its paces with blistering results.

This year’s Festival should cause quite a stir with a radical Rite set to upstage even Ute Lemper. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Russian composer is ‘outed’ as bisexual by his former assistant. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s baby sister comes of age. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in