This month’s concert highlights from ABC Classic, independent radio and streaming.

The Australian flautist’s 2018 series at The Concourse will feature Australian artists Tamara-Anna Cislowska, Taryn Fiebig, Nexas Quartet and more.

Profound sincerity and understated simplicity that touches the spirit.

The flautist will become the latest Australian to be awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Vivaldi’s most famous work readily lends itself to being performed on flute or recorder, the instruments’ pastoral and avian associations making them a natural fit for these bucolic tone poems overflowing with evocations of birdsong, peasant dances and storms. Jane Rutter and Sinfonia Australis take a hybrid approach, combining modern flute with a small period band under the brilliant Erin Helyard conducting from the harpsichord. Many of the players are Brandenburg Orchestra regulars, including Matt Bruce, Kirsty McCahon and Tommie Andersson on theorbo. The argument thus becomes less about authenticity per se and more about marrying an appropriate period style to an anachronistic tonal palette. Fortunately, it works a treat. Adopting a flexible approach to pulse and tempo throughout – both qualities can be heard right from the outset in Spring – Rutter steers a middle course between highly articulated declamation and floating lyricism in the midst of Sinfonia Australis’ sharply drawn yet delicately rendered sylvan landscapes. Of the two works included which Vivaldi actually did write for flute, the ever-popular Concerto in D Minor RV428 “Il gardellino” and the Concerto in G Minor “La notte”, Rutter uses a 19th-century instrument with an ebony joint for the latter. The sound…

Instruments only cover up so much when classical musicians bare all for their art.