Sydney Symphony Orchestra's potted Ring cycle is essential viewing for newbies and veterans alike.

Paul Stanhope’s commission will examine one of the few cases of organised resistance to white settlement. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

New Chief Conductor’s inaugural season goes back to basis with Beethoven, Brahms and a handful of big guns. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Strange as it may seem now, Prokofiev’s most famous ballet had a particularly painful birth. The Soviet director Adrian Piotrovsky suggested a ballet adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy to the composer in 1935, but the Bolshoi pronounced the finished work “undanceable”. The Kirov agreed to stage Romeo and Juliet (complete with happy ending!) but plans were rapidly shelved after the dramaturge
 was denounced in the Pravda article Balletic Falsehood. It was his libretto for Shostakovich’s ballet The Limpid Stream that 
had offended. Piotrovsky was arrested and shot the following year – a definite nadir for the arts in Stalin’s Russia. The revised version (now with acceptable tragic ending) didn’t see the light of day until 1940, when the Bolshoi turned out to be able to dance it after all. Since then it has conquered the world, danced by the likes of Fonteyn and Nureyev. The three suites are regular concert items. Sydney Symphony chief Vladimir Ashkenazy clearly identifies strongly with the work, having recorded it for Decca
 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ten years ago. He rightly treats it as Prokofiev’s most elevated piece – sincere, emotional and unflagging in its inspiration. So how does the new CD stack up? On…

The Sydney Symphony announce a 2013 three city Russian tour. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Thoughts on the premature demise of an ensemble whose grand dreams were dashed against the rocks of financial reality. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Vladimir Ashkenazy and Stuart Skelton on Tchaikovsky’s supernatural riddle. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Why did Rachmaninov spend decades revising his Piano Concerto No. 4 when there was nothing wrong with the original?

Ahead of his Australian debut, the pianist opens up about injury, depression and why jazz musos "shame" their classical colleagues.

Concert performances of The Flying Dutchman and a guest appearance by Barry Humphries are just two of many highlights in SSO 2013 Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The winner of the 2012 Sydney International Piano Competition recounts his journey, round by gruelling round. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The new assistant maestro says she is “thrilled to accept the post”. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in