With the MEAA conducting a survey into sexual harassment in Australian theatre, Limelight asked the orchestras about the issue.

With Romeo and Juliet at its heart, a Shakespearean theme weaves through the orchestra’s 70th anniversary season.

An evening heavy with baroque, tango... cider and apple pie.

Howard Shelley’s relationship with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra goes way back. The British performer has recorded about 13 albums with the TSO, and returns for Czerny’s Piano Concertos released on Hyperion. As usual, Shelley adopts equally the roles of conductor and pianist. The Concerto in F Major, Op. 28 that launches the album hints at quaintness, interspersed with thick orchestral power. And this is all before we hear Shelley press the keys, entering after an agreeable three minutes. His performance is majestic – yet there’s a humbleness and reliability, and that marks the essence of Shelley. The Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 214 gets off to a cunning start. The first movement has the mighty ending of a finale, then settles into a somewhat peaceful Adagio con moto. The Rondo Brillant in B Flat is a standout, showcasing Shelley’s virtuosity across the instrument’s range. Two concertos are recorded here for the first time. A child prodigy who grew up to perform Beethoven’s concertos, Czerny’s own are buried among his countless studies; along with chamber music, masses, symphonies, and more. When it comes down to it, Czerny’s works on this album are fairly unremarkable – but that doesn’t deem them…

The Tokyo-born, Montreal/New York-raised violinist shares her favourite recordings and the music she could live without. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Barrie Kosky's Saul and Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife win big at this year's awards for live performance in Australia.

In turbulent times, says the violinist touring Australia, compassion becomes the stock in trade of composers and musicians. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Listening to music and the spaces in between at Dark Mofo.

Taking inspiration from Strauss and New Orleans “slave songs”, Grenfell has written a new work for clarinet and bassoon. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Classical music in a contemporary venue.

FS (“Sep”) Kelly, an Australian who was killed just over 100 years ago in the last days of the Somme Campaign, was a great sportsman (the pre-eminent sculler of his time and a Gold Medallist at the 1908 Olympics), an outstanding concert-pianist and – as this splendid anthology declares – an accomplished composer. In fact, the Elegy for string orchestra, written as a tribute to his friend, poet Rupert Brooke, is a true masterpiece: Australian music-lovers should be proud of it. In this, its second commercial recording, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Fritzsch plays with such technical finesse and emotional intensity, that the radiant quality of the music should be obvious to every listener. Brooke, like Kelly an officer of the Royal Naval Division, had died on April 23, 1915 soon after that force reached Gallipoli: Kelly survived the entire campaign and, as if to keep the sound of war from his ears, composed constantly, producing two major works in that year. The other was a striking Violin Sonata for Jelly d’Arányi, the brilliant young Hungarian violinist and great-niece of Joseph Joachim: she premiered it in London in 1919 during a memorial concert for Kelly, but after… Continue reading…

The TSO and UTAS have launched the programme, which looks to the next generation of conductors.