A mere five years younger than Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner has had a problematic history as Michael Kater has amply suggested in his books on music under the Third Reich. A Romantic conservative, Pfitzner remained firmly associated with the musical trends of his youth (Brahms and Schumann) and given his vacillating anti-Semitism, has remained persona non grata. His only regularly performed work has remained the opera Palestrina, its three Preludes with their scintillating use of age-old modes keeping his name alive within the orchestral repertoire. The three cello concertos are very attractive in their way but conservative in composition, and in all of them the soloist Alban Gerhardt, Sebastian Weigle and the ever reliable Berlin Radio Symphony are equally responsible for maintaining a perfect balance between the cello and its accompanying orchestral forces. The opening concerto in A Minor is a student work criticised by his teachers and lost during his lifetime, only receiving its premiere in 1977. Perhaps the best of the works is the often delicate G Major concerto Op. 42 which was written for the virtuoso Cassado with assured writing that never drowns the soloist. There is an earlier CPO recording of these concerti with David Geringas…

Rachmaninov without Romantic excess is lovingly dovetailed with some fine British works. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Pure entertainment and the spirit of Myra Hess bring World War II concert series vividly to life. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

One of Limelight’s recent 30 under 30s excels in ASO debut with Orff and Rach. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

This New Zealand diva is still well within her use by date. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Even though his father Franz had played horn in the premieres in several of Wagner’s operas, the old man was not a fan of Herr Richard’s music dramas. His son, the composer Richard Strauss, would hold a similar position until his late teens when he discovered the piano score for Tristan and Isolde and he would prove a master of the orchestral tone poem and lieder before writing his first opera – the Wagnerian pastiche, Guntram – around his 30th birthday. However it was not until his third work in the field – Salome (1905), after Oscar Wilde’s notorious play – that he would have a major success de scandale with many productions being rapidly presented across Europe. With this and his take on the classical tale of Elektra a few years later, Strauss would electrify audiences while balancing precariously on the edge of tonality. However he would suddenly pull back to celebrate his other major influence, Mozart, and with the likes of Ariadne auf Naxos and particularly Der Rosenkavalier, he would create the much loved dramas wherein his unique ability to write for the female voice would shine, creating a template for the rest of his operatic output amounting……

Ge Gan-Ru (b.1954) has been described by as China’s finest avant-garde composer. Like the young Takemitsu, he had to study Western classical music in secret but when the Shanghai conservatory was reopened in 1974, he found an affinity for the likes of Stockhausen, Ligeti and Debussy. These became influences in Ge Gan-Ru’s own compositions and merged successfully with traditional Chinese music in a way where the styles were truly synthesised into an individual and exciting compositional voice. This new BIS disc is a marvel where orchestral colours and big Messiaenic blocks of sound brilliantly coalesce to form a highly individual sound world where seemingly disparate musical styles seamlessly knit with the 2,000 year old Qin tales that provide the inspiration (the suite Lovers Besieged is based on the famous Farewell, My Concubine). Fairy Lady Meng Jiang was composed for the Israeli flute virtuoso Sharon Bezaly who has no problems whatsoever with the unfamiliar Asian influences within this highly impressive work. Both works find their inspiration in difficult periods of Chinese history but never do the Western and Chinese elements oppose or work against each other. For here is truly international music – a Chinese-American composer, an Israeli soloist and Spanish…

Two spectacular instrumental showcases that, despite their differences, find common ground.

This disc should be praised as much for thoughtful programming as for musicianship.

This double CD presents some of Mozart’s best-loved instrumental works but in arrangements that will be unfamiliar to most modern listeners. However, 200 years ago it wasn’t so easy to listen to works in their original incarnations. Thus it is in anonymous 19th- century arrangements for string quintet and sextet that members of the Australia Ensemble (basically the Goldner Quartet with another musician or two) present these works. I must admit to having only heard Grieg’s arrangement of the familiar Sonata facile No 16 for two pianos, in a fine live performance by Argerich and Anderszewski (EMI) and while Julie Adam and Daniel Herscovitch may lack some of their flashy virtuosity, they make a convincing and sympathetic case for this and the other three sonatas presented here. The other works date from much earlier in the 19th century by now unknown composers. In the case of the Sinfonia concertante, the work is scored for much reduced forces – in fact one instrument per part. All of these arrangements were made in order that the works be heard and similarly as string players were more common than virtuosic clarinettists, the much loved Clarinet Quintet took on a new life as a string quintet. So, as……

Following his homage to the people’s tenor Maria Lanza, it makes sense for Calleja to come up with a recital ranging from Leoncavallo and Tosti to Morricone and Edith Piaf. Although there are songs in no less than six languages, the Maltese tenor is obviously most at home in his mother tongue, Italian. Many critics have commented on the ‘golden-age’ quality of his voice, his ease of production and his wish to remain a man of the people. However for all of the ease and honeyed legato, one often yearns for geater involvement with the text. One also wishes more care had been taken in the choice of repertoire and the lush orchestrations. The sheer beauty of the voice is almost enough to justify Time to Say Goodbye but the rounded Italianate vowels are too much for as simple a tune as You Raise Me Up. Similarly Piaf’s La Vie en Rose remains an odd choice as it is so strongly associated with the feminine (though here his French vowels are far more agreeably idiomatic). Equally odd is the vocal take on the Adagio from Rodrigo’s Concerto De Aranjuez though it’s nice to hear Calleja in Spanish. His German and……

Amongst a limited Adelaide Festival classical program, a small local component still manages to shine. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in