The Israeli conductor spills on moulding the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Singer weighs into ‘Dumpygate’ affair while Times and Independent critics offer halfhearted apologies. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

NZ Symphony orchestra’s first Conductor Laureate passes away at 90. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Rediscovered manuscript of Russian composer’s ‘original’ Second Symphony goes into private hands. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Superstar tenor will return to Sydney for one further performance in August. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Prominent singers come out in support of colleague attacked for stature rather than voice. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Director aside, there’s much to enjoy in half of the Con’s operatic double bill. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Jules Massenet has an unfair reputation for sentimentality at the expense of originality – perhaps the legacy of becoming the heir of Meyerbeer. Maybe his most enduring operatic works, the lengthy, and at times sugary Manon and the overwrought Werther are partly to blame, exposing him at his most emotionally heart on sleeve. Massenet at his best, however, could be nearly as masterful an orchestrator as Bizet and almost as original as Chabrier. For those prepared to delve deeper there are delights in store, as this delicious French soufflé of a disc from Neeme Järvi and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande amply demonstrates. We start on familiar ground with the sparkling, Spanish-inflected ballet music from the opera El Cid. The orchestra is absolutely spot on with stunning woodwind solos (listen to the flute in the twinkling Aubade) and rattling castanets aplenty. The Estonian-born Järvi corrals his forces as if to the chateau born. The final Scènes Pittoresques are similarly joyfully realised. In between come the rarities. The most fascinating is the very fine Fantaisie for cello (the only other recording in the catalogue being Richard Bonynge’s with the same orchestra). It’s a cracking work that deserves to be in…

Sydney's massed choral forces help McCreesh drive out the Prophets of Baal, and then some.

The 1600 marriage of Maria de’ Medici to Henri IV of France was more than just a Renaissance knees-up. For two composers, Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini, it was the opportunity for each to claim to have produced the first example of what came to be known as ‘opera’. On the day, the performance was 90% Peri. Caccini went on to compose an entirely different version (and to subject his colleague to polemical broadsides over the ensuing decades). It’s his version recorded here. L’Euridice relies to a greater extent on recitative than later works by Monteverdi and Cavalli, with fewer ritornelli and choruses to liven things up. A comparison with Peri reveals Caccini to be a tauter dramatist, no bad thing given the tendency towards verbosity at the expense of action. Alessandri’s version, here captured in a live recording from the Innsbruck Festival, also has the advantage of a more imaginative instrumental realisation with three twangling theorbos, a host of keyboard instruments and a beautifully rich double lyre. He also has the benefit of supremely creative singers: Silvia Frigato as a fetching Euridice, Furio Zanasi as a moving Orfeo, Sara Mingardo poignantly announcing the fatal snake-bite and Antonio Abate as…

Conductor auditions ten top pooches required to bark in rare Leopold Mozart work. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The top pianist tells us why youth orchestras are so special – and not just for the viola jokes. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in