The pianist talks about his early passions, the rigours of Alfred Brendel and surviving a Liverpudlian seagull swoop.

★★★★★ Double concerto offers delights to match Fisch’s sublime Second.

★★★★★ Zukerman finesses Brahms’ concerto, but Fisch’s First is world-class.

If every arts outfit that didn’t turn a profit were to shut up shop it would be a cultural desert out there.

★★★★☆ It may be old music, but Tognetti’s Brahms calls for new ears. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The British-born modernist who made Perth and Sydney his home passes at 72.

★★★★☆ Meaty winter fare delivered with authenticity and heart.

Beethoven, burglary and the Baroque form the cornerstones of next year’s imaginative programme.

★★★★☆ Gaffigan and Gerstein prove once again that the devil gets the best tunes.

★★★★☆ Stefan Herheim set his recent whacky, magical Salzburg Meistersinger at the time Wagner wrote his comedic masterpiece and here he’s done it again, relocating Verdi’s tale of 13th-century French knights oppressing Sicilian peasantry to the Paris of Napoleon III. By planting the action backstage at the Paris Opéra itself, he hopes to reveal some kind of existential truth behind the phoney glitter of 19th-century theatricals. That smacks of artful mumbo jumbo and it doesn’t entirely hold water, nevertheless he has chosen a suitably sumptuous setting and Covent Garden have done it proud with gilded sets, magnificent costumes and effects that wouldn’t seem out of place in The Phantom of the Opera. The Overture gives us the backstory as nasty French general Guy de Montfort has his wicked way with a ballerina captured as collateral damage in some kind of military uprising. The corps de ballet, done up as Les Sylphides, are one of the ornaments of this production, the freedom fighter Procida seemingly their ballet master. Amongst all this there are some ravishing set pieces, more heart-stopping coup de théâtres than one director has a right to come up with, and a few misfires (the middle-aged revolutionaries’ moment at…

Fifty years ago, the idea of “The Five Countertenors” would have been Alfred Deller, John Whitworth, Russell Oberlin and, err… Even 30 years ago a quintet of such voices would have likely encapsulated half of the known suspects. Nowadays, however, the countertenor seems almost as common as the next voice-type, its superstars are fêted on world stages and their fans are becoming as opinionated as those of rival divas from way back when. The beauty of Decca’s latest recital disc, though, is not just the presence of five of today’s finest guys who sing high, it’s an opportunity to explore repertoire in a programme where most of us would probably only be familiar with the two Handel arias (and those not that common either). Comparisons are odious as they say so I’ll begin at the beginning with Romanian-born German countertenor Valer Sabadus (pictured above) who gets a couple of stonkers: Jommelli’s catchy Spezza lo stral piagato from Tito Manlio and a superbly dark, theatrically intense aria from Gluck’s Demetrio. His silky smooth voice is high (but not the highest here) and his tone deliciously plangent. The Catalan Xavier Sabata is probably the lowest voice and the finest dramatist in the…

With nine new productions, three contemporary Aussie works, a Ring Cycle and Dame Julie – what’s not to like? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in