Queensland’s all-woman Muses Trio – violinist Christa Powell, pianist Therese Milanovic and cellist Louise King – has been promoting female composers in a series of chamber concerts for four years and now they have released their self-published debut album. Taking its title from Elena Kats-Chernin’s relatively well-known The Spirit and the Maiden, it includes three world premiere recordings: Melburnian Kate Neal’s piano solo Song For Comb Man; Queensland jazz lecturer Louise Denson’s engaging Two Boleros and, also from Queensland, Cecile Elton’s Insomnio de la Cuidad (Tango for a Sleepless City) which sits nicely alongside the Boleros, starting lazily until the restlessness begins. Three pieces for cello and piano by Nadia Boulanger take us to another time and place, as does the Czech Víteˇzslava Kaprálová’s Elegy for violin and piano from the 1930s. Kats-Chernin’s trio, based on a legend about a young woman who is captured by a ghost that lives in a well, is the most substantial work and makes a good opener with its exciting, driving rhythms. English composer and mezzo-soprano Judith Bingham’s Chapman’s Pool is a four-part work which starts and ends sombrely. Brooklyn-born Jennifer Higdon’s contrasting Pale Yellow/Fiery Red closes the disc strongly, although you can… Continue reading Get unlimited…

South African lyrical soprano sensation Pumeza Matshikiza has followed her debut recording Voice of Hope with a splendid set of arias and a smattering of jujubes to freshen the palate. Unlike Hope, Arias is weighted toward a stiff dose of the dramatic repertoire which suits her full, distinctive timbre and strength. Her personality and acting ability comes through loud and clear. Matshikiza shows she is a perfect fit for Mozart with two arias from The Marriage of Figaro, and she “trembles and wavers” convincingly in Che fiero momento from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Her song choices also pay tribute to her heroes Renata Tebaldi (Sarti’s Lungi dal caro bene) and Victoria de los Ángeles (Sebastian Yradier’s La Paloma and a habanera from Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones Negras). Vocally she is always secure and never struggles. Her high “amore” ending of Senza mamma, o bimbo from Puccini’s Suor Angelica manages to keep a wide vibrato under control. Dvorˇák’s Song to the Moon from Rusalka is simply wonderful and Si, mi chiamano Mimì from Puccini’s La Bohème shows the character’s deceptive robustness as well as her fragility. Some light relief from Liù’s heartbreaking aria from Turandot and Ravel’s Oh! La pitoyable aventure! from L’Heure Espagnole comes with a distinctly retro La Paloma, but in Arias, she eschews the light poppy moments which pepper her first album. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe…

Any release by American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is guaranteed to delight and this new one of Smetana’s Czech Dances Books Nos 1 and 2 does not disappoint. Ohlsson is at home with these charming works, meeting their virtuosic challenges with aplomb.Smetana wanted to do for the Czech polka what Chopin did for the Polish mazurka and the four works which open the album show that his aim to “idealise” the form and push the boundaries succeeded admirably. As one of today’s leading Chopin interpreters Ohlsson is on top form here. Smetana lived his final years in a gamekeeper’s lodge where he befriended an amateur fiddler who showed him Bohemian and Moravian folk tunes and dances.The resulting 10 pieces may not have had the success of Dvorˇák’s dances but they were greatly admired. Slepicka (The Little Hen), is probably the best known of them. Oves (Oats) is a gentle piece while Medved (The Bear) has all the lumbering quality of Mussorgsky’s oxen in Pictures from an Exhibition.The Little Onion, an unpromising title perhaps, is full of lyrical appeal and Dupák, a stamping dance, is terrific fun. Hulán (The lancer) is full of longing and Obkrocak, a stepping dance, recalls the tune……

Kempf’s stunning double bill mixes Tchaikovsky with Chopin and Rachmaninov.

★★★½☆ Melbourne foursome brings us Beethoven’s words and music in a nutshell. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

★★★★½ Some cool Sibelius and blazing Beethoven with a rousing Finnish. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Eight years ago ABC Classic FM listeners voted their top 100 chamber works and Schubert ‘podiumed’ spectacularly, taking four of the top five places, with the Trout Quintet winning gold. Runner-up was the String Quintet, and with so many hundreds of recordings to choose from, what recommends this new release by the French fivesome of the Ébène Quatuor and Gautier Capuçon? Well, if for no other reason than you get a wonderful bonus in five beautifully arranged Schubert Lieder sung by German baritone Matthias Goerne.But at over an hour’s length, the Quintet and its four kaleidoscopic movements are the main course, and what a superb meal the Frenchmen dish up! Schubert’s masterpiece takes no prisoners with its emotional twists and turns, dynamic shifts and roller-coaster mood swings, and this is a very thoughtful and intelligent reading with plenty of Gallic flair and charm. As the quartet says in the liner notes: “It is a quintet reflecting both real life and dreams, the sacred and the profane, joy and mourning, revelry in the open air and monks walking to prayer through the cloisters, jubilation in the tavern, and testament of the soul.” The players are in no hurry –… Continue reading Get…

Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s music is neatly divided into three styles: nationalist folk (or Gaucho); ‘subjective’ nationalism influenced by Stravinsky, and Neoexpressionism, which is infused with Serialism. His vocal pieces reflect those phases. Uruguayan Gisèle Ben-Dor conducts the Santa Barbara Symphony with superb vocalists. Ginastera’s five popular Agentinian songs are here sung delightfully by Puerto Rican soprano Ana Marìa Martìnez. They have a touch of Cantaloube’s Songs of the Auvergne about them, especially the much-loved lullaby Arroro which Ben-Dor, like most South American mothers, sang to her children. Argentinian diva Virginia Tola features in the other two works on this disc. She’s alongside Plácido Domingo for two excerpts from Ginastera’s opera Don Rodrigo. Domingo reprises his role from his 1960s hit at New York City Opera, which was overseen by the composer. Challenging for both singer and listener, Domingo’s radiance and energy here seem undimmed by age. Listen out for The Miracle scene when all the bells of Spain ring out unaided by human intervention in a serialism-meets-Mussorgsky showstopper. Tola makes superb work of the cantata Milena, based on Franz Kafka’s letters to his lover. This is an interesting tribute to the composer, beautifully produced and vibrantly performed by… Continue reading…

Written at the height of his powers, Bedrˇich Smetana’s third opera Dalibor polarised critics and failed to capture the public imagination. What a loss, for as the liner notes to this magnificent BBC recording point out “Dalibor is Smetana’s loveliest operatic score and a great deal subtler than his first two works for stage,” (The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Bartered Bride). In fact, Smetana grew resentful of the Bride’s success, dismissing it as a “toy” for those who thought he was incapable of writing a comedy. The tragic chivalric tale of Dalibor with its plot reminiscent of Fidelio is full of superb music, particularly the beautiful duet in Act 2 when Milada, disguised as a minstrel boy, smuggles an old fiddle into Dalibor’s cell. Packed with great solos shared among five major characters, the vibrant score covers a broad canvas and there are some great theatrical moments, including the pompous Judges’ March which almost pre-empts Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. However, the Prague musical establishment considered Dalibor too Wagnerian for the new national musical movement and it was shelved. Although revived in the 1890s after Smetana’s death, with Mahler conducting a performance in Vienna, it has… Continue reading Get unlimited…

This is a splendid album from five musicians who are at the top of their game.

The English pianist Paul Lewis continues to stamp his considerable imprimatur on some of the world’s best-loved repertoire.

★★★★½ A behind-the-scenes look at Wagner’s influence in words and music. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in