Tabla de contenidos para January/February 2019 en Limelight

Thirty years ago, when I was editing the arts pages for Vogue Australia, a publicist rang to ask if I would like to go and meet an exciting, handsome young harpsichord player who had recently returned from Europe and was about to launch a new baroque orchestra in Sydney. It seemed a pretty audacious plan at the time. Intrigued, I agreed to go and meet him. And so it was that I found myself interviewing Paul Dyer in the attractive house he was living in at the time in Watsons Bay, where he had a beautiful harpsichord in the living room, I seem to recall. With characteristic enthusiasm he explained his plans for the period instrument ensemble he had decided to call the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Few imagined then it…

TO MR GILL FROM MRS PRUDENCE I have just finished reading your wonderful tribute to Richard Gill. His capacity at remembering people’s names never ceased to amaze me and whenever a member of my extended family was involved in a project with him, he would always ask after other members of our family. At the WA Conservatorium he had a habit of nicknames for students… mine was Mrs Prudence. Years later when he came on his talking tour with his autobiography he even welcomed me with a big booming “Hello Mrs Prudence!” and then signed my copy of his book “To Mrs Prudence... may your flute always play well.” I shall treasure my memories with him. Jan Holdsworth, Butler, WA AN OTHER-WORLDLY CONCERT I was fortunate enough to be part…

Melbourne composer Christine McCombe is the winner of this year’s Pythia Prize. The composition prize is now in its second year and open to female and non-binary identifying Australian composers of any age. It is run by the Melbourne-based Rubiks Collective, which will collaborate with the winner on a new composition. McCombe will receive a $4,000 honorarium as well as a recording of Rubiks performing the new piece. “Working with musicians as skilled, curious and adventurous as the Rubiks line-up will be an absolute joy,” McCombe told Limelight. “As a composer I believe it is vital to keep being challenged and extended and I know that working with Rubiks will provide this impetus to move into new compositional territory.” “Prizes such as this offer encouragement and validation of the work…

MURRAY KHOURI 1941 - 2018 New Zealand-born clarinettist Murray Khouri has died. Born in Wellington on April 8, 1941, he studied the clarinet as a child and joined the NZSO National Youth Orchestra in 1959, the year it was established, later playing with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Khouri moved to London at 18, where he studied at the Royal College of Music. Only a few years after graduation, he would play with many of the UK’s finest ensembles, including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras. In 1974, he was invited by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam to become Lecturer in Clarinet at the Canberra School of Music, where he stayed until 1978. In 1980 he co-founded the University of New South Wales Ensemble, later renamed the Australia…

Discovering that the youngest of my four children, Eliza, had cerebral palsy, at the age of 18 months, started me wondering why it was that when conducting all the great orchestras around the world – and I’ve been doing it for 25 years now – I wasn’t encountering any musicians with disability in those orchestras. That seemed to me like an outrageous omission but also a terrible, profligate waste of talent because you can’t tell me that there aren’t prodigiously gifted musicians who happen to have a disability. Where is their platform and voice? That was my big question mark. I was having these thoughts in 2010, 2011, the years leading up to the Paralympics coming to London in 2012, and it seemed to me that here was a once…

Apart from being contemporaries, you might think Frédéric Chopin and Giacomo Meyerbeer had little in common. But though one composed almost exclusively for the piano and the other almost entirely for the opera house, they shared a surprisingly common 19th-century phobia. They were both terrified of being buried alive. It may seem an unlikely worry to folks today, but before the 18th century discovered artificial resuscitation it was quite a thing. So common was the problem, it even has a name: taphophobia, from the Greek taphos, meaning grave. Our two composers were in illustrious company. George Washington, Hans Christian Andersen, Arthur Schopenhauer, Nikolai Gogol and Auguste Renoir were all fellow suffers. Andersen, whose long list of phobias included dogs, pork (though not pigs) and fire – he used to carry…

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! Turns out, clapping is as infectious as a communicable disease, a social contagion that spreads through a crowd rather than the summation of individuals’ spontaneous responses to a moment of rapture. So, in live performance, is concert etiquette of “no-clapping-until-the-end” a handy workaround, a buffer against the effects of infectious clapping? I asked around, and to quote a surprisingly common remark from some eminent musicians and conductors: “people should clap wherever the eff they want to”. “Are they joking?” I wondered. No, they assured me, they weren’t. Though there’s more to it. We’re intelligent, intuitive creatures; for applause to become contagious it takes several of us dotted through the concert hall to clap for broad applause to break out. Chances…

In 2008, one writer noted that conductor Simone Young would return to Australia later that year “to throw another musical shrimp on the barbie”. Far from being flippant or condescending, the observation emphasised that, despite her by then formidable international reputation, her commitment to Australian musicians and the Australian music scene remained as steadfast as ever. She ploughed a lonely and difficult furrow against the notoriously institutionalised misogynistic traditions in Vienna as the first woman to conduct at the venerable Vienna State Opera in 1993, and notably made her first appearance at NewYork’s Metropolitan Opera while she was five months pregnant in 1997. At the zenith of her career, her concerts in Australia include not only working with the state symphony orchestras but also the Australian National Academy of Music…

Benjamin Northey is“one of our best conductors,”Phillip Scott wrote in his recent, glowing Limelight review of the Ballarat-born maestro’s Leonard Bernstein recording On the Town with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He is also one of our busiest, an in-demand, flexible conductor, jetting across the country to perform meaty classical masterworks, complex new music, children’s events and Star Wars films in concert – rounding it all out with some opera and maybe a concert with Meow Meow or Megan Washington. While he’s got regular gigs, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as Associate Conductor (he leads the popular Town Hall series) and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand, he’s a familiar face on the podium from Hobart to Perth, and everywhere in between. Northey began his career as a multi-instrumentalist, playing…

Why Bach? “It’s our 25th anniversary and this is my anniversary present to all those people who have stood by us and allowed us to develop this Festival into something special,” Roland Peelman tells me over coffee – “Bach liked coffee,” he says – “and into something stronger than ever before!” “If I were to pick one composer to design a festival around, Bach would have to be it. Our Canberra patrons simply love Bach. They’re so outspoken about it, that we have to present some Bach every year,” Peelman says. “So, instead of playing Bach on Sunday morning, I thought, okay, let’s do a whole festival around Bach,” he continues. “And it gives us an opportunity to present Bach in a different, antipodean context. I never had any desire…

LIVED 1813 - 1883 MOSTLY IN LEIPZIG, DRESDEN, ZÜRICH, BAYREUTH BEST KNOWN FOR THE RING CYCLE, PARSIFAL, TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG, LOHENGRIN SIMILAR TO WEBER, LISZT, STRAUSS Wagner. That name still conjures up for many listeners images of ponderous, overblown Teutonicism, of a prototypical Nazi, egocentric, womanising, dishonest, an unspeakable anti-Semite. This is the image promoted by popular books such as journalist Joachim Köhler’s 1997 Wagner’s Hitler: The Prophet and his Disciple, which made the long-dead composer the moving spirit of Hitler and the Holocaust. Yet only a few years later, something changed. In 2012 Köhler published Der Lachenden Wagner (The Laughing Wagner), wholly revising this grim picture in favour of a genial, generous, liberal, impish figure. And in a 2014 Wagner Journal article he specifically absolved…

The Passinge Mesures Music by Byrd, Bull, Tomkins, Gibbons et al Mahan Esfahani hpscd HYPERION CDA68249 In the introduction to his First Book of Songs or Ayres of 1597, John Dowland writes of “this skilful and curious age”. Looking back now on the Elizabethan age, one reads “curious” in both senses of the word. Especially when confronted with the mysterious music contained on this latest recording from that most skilful and curious – again, in both senses of the latter word – of musicians, Iranian-American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani. “Esfahani brings out the full expressive potential of this oft-underrated music” Indeed, in a booklet essay (easily worth the price alone), Esfahani remembers an early encounter with the music of the English virginalists and how he chose to play it “because I…

The Dance of Death Belvoir Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney NOVEMBER 14, 2018 REVIEW Directed by Judy Davis and starring three of Australia’s finest stage actors, Belvoir’s last play of the season, Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, opened to much anticipation. Frustratingly, it struggled to find its feet on opening night, the production’s emphasis on self-conscious melodrama and schlocky horror infrequently amusing and ultimately unsatisfying. Strindberg’s pitch-black comedy, performed here in a translation by May-Brit Akerholt, traces the unhappy union of Edgar (Colin Friels), the captain of an artillery battery, and Alice (Pamela Rabe), his actress wife of a tedious 25 years. Their disinterest in each other is palpable, both occupying their respective seats as if welded to them. You understand instinctively that not one of their jibes is fresh, all…

PREVIEW Whether you’re an unabashed fan of the British royals or a staunch republican, there’s something undeniably fascinating about royal portraiture. Maybe it’s those pale faces that even in repose demand your full attention, or the ample bodies swathed in finery, or the often overt political positioning? Or is it the opportunity to try and a glimpse a flash of the ordinary or human behind all the pomp and circumstance? The curious will have plenty of opportunity to do so come March, when Bendigo Art Gallery welcomes more than 150 royal portraits from London’s National Portrait Gallery. Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits, charts the image making of five royal dynasties, beginning with those familiar Tudors and encompassing the Stuarts, the Georgians, the Victorians and the Windsors. “Britain is obviously…

MUSIC Hubert Parry: A Life In Photographs Michael Trott Brewin Books, HB, 88pp, $60 ISBN: 9781858585758 A sumptuous photobiography shows Sir Hubert in shirt-sleeves “Hubert, we hardly knew ye.” It is hard to resist reworking the old Boston-Irish lamentation when one is faced with a pictorial treasure house like Michael Trott’s short survey, issued in plenty of time for the 2018 Parry centennial. “Parry drove so recklessly as to acquire one of Britain’s earliest speeding fines” Perhaps it required a musicological outsider to conceive of Hubert Parry: A Life in Photographs. Brewin Books’ dustjacket describes Mr Trott as “a retired aeronautical engineer with a lifelong interest in music, especially that of Parry and Elgar.” But any fears of amateurism in the derogatory sense must be dispelled forthwith. This is an…

From January 21, ABC Classic FM will be known as ABC Classic and the station’s 2019 line-up of presenters will take the reins. The rebranding, which also comes with a refreshed visual identity, brings together all of the broadcaster’s classical music output – including record label ABC Classics – under the new banner of ABC Classic. Changes to the line-up include Ed Ayres taking over Weekend Breakfast from Christopher Lawrence, who retires from weekly broadcasting after 40 years of service. The 2019 line-up will also include a new Saturday afternoon show hosted by Alice Keath, which will showcase the best performances from Australia and around the world alongside interviews with artists. Due to popular demand, The Opera Show, hosted by Mairi Nicolson, will be extended to two hours’ running time,…

The annual Richard Tucker Opera Gala at Carnegie Hall is always a fun watch, and this year proved no different. The starry line up consisted of Stephanie Blythe, Javier Camarena, Yusif Eyvazov, Michael Fabiano, Christine Goerke, Quinn Kelsey, Angela Meade, Anna Netrebko, Nadine Sierra, and the 2018 Richard Tucker Award winner Christian Van Horn. Joined by the New York Choral Society and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by Marco Armiliato, the program on offer was refreshingly more varied than in previous years. Angela Meade impressed with her technical ease in Oh madre, dal cielo from I Lombardi, bringing more drama than is usual to the cabaletta, No, no! giusta causa. Nadine Sierra meanwhile offered a charming Me llaman la primarosa from Gimenez’s El Barbero de Sevilla, while Meade returned with…

SUZUKI CELLO SCHOOL 1 & 2 Alfred Music Publishing, 00-AA-0000085 It would have to be Suzuki Cello Book 1, and accompanying CD. As I understand more deeply how to use this method properly, I love it more every lesson. From Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and its variations that build listening skills, rhythm and co-ordination, all the way through to the Bach minuets at the end, it is a perfect system of incremental skill-building and beautiful music. And out pops a very well-built cellist, ready for anything.…

JANSSON J ANTMANN ARVO PÄRT PAGE 34 A Prague-trained scenographer, Jansson’s design work includes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tell Me On A Sunday in Sydney, Czech Republic and Slovakia. He was marketing director for the Australian Government and Sydney’s Darlinghurst Theatre. In Europe he was Editor-in-Chief at Lavie magazine. HARRIET CUNNINGHAM ABO’S 30TH PAGE 48 Harriet is a writer based in Sydney, Australia. In print she is best known as one of the classical music critics for the Sydney Morning Herald. She is addicted to listening and thinking about live music – any kind of live performance, in fact. And she has been known to play the violin. ROSALIND ORMISTON DA VINCI PAGE 58 Based in London, Rosalind is an art historian, arts writer and author of books on artists, from…

What a wonderful memory for Bev Wilton (Limelight, November 2018), hearing Radu Lupu in concert when he would have been 69 years of age. The beautiful tonal quality that enchanted her has a lot to do, apparently, with the fact that Lupu sits at the piano on an ordinary chair with a backrest. The Italian pianist and music critic Piero Rattalino describes Lupu’s technique as like that of a painter who has banished red, blue and violet from his palette; and developed an infinite range of yellow, green and browns. The effect is enthralling. With so many ‘nice’ recorded performances available of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 14 in C Sharp Minor (Moonlight), it seemed to me that there was no definitive performance. Then I heard Radu Lupu play it on…

The celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma will make his long overdue Australian debut in 2019, performing Bach’s six solo Cello Suites in Sydney and Melbourne. To be played without interval, these concerts form part of Ma’s ongoing The Bach Project, which will see him perform all six suites across six continents over the next two years. It’s a fitting nod to the artist’s six-decade association with these iconic cello works, first made popular by Pablo Casals in the 1930s. As a continuation of Ma’s commitment to social activism, each performance is to be accompanied by a special event that he has dubbed a “day of action”, addressing serious contemporary issues close to his heart. “We live in a world of boundless possibility, but we also face daunting challenges, even to our…

I did a concert not so long ago with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and James Morrison. James is truly a freak of nature when it comes to mastery of multiple instruments. I have a suspicion he might actually be an alien from a distant planet called Jazz, where the inhabitants can play trumpet, saxophone, flute, horn, trombone and piano and all at a supremely high level. It was a disappointment that he didn’t also do an oboe solo or rip out a few tunes on the harp, but you can’t have everything. It is also possible that James had his adrenal gland removed at an early age and stored in a cryogenic vat in case he needed it in the future, because I have never seen anyone so cool, calm…

Was there a moment when you knew opera was going to be your path? I was a student at the University of Ottawa where I was doing my undergraduate degree and it was my first year in the voice program there. We put on Carmen in my opera workshop chorus and this was the very, very beginning of it all. The teacher of the chorus had assigned me to sing the Habanera as well as the Card Trio and so I grabbed the one recording that was in the music library at the time which happened to be the Callas recording. It just grabbed me. Not having grown up with opera and not having known Carmen until that point, the music alone just felt so magical to me. But then…

ASHER FISCH continues to make magic at West Australian Symphony Orchestra where his conducting of a concert performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was an astonishing gift to audiences on the orchestra’s 90th birthday. STUART SKELTON proved a true Shining Knight, as he called his debut solo album, not only on the CD itself but also in recital, and in the dramatic, vocally thrilling performances he gave as Peter Grimes at Brisbane Festival, and as Tristan for WASO.…

Few musicians can boast the technique and sheer charisma, on stage and off, of German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Beyond her impressive recording catalogue, her curriculum vitae is a veritable shopping list of international awards and honours from Grammys to an honorary doctorate. She even has a street named after her in Germany. Mutter stunned audiences in Sydney and Melbourne in June. In the Sydney performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (which she has recorded twice, first in 1988 with her mentor Herbert von Karajan and later in 2004 with André Previn) she proved again just why she’s dubbed Queen of the Violin, giving a beautiful, characterful performance culminating in a break-neck, but perfectly dispatched final movement. Her performance in Melbourne was her first in the city, debuting with the Melbourne Symphony…

1989 Paul Dyer flies home from Europe and has a crazy idea… 1990 The ‘Brandenburg Orchestra’ gives its first concert at Sydney Opera House in January 1991 ABO makes Sydney Festival debut 1992 First appearances in Canberra on a Musica Viva tour 1993 Performs The Four Seasons at Sydney Town Hall 1994 Melbourne International Arts Festival debut with The Art of the Countertenor 1996 Performances before Diana, Princess of Wales, at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Dinner 1997 Andreas Scholl makes his Australian debut with the Brandenburgs 1998 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album: Handel Arias with Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny 1999 Brandenburg Choir performs its first Christmas concert, renamed Noël! Noël! the next year 2000 First subscription season at new City Recital Hall 2001 European tour with Andreas…

During 2019, the Loire Valley in France will mark 500 years since two major events influenced its history. In 1519 it was the birthplace of the French Renaissance, initiated by the young king, Francis I. The year also marked the death of one of the world’s greatest artists, Italian-born Leonardo da Vinci ‘First Painter, Engineer and Architect to the King’, who died in France on May 2 at Château du Clos Lucé, Amboise. Both events are intrinsically linked by the remarkable relationship between Leonardo and Francis, who shared their passion for humanism, and appreciation of Italian Renaissance art and architecture, visually realised in the magnificent châteaux of the Loire Valley. It will be acknowledged during a year of special events and major exhibitions dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci across Europe.…

There’s something strikes me as singularly appropriate during my pilgrimage to Steve Reich’s home in remote upstate New York on an overcast day in late fall. It’s not just the house with its clean lines and functional, interiors, laden bookshelves in the lounge stretching from floor to lofty ceiling. There’s something spare, dare one say minimalist about the terrain, clean-limbed, bare twigs stretching towards an uncluttered, somewhat bleak skyline. When not in town, the iconic composer has lived here with his wife and sometime collaborator the video artist Beryl Korot since 2006. The house was originally built by New York architect William N. Breger, designer of the stylish Tribeca Synagogue whose striking potbellied sanctuary bulges out over a sidewalk in downtown Manhattan. By coincidence, that was the very place where…

THROUGH COMPOSITION “Boundless melody” is how Wagner described his increasing rejection of traditional operatic structure – separate melodies for arias, choruses, ensembles and the like – in favour of a more dramatically natural, ‘throughcomposed’ flow of music, developing almost symphonically. LEITMOTIFS These are not, as many assume, little ‘calling-card’ themes with pet names. Composers have always used thematic references, but in Wagner’s scores, especially the Ring, they grow, change, unite and evolve into complex yet meaningful textures. He never named them; they can only be understood by listening, the more the deeper. Often imitated but never matched. ORCHESTRATION Wagner’s demands are often immense – six harps! – fueling caricatures of his music as noisy and overblown; but in fact it’s more for a wide choice of instrumental shading. The whole…

You mention being fascinated early on by the Elizabethan virginalists as music that you didn’t quite understand. What do you mean by that? Well, I suppose that in a sense we don’t really understand any of the music we love. Didn’t Stravinsky say that he felt music rather than having understood it? Anyhow, this music is not exactly mainstream repertoire, even though much of it has been in publication for over a century, so there’s very little modern performance tradition around it, and some of it is truly mysterious. But ever since I heard it, it touched me and told me that I needed to make an effort to live with it. When we think of Elizabethan keyboard music we tend to think of Byrd. Was he simply the best,…

Deutsche Grammophon’s set to commemorate 25 years of Switzerland’s Verbier Festival is a grab bag of musical genres featuring many big names. Disc Four contains Act III of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre under Valery Gergiev, with Bryn Terfel as Wotan. It is fascinating to hear today’s superstars when they were starting out: Yuja Wang, steely and scintillating in Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto in 2009, or Daniil Trifonov playing Brahms’ First Piano Trio with violinist Ilya Gringolts and cellist Truls Mørk in 2015. Gustavo Dudamel, Mikhail Pletnev and Evgeny Kissin also contribute. While we don’t really need a fourth recording of Martha Argerich playing Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, her detailed pianism is as febrile as ever. The roster of artists speaks for itself, and sound quality is uniformly fine. A Ralph…

WA Symphony Orchestra Perth Concert Hall NOVEMBER 16, 2018 Dvoÿák’s Symphony No 9, or New World Symphony, is particularly meaningful to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. WASO’s first ever performance, held 90 years ago on September 16, 1928, featured the Czech composer’s most famous symphony. Whilst celebrating its past, WASO also showcased the music of today, programming the world premiere of Australian composer Lachlan Skipworth’s Hinterland and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with young Russian pianist Andrey Gugnin as soloist. Hinterland is described by the composer as focussing on “how the landscape elicits direct psychological responses through its various reflections of sound and light… taking the many unique rock formations of Western Australia as a starting point”. The types of lights and sounds one might encounter in Australia’s natural landscape were convincingly…

PREVIEW A conversation with choreographer Hofesh Shechter about his work and the purpose of dance is surprisingly candid. A refreshing antidote to the pretence that often surrounds internationally successful choreographers. “It’s dance. You don’t come out of the theatre and go ‘oh I understand something about the world’,” says the Israeli-born, London-based choreographer. “It doesn’t work like that. You come, you feel a bunch of stuff and you leave. There are no conclusions.” Such pragmatism may be surprising, especially coming as it does from someone whose body of work features pieces with titles such as Uprising, Cult and Political Mother, and whose early days as a dancer in Israel were far from apolitical. At the age of 18, compulsory military conscription interrupted Shechter’s dance training; something he describes as “an…

Heaven and Earth in Chinese Art: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei Behold some of the highest artistic achievements in Chinese history. Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, February 2 – May 5 Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley A rare, large-scale portrait of the multifaceted land, artists and art of the Kimberley. Art Gallery of Western Australia, February 9 – May 31 Your Shadow Rising British artist Toby Ziegler presents a solo show focusing on themes of fire and transformation. Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, until March 25…

FICTION The Cat in the Treble Clef Louis de Bernières Harvill Secker, HB, 112pp, $33 ISBN: 9781787300187 Louis de Bernières’ third collection of poems, The Cat in the Treble Clef focusses on family and the connections we make, and break, with other people. There are poems about places near and far, about the passing of time, music and about love in its various forms. NON-FICTION Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times Alan Walker Faber Music, HB, 768pp, $60 ISBN: 9780571348558 Based on ten years of research and a cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker’s Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of Chopin to appear in English. NON-FICTION Handel in London: The Making of…

Richard Tognetti opens the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2019 season with special guests, the famed Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir in a celebration of two composers. Bach’s Lutheran motets interleave with Pärt’s mystical explorations of the Orthodox faith, before reaching the climax of the program: Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe. WHEN: February 2 – 13 WHERE: Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth BOOK: 1800 444 444 [ aco.com.au  ]…

MONDAY - FRIDAY 6am Classic Breakfast Start your day with a delicious selection of the best in classical music 10am Classic Mornings Spend your morning with great music, including new releases and classic performances, plus the latest news and stories from the world of music 1pm Lunchtime Concert The best concerts from Australia and around the world 3pm Music in Time and more Music in Time / Legends / Passenger / Duet / Game Show 4pm Classic Drive A journey home through classical sounds, designed to relax, refresh and delight you 8pm Evenings Concerts from Australian and international ensembles plus music to help you wind down 12am Night Music Classical music that’s perfect for all-night listening, presented by some of your favourite ABC Classic FM voices SATURDAY 6am Weekend Breakfast…

SIR BRYN RETURNS Opera Australia has announced that the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will return to Australia to give two recitals in November. Accompanied by Orchestra Victoria, the beloved international star will perform his favourite opera arias and musical numbers at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne. Terfel last performed here in 2015, appearing with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. MAESTRO ON A MISSION Following his second Sydney concert in December with the Staatskapelle Berlin, the famously outspoken Daniel Barenboim announced that the performance was dedicated to “the first creative inhabitants of this continent.” After a moment’s surprise, the audience erupted into thunderous applause. The maestro brought his address to an emphatic conclusion, stating “a country that does not make its account with the past is not a country that…

1. How did you come to the viola? I started on the violin at the age of three and, like many other viola players, came to the viola later, when I was 14. I was involved in the Young Artists’ Program at the Sydney Conservatorium around that time, and it was there that I began playing the viola in chamber music ensembles. I was attracted to the middle voice of the instrument and the idea of being at the heart of the music making. 2. Which violists do you most admire? I admire my two former teachers, Tabea Zimmermann and Wilfried Strehle, as well as of course Yuri Bashmet. I admire violists who are not only highly proficient in the instrument and great musicians, but who have also carved out…

After eight years’ work, the 92-year-old Hungarian composer György Kurtág’s long-awaited first opera premiered at La Scala in November. An adaptation of Beckett’s Endgame, here in its original French form as Fin de Partie, it was hailed as “a miracle of dedication, craft and care” by The New York Times. The first performance drew eight minutes of enthusiastic applause led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who declared the opera to be “the most important event for Hungarians today”.…

I started thinking about writing an opera with an Australian subject quite a while ago and came up with a number of ideas, Ned Kelly being one of them. Just the armour and figure of the man immediately made me think of him as quite an operatic character. His story is fantastical and absurd, the perfect ingredients for opera, so I reached out to a number of companies here and Lost & Found in Perth were the most receptive and came on board. “His story is fantastical and absurd, the perfect ingredients for opera” To be honest I came to Ned without much deep knowledge at all. I read the Peter Carey book but that was really it, so I spent a long time consulting scholarly texts as well as…

The Dreaming Land was written especially for British cellist Natalie Clein for her first Australian tour for Musica Viva. The ancient land depicted in the piece alludes to Australia itself and the work explores emotional connections to the physical world, presenting a sonic journey across a fictional landscape. I met with Natalie in London and we shared ideas about the nature of the contemporary sonata form, the role of cello as storyteller and the beauty of a musical journey forming a structure for new work. A feeling of attachment or belonging to a land or terrain is experienced by many, with a particular affinity for where we spend our childhood. This sonata embodies those dual ideas of physical landscape and emotional memory. The sonata form is recast as a musical…

Earlier this year the remarkable Spanish conductor and gamba player Jordi Savall, together with Hesperion XXI and Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, won a Helpmann Award for their concert Folías Antiguas & Criollas: From the Ancient World to the New World, at the Perth Festival and on tour. I missed the concert. But I had sat in on a rehearsal the day before, which I can’t help feeling might have been even better. As the musicians from Spain, Mexico and other parts of Latin America ambled into the small auditorium, casually dressed, laughing and joking before tuning their instruments, and warming up their voices and bodies, I thought this was it, the genuine spirit of spontaneity, camaraderie and joie de vivre that Savall and his collaborators have revelled in for over half…

“In the beginning was the Word”… so begins the 2014 publication In Principio. The Word in Arvo Pärt’s Music. As Michael Pärt, the composer’s son and Chairman of the Arvo Pärt Centre, which published the book, explains, this quote from John 1:1 in the King James Bible was chosen because, “Arvo Pärt’s music is text driven. The choice of text is very important, as well as how Arvo lives with the text in order to digest it and understand it. Each word in itself has a shape and rhythm, which, combined with its position within the verse or sentence creates context. The word dictates music.” “Arvo’s tintinnabuli (Latin for ‘little bells’), refers to a set of rules and equations which bring the melodic and accompanying counterpoint into a particular relationship…

A host of other arts organisations are celebrating big birthdays in 2019. Sydney Dance Company turns 50. Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela has put together a program by four Australian choreographers including Gideon Obarzanek, who is creating Us 50, a grand-scale work featuring 50 performers including former SDC members as well as the current, dazzling line-up. The Australia Ensemble, based at the University of New South Wales, turns 40. It celebrates the milestone with a season that showcases its versatility and technique, and includes world premieres by Australian composers Andrew Ford and Jessica Wells. Thirty years ago, Lyn Williams OAM created the Sydney Children’s Choir. It now includes 500 children and is part of a larger organisation called Gondwana Choirs, which includes the Gondwana National Choral School and choral hubs for…

Milan, Italy: A lively program will take place between May 2019 and January 2020. Da Vinci’s restored pictorial invention at the Sala delle Asse in Castello Sforzesco, will reopen to the public on May 2. Paris, France: The Louvre will present Leonardo da Vinci, October 24 – February 24, 2020, displaying the greatest number of his works ever shown together. London, the UK: The British Library will hold an exhibition called Leonardo da Vinci: A Mind in Motion, June 7 – September 8, which will feature work from three da Vinci notebooks including the rare Codex Leicester. The UK: Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing will see 12 museums across the country hold simultaneous exhibitions of his drawings, February 1 – May 6. They will then be brought…

Der Ring Des Nibelungen Bayreuth Festival/Krauss ORFEO C809113R (14CD) There’s no perfect set, but Orfeo’s radical remastering of Clemens Krauss’s red-hot 1953 Ring is well worth shelling out for. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Bayerischen Rundfunks/ Rafael Kubelík ARTS 430202 (4CD) Often overlooked, Kubelík’s ravishing account features Thomas Stewart as a rock-solid, poetic Sachs and Sándor Kónya as a gloriously heroic Walther. Parsifal Berlin Philharmonic/ Daniel Barenboim WARNER CLASSICS 2564642633 (4CD) Now reissued at bargain price, Barenboim’s masterful account stars Siegfried Jerusalem as Parsifal and Waltraud Meier as a passionately complex Kundry. Der Ring des Nibelungen Bayreuth Festival/ Pierre Boulez 0734057 (8DVD) Patrice Chéreau’s ‘Industrial Revolution’ take on Wagner’s epic is still the benchmark for operatic acting, plus it comes with a brilliant ‘making of’ disc.…

All eyes will be on Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, the star act for the 2019 BRAVO Cruise of the Performing Arts. The singer, who was awarded a knighthood for his services to music in 2017, will be conducted by his regular collaborator Gareth Jones. Guy Noble will pick up the baton for the other lead artists including Lucy Durack, David Hobson and James Morrison. Mark Vincent will perform his tribute to Mario Lanza while Melinda Schneider does Doris Day. The seven-night cruise leaves Sydney on November 12 and will stop at Noumea and Isle of Pines. Visit your local Cruiseco agent for details: chooseyourcruise.com.au…

The year is 1943, and World War II continues to rage into its fourth year. For the first time, the Allied forces begin to gain ground, defeating German and Italian forces in North Africa, and inflicting heavy losses in Germany itself with bombing raids, including the famous ‘Dambuster’ operation. Soviet forces defeat the Germans at the Battle of Kursk – one of the largest tank battles in history – and begin a slow advance westward towards the capital, Berlin. German U-boats have been wreaking havoc on Allied shipping in the Atlantic, and Nazi troops have destroyed the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, killing or deporting more than 60,000 people. In January, the Soviet Red Army manages to break through the German blockade of Stalingrad, which has been under siege for two…

Opera Australia State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne NOVEMBER 13, 2018 Kasper Holten’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, his final production as Covent Garden’s Director of Opera, opened in 2017 to decidedly mixed reviews. A co-pro between the Royal Opera House, The National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, and Opera Australia, it opened in Melbourne to much interest, compounded by the fact that OA was now onto its third Hans Sachs. While the production is undoubtedly flawed, it’s full of intelligent ideas and moments of engaging theatre. Holten sets the action in a gentleman’s club, with its design suggesting the 1920s. The master singers have more than a whiff of the masonic about them, and the women are swiftly shown to another room as their menfolk get down to business. Holten…

Bennelong This special work exploring the life of a senior man of the Eora returns for a nationwide regional tour. Bangarra Dance Theatre, Regional Australian tour, February 15 – March 16 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland After sell-out seasons in 2017, Christopher Wheeldon’s madcap, witty ballet returns in 2019. The Australian Ballet, Brisbane, QPAC, February 25 – March 2 Swan Lake/Loch na hEala Michael Keegan-Dolan’s stunning, lyrical reimagining of this classic ballet makes its way to Perth. Perth Festival, Heath Ledger Theatre, February 14 – 17…

Mary Stuart Caroline Brazier and Helen Thomson are rivals to the throne in this new adaptation by Kate Mulvany after Schiller. Sydney Theatre Company, Roslyn Packer Theatre, February 5 – March 2 Counting and Cracking An epic new story of home and exile that will see a Sri Lankan town hall built inside Sydney Town Hall. Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney Town Hall, January 11 – February 2 Dead Cat Bounce Mitchell Butel directs Mary Rachel Brown’s astute look at human fallibility, romance and addiction. Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney, SBW Stables Theatre, February 22 – April 6 The Lady in the Van Alan Bennett’s semi-autobiographical play starring stage and screen icon Miriam Margolyes. Melbourne Theatre Company, Playhouse, February 2 – March 6 Underground Railroad Game Two history teachers have an R-rated…

WOOD’S DOUBLE HONOURS DANCE At the curtain call of The Australian Ballet’s Cinderella in November, Jade Wood was presented with not only the Telstra Ballet Dancer Award 2018, worth $20,000, but also the $5000 People’s Choice Award. It’s only the fourth time since the Telstra Ballet Dancer Award was first presented in 2003 that a dancer has won both. Wood appeared visibly surprised, gasping as her name was announced. Her fellow nominees were Nathan Brook, Corey Herbert, Brodie James, Rina Nemoto and Lucien Xu. She was promoted to senior artist with the company in 2018. MAAS NABS ARTS LEADER VISUAL ART Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah has been appointed Chief Executive of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. She assumes the role in January 2019, succeeding Dolla Merrillees who stepped…

Of the clutch of noteworthy titles arriving this summer, a clear standout is Colette (December 20, 111 minutes,)  a magnificently staged and performed biography (in English) of the eponymous French writer’s early years. The too-often underrated Keira Knightley is at her vibrant peak in the title role, with Dominic West (The Wire) equally strong as her rake of a husband, an opportunistic publisher who puts out her first writings under his name. Here is one of those rare occasions where script, casting, cinematography, production design, costumes and editing are stitched together to perfection. The director is Wash Westmoreland, who is best known for Still Alice. Released a few days later is the cooler yet no less accomplished Cold War (December 26, 89 minutes,)  from UKbased, Polish-born director Pawel Pawlikowski. Set…

ABC CLASSIC FM TASMANIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA January 25 at 1pm In November last year Tamara-Anna Cislowska performed Elena Kats-Chernin’s Third Piano Concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and American conductor Karina Canellakis, having given the premiere with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in September. Kats-Chernin’s newest concerto connects with the music of her idol, JS Bach. “She’s taken Bach and refreshed it in a way that no one would ever expect,” Cislowska told Limelight. “Somehow it’s completely her own but you hear his melodies, and she completely overrides any talk of crossover or re-imagining. But she also decided partway through writing it that she also wanted to make some ghoulishly difficult parts for me because she heard me playing the Prokofiev Second and she said, ‘but my God, you can play…

MEET MICHIELETTO'S MACBETHS In November, Damiano Michieletto’s new staging of Verdi’s Macbeth opened at Teatro La Fenice to much acclaim. A darkly atmospheric production rich in imagery, it delves into the central pair’s backstory to help make sense of their motivations. Michieletto is particularly interested in the possibility of their having had multiple children, now deceased, filling his stage with plastic sheets meant to evoke Lady Macbeth’s placentas. As the Macbeths, Luca Salsi and Vittoria Yeo, a last-minute substitute for Tatiana Serjan, are thoroughly committed to Michieletto’s vision, embodying their characters with obvious relish and meeting the demands of Verdi’s complex score. Yeo makes for an especially severe Lady M, while Salsi’s prevaricating soldier is clearly no match for her. Bachtrack had particular praise for Salsi’s vocal portrayal, writing “surely…

1. Bach’s Concerto for Four Harpsichords is an adaptation of whose work for four violins? 2. Don John of Austria was the first opera written in which country? 3. Who wrote the Fandango Guitar Quintet? 4. How were the composers Michael and Hieronymus Praetorius related? 5. Which composer (pictured) was allegedly killed by a falling bookcase? 6. Who composed the ballets Chout (pictured) and The Stone Flower? 7. Which composer declared “Richard Wagner, a musician who wrote music which is better than it sounds”? 8. Which three English composers wrote A Colour Symphony, A Cotswolds Symphony and A Cambridge Symphony? 9. Which two composers wrote pieces called The Seasons, one for orchestra, choir and soloist, the other for solo piano? 10. Which foods were named for an Australian opera…

It’s 1975. I’m saving up my pocket money (10p a week) and I finally have enough to buy Bohemian Rhapsody, the single. Queen. 75p. My very first record. That’s if you don’t count the Wombles of Wimbledon album, Remember You’re a Womble, which frankly, I’d rather not. Remember or count. I thought I was set with my music tastes for life. And then Mrs Parry happened. Mrs Parry was my music teacher at grammar school. She was Welsh, and with her music teacher magnificence (it’s a thing) she set the foundations of my music for the next 40 years. Mrs Parry made us listen and she made us sing. English hymns, Welsh hymns, folk music, Handel, Elgar, Purcell, it all came through Mrs Parry; her love for music thrust its…