Table of contents for January/February 2018 in Limelight

Welcome to our first issue for 2018 – and my first as Editor. As in previous years, this is a special double January/February issue with extra features to give you plenty to read during the summer holidays. We hope you enjoy the mix of stories and reviews, with everything from the first Australian production of Shostakovich’s opera The Nose, to the history of symphonic composition in Australia, to a chat with Emanuel Ax and David Robertson about the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Mozart celebration, to a Danish music ensemble who perform underwater, and much else besides. I have been a fan of Limelight for many years. I first wrote for the magazine as a contributor back in the 1990s when it was 24 Hours. Having joined the staff as Clive Paget’s…

MORE ANGATSCHEVA, PLEASE Thank you for a delightful magazine! I particularly enjoy the in-depth CD reviews, and have found many delights as a result of your reviews, and enjoy the various articles on the talented musicians who brighten our lives. I am writing to suggest you may wish to include an article on the Bulgarian concert pianist Donka Angatscheva in a future edition. This lady has released several CDs and her Liszt renditions are, to my ears, simply wonderful! Very musical indeed. She is not as well known over here as some others who grace your pages, and it would be nice if you could include her. Will Penn, South Plympton, SA PLUGGING SHIELDS NOT EARPLUGS As an amateur orchestral clarinetist, I was very interested in the online Limelight article…

Daniel Smith has been appointed as Principal Guest Director of Teatro Carlo Felice. He will take up his new post in addition to his current roles as Orchestra Director and Ambassador of Australian culture in Italy. “The appointment of Maestro Daniel Smith marks a significant development in cultural relations between Italy and Australia, and is a richly deserved and important recognition for one of Australia’s most exciting and talented young directors at one of Italy’s great theatres,” said Australian Ambassador to Italy Dr Greg French. “I am sure that, through Daniel’s presence in Genova, we will have the opportunity to further promote the exchange of music and culture between Australia and Italy, and will see a greater exchange of artists.” “This is a great honour and opportunity to play a…

Verdi Falstaff NBC Symphony/ Toscanini RCA G010003678619P This fall I read Harvey Sachs’ wonderful biography of Toscanini. Falstaff is one of my favourite roles so I started listening again to this fantastic rendition. It is so fascinating to think he got first hand advice from Verdi himself! No one does it better. Sheila Jordan Portrait of Sheila BLUE NOTE BLP 9002 An oldie again but, hey, I’m starting to be an oldie myself. I met this incredible lady of jazz recently. She is 89 now but she swings like a juvenile. She’s a poet, musician and a part of jazz history. Just listen to how she swingingly floats on Dat Dere, along with the double bass. Mendelssohn Philippe Cassard p SONY G010003753080Y I love Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte, a sort…

CAROL NEBLETT 1946 – 2017 Carol Neblett, one of the most glamorous American sopranos of her generation, has died at the age of 71. Born in Modesto, California on February 1, 1946, she made her operatic debut with New York City Opera in 1969 as Musetta. She performed over 25 leading roles with the company, with triumphs in Boito’s Mefistofele and Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, the latter of which she recorded with Erich Leinsdorf to great acclaim. Though her instrument was essentially a lyric one, the role she was perhaps most famous for was the titular girl in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West. Her Minnie was feminine and warm, more Italian donna than American tomboy, which audiences lapped up. Her most famous Dick Johnson was Plácido Domingo, their account under…

“I think it is up to men to educate others who mistreat and bully women” I was staying in a hotel in Melbourne recently, on the 10th floor. I got into the lift in the morning and had obviously picked the all-stations-to-breakfast service, stopping at every floor. A businessman got in at level nine and then another got in at level eight, then another and another until we were nine businessmen and a musician all crammed in and hungry. All I could think was where were the women? The lift looked like a gentlemen’s club. Women have been on my mind a lot of late with all the allegations of sexual misconduct made both in the US and Australia. Men have only got away with this stuff because the system…

Your new album with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin features Prokofiev’s two violin concertos and some of his opera and ballet music. Is it music you feel you have a particular affinity with? Yes, I do feel that I have some sort of, as you say, affinity for the music and also for the personality of Prokofiev and his personality in music, because somehow he was a composer who managed to go beyond the borders – political borders, cultural borders – that were quite strong at that time. He had a dream of bringing his own culture together with European culture, something that was not very well known for him but something that he was kind of reaching out for. I think this is the reason why…

“THOSE OF US FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HEAR AND SEE OPERA AUSTRALIA’S PARSIFAL RECENTLY IN SYDNEY, IN WHICH KAUFMANN LED A STELLAR CAST, WITNESSED A PEERLESS PERFORMANCE” He’s the best, simply the best tenor of the day. A personal view, certainly, but one with which I think many would agree. The competition is stiff. Juan Diego Flórez is a hard man to beat, and newcomers Vittorio Grigolo and Celso Albelo are closing in. The singer in style and substance he is closest to is arguably Plácido Domingo, whose tenor career is now drawing to a close. Kaufmann’s spinto roles are drawn primarily from the German, French and Italian repertoires; most notably Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Carlos, Andrea Chénier, as well as lieder, namely Winterreise and Das Lied von der Erde. He ticks…

Following last year’s Canberra International Music Festival, which delved into ideas of revolution and social upheaval 100 years on from the Russian Revolution, the wide array of offerings in the 2018 festival – spanning medieval to avant-garde music – are bound together by the idea of ‘Return’. “I’ve always wanted to present Canberra audiences with a very broad range of music – not just classic chamber music, or late 19th-century, early 20th-century music,” Festival Artistic Director Roland Peelman tells me over chocolate cake at the Lindt Café in Sydney’s Martin Place. “For many years now this festival has followed a strong curatorial direction,” he says, “with a programme that carries plenty of inner connections, and gives people something to think about beyond the sheer beauty of the repertoire or the…

The snow-capped peaks stretch as far as the eye can see as my plane swings low over the high Sierra Nevada before heading for the azure waters of the Pacific. Gazing out of the window on a mild morning in late Fall, valleys cut with the blue ribbons of rivers recall those epic 19th-century Bierstadt oil paintings. Closer to the ocean, the round-topped, lower-lying mountains flanked by majestic Californian greenery flash yellow in the sunlight offering the incoming visitor an delightfully literal welcome to ‘The Golden West’. It’s a terrain intimately familiar to John Adams who for 40 years has enjoyed the solitude of a cabin perched 6,000 feet up in the Sierra Buttes as well as hiking the local trails with family and pointer dogs. Now, in his 70th-birthday…

You’re an old hand at festivals as a player, but do you remember the first time you ever ran a festival? Yes, I certainly do. It was 1995 and it was Fauré’s 150th anniversary. I thought, “Nobody’s doing anything about one of my favourite composers. If it was Mozart, if it was Schubert, everybody would be jumping all over it.” I was literally sat at my kitchen table doodling. If I could make up some concerts what might they be? Before I knew it, I’d got a sketch for 12 concerts and thought, “I’m just going to go for it.” So, I wrote to my great friend Trevor Green, who was then the Chief Exec or whatever of the BBC Phil in Manchester, and said, “Look, would you come in…

The Collected Works The Consort of Musicke/ Anthony Rooley DECCA 4525632 (12CD) A one-stop shop for all of Dowland’s major works in 12 authoritative discs. Complete Lute Music Jakob Lindberg lute BIS BISCD722/4 (4CD) Thoughtful and beautifully recorded, Lindberg’s set is a constant delight. Lachrimae Fretwork ERATO 5450052 Fretwork are still the go-to viol consort for Dowland’s dolorous Lachrimae. Lute Songs Iestyn Davies ct , Thomas Dunford lute HYPERION CDA68007 Iestyn Davies’ smooth countertenor is perfectly complemented by Dunford’s lute.…

Your interpretation seems to perfectly balance strength with lyricism. Did you come to it with any Salome role models? I always came to Salome with the idea of her being sung beautifully, although it is difficult to do so. I do think she needs a heroic voice behind the beauty, but more than that I find the role extremely vocally colourful, so one needs to have an immense variety of tone. I do think she can be sung in a variety of ways, the trick being, always, to sing her with your voice, and not emulate anyone else. I remember when I first started studying her I listened to a great deal of Hildegard Behrens and also, maybe interestingly, Montserrat Caballé. I try to listen to a wide variety of…

Paganini 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Sueye Park v BIS BIS2282 If you’ve never heard of South Korean violinist Sueye Park, that’s all about to change. The 17 year old has released a jaw-dropping set of Paganini’s 24 Caprices in a debut recording for the prestigious Swedish BIS label. Her technical mastery is extraordinary in one so young and she plays here with accuracy, fluidity and chutzpah – tempered by elegance and taste – which will leave the listener grasping for superlatives. She has the assuredness and maturity of someone twice her age and a glance at her repertoire shows that she already has several Classical and Romantic concertos at her fingertips, as well as a range of Baroque and contemporary works. Sueye – not to be confused with Sydney-born…

If you want to know why recordings by the Amadeus String Quartet were a mainstay of the chamber repertoire for decades, sample their Haydn from the mid-1970s. Here is playing of ideal balance, expressing Haydn’s innate geniality in every bar. That is not to say virtuosity is underrepresented: hear the combination of ease and precision in the Presto finale of Op. 64 No 2. It is swift but joyous, completely lacking any relentless quality. There are no interpretive points to be made; no attention-seeking plasticity of tempo or phrasing; no underlined nods to period practice: this is not the music of an era but of a beloved individual. The Amadeus Quartet was formed by three Jewish refugees who came to London in the late 1930s, where they were joined by…

Attractor Choreographers Lucy Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek take audiences on a unique dance ritual for the senses that will leave you wanting more. Dancenorth, Perth, February 8 – 10 Milky Way – Ballet at the Quarry Experience the energy of dance and the beauty of movement with one of Perth’s favourite summer traditions. West Australian Ballet, February 9 – March 3 Murphy Paying tribute to choreographer Graeme Murphy with a revival of Firebird, plus highlights from his career. The Australian Ballet, Melbourne and Sydney, March 16 – April 26…

DA VINCI BREAKS RECORDS VISUAL ARTS A painting of Christ by Leonardo da Vinci has sold for $US450 million ($AUD591 million) at Christie’s in New York, smashing all previous records. The 500-year-old painting, called Salvator Mundi, depicts Christ raising his right hand in blessing and holding a crystal orb in his left hand. Previously, the highest known sale price for any artwork was $US300 million, for Willem de Kooning’s painting Interchange. According to The New York Times, da Vinci’s painting was purchased by a Saudi prince. It is believed the artwork will be exhibited in the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. STRONGER THAN EVER THEATRE Queensland Theatre is celebrating a record-breaking 2017, with the company smashing a string of records for ticket sales and subscribers in Artistic Director Sam Strong’s first…

Sweet Country Opens: January 25 Genre: Australian western Duration: 113 minutes Stark Aussie western exploits the elemental power of the NT Powerfully directed by Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah), this new Australian western plays as darkly and seriously as Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, except that this time the forces of violence and retribution are rooted in the soils of colonial racism. In outline the story is simple, though Thornton and scriptwriters Steven McGregor and David Tranter take their time in introducing all the characters and letting the twists of the tale – which were loosely inspired by real life stories – unfold. This means Thornton, who trained as a cinematographer, has plenty of time to bring the land to visual life and explore the ways in which the characters relate to…

Rachmaninov’s piano concertos require everything a pianist has to give. To play his complete concerti over just two nights seems a pipe dream, but that is just what Howard Shelley did with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in July, conducted by none other than Alexander Shelley – his son. Howard Shelley is an old hand when it comes to Rachmaninov, able to boast of having recorded every note of the composer’s piano music. He has also collaborated with the Tasmanian Symphony throughout his career, recording 15 albums with the orchestra for Hyperion. Here he presents Rachmaninov’s rarely heard First and Fourth Concertos alongside the popular Second and Third. Ahead of these concerts, Shelley said: “I love Rachmaninov, I love Tasmania and the TSO, and of course I love my son, so…

3MBS BACH MARATHON February 18 at 10am Johann Sebastian Bach is the latest name on the list of great composers to be celebrated in 3MBS’s annual all-day Marathon event. The Marathon, which will run all day at Melbourne Recital Centre, will include music by the master as well as a cross-section of works by his sons – as well arrangements by other prominent composers who drew on Bach’s work for inspiration. Highlights will include the first performance in 240 years of the CPE Bach St Matthew Passion by Melbourne Bach Choir and orchestra, and Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Timo-Veikko Valve performing the Cello Suite BWV 1012 on a five-string piccolo cello. The all-day event will culminate in a performance of the Goldberg Variations, with eminent pianist and teacher Stephen McIntyre joined…

NICOLE CAR: THE STELLAR CAREER OF OUR DOWN-TO-EARTH DIVA While enjoying a stratospheric international career, the star soprano – who now calls Paris home – returns to Australia to tour with the ACO and make her debut as Violetta with Opera Australia. MAHLER’S UNFINSHED SYMPHONY At his death, a superstitious Mahler left behind three works he was afraid to call his Ninth Symphony. Donald Runnicles discusses what we now know as the Mahler Ten. MURPHY’S LORE In 2018, Graeme Murphy celebrates 50 years with The Australian Ballet. We trace the career of the iconic dancemaker as the AB presents a programme of his works. A VERY HUMAN REQUIEM When renowned choral ensemble Rundfunkchor Berlin performs Brahms’ much-loved German Requiem at the Adelaide Festival, it won’t be a concert as we…

RHODERICK MCNEILL SYMPHONIC AUSTRALIA PAGE 64 Rhoderick McNeill is Professor of Music and Head of the School of Arts and Communication at University of Southern Queensland. His books include The Australian Symphony from Federation to 1960 and The Music of Carl Vine. DEBORAH jONES CURIOUS INCIDENT PAGE 70 Deborah Jones is a writer and critic. A long-serving Arts editor of The Australian, she is currently the paper’s national dance critic and Sydney music theatre critic. She is Sydney correspondent for London-based Opera magazine and Vancouver-based Dance International magazine. She blogs at deborahjones.me. ROBERT VEEL VALLETTA PAGE 82 Robert Veel has degrees in history, language and education from the University of Sydney, where he taught for many years. A founding director of Academy Travel, he spends four months a year abroad…

I am writing to ask whether you would consider commissioning an article about what ‘digital’ might mean in terms of radio broadcasting and the implications of the policy changes at ABC Classic FM. I am sure I am not the only Limelight reader who would like to get a better understanding of these. In an article in the December issue, [ABC Classic FM Content Manager Richard Buckham says]: “We really do need to put some more resources into digital content because that’s the way the audience is going.” Then there is a mention of “platforms” as a justification for deleting programmes with an educational intent/content, such as Keys to Music. I have no problem with innovation or change (e.g. I think broadcasting music composed for computer games makes sense as…

Tributes have been flowing for the Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky who died on November 22. The singer was diagnosed with a brain tumour in June 2015 and had withdrawn from most of his engagements in the last few years. His occasional recital and gala appearances were always a cause for celebration, cherished by fellow singers, audience members and administration alike. Hvorostovsky shot to fame in 1989 when he beat Bryn Terfel to win the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, in what fans dubbed ‘the battle of the baritones’. With his then-silver mane, good looks and commanding stage presence, he ushered in a new era of HDready opera stars. Yet those who were only glancingly familiar with the singer knew Hvorostovsky was a consummate artist in every sense of the…

I believe music making to be an expression of humanity transcending culture, place and time. This was confirmed for me while studying shakuhachi in Japan: despite being in an alien language, notation system and set of aesthetic values, my brain and body seemed to function just as they did when I played Brahms as a clarinettist. The commonality to both was music, these mysterious actions in time that produce beautiful emotive sound. And now as I compose for Riley Lee, Taikoz and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, I forget such notions as “East and West” and concentrate on finding a singular human expression encompassing the exciting and diverse set of forces at my disposal. And what a palette! A few notes of Riley Lee’s shakuhachi caused me to pack my bags…

Opera and Concerts around the Baltic 1-20 May 2018 Tour leader: Dr Robert Mitchell Stops in Riga (2 operas) and Tallinn (Aida), and also Copenhagen (Madama Butterfly), Berlin (il Trovatore), and Hamburg. Works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, but also Purcell, Scriabin, Matthus and Ades. Contrasting cities offering plenty of touring interest apart from great music. Weekend Country House in Hobart Music 16-20 February 2018  • Tour leader: Stephen Block Held at historic Epsom House, featuring an intimate weekend of 4 concerts presented by ABC Classic FM’s Christopher Lawrence, and performed by Ensemble Liaison (piano, cello and clarinet) in a program entitled Bach to Blue. The concerts travel from Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, to the French composers Saint Saens, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc, to De Falla, Smetana and Bartok, and finally…

LIVED 1563 – 1626 MOSTLY IN LONDON AND DENMARK BEST KNOWN FOR LACHRIMAE, LUTE WORKS, LUTE SONGS SIMILAR TO ANTHONY HOLBORNE, ROBERT JOHNSON, THOMAS CAMPION, WILLIAM BYRD It begins with a simple descending figure; languorous as a sigh, sorrowful as a teardrop. With the first four anguish-filled notes, the opening of Dowland’s Lachrimae pavan for solo lute creates a dolorous earworm that would burrow its way into the Elizabethan psyche and beyond. Copied and elaborated by fellow composers as a shorthand for grief, it proved a personal thumbprint throughout Dowland’s own music, who used it as self-referentially as Shostakovich would his musical ‘DSCH’ cipher based on the letters of his name. For all the manifold successes of the age, and the allure of a New World opening its doors,‘melancholy’was the…

Vaughan Williams Sinfonia Antarctica, Four Last Songs, Concerto for Two Pianos Roderick Williams bar, Louis Lortie p, Hélène Mercier p, Bergen Philharmonic/Sir Andrew Davis CHANDOS CHSA5186 (SACD) (insofar as the 1931 Piano Concerto’ reconfiguration of the keyboard part for two pianos, rearranged by the composer and pianist Joseph Cooper, dates from 1946). The solo version of the Concerto, which has had recordings, sounds cumbersome because of the heavy Recently, Sir Andrew Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic produced a superb recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ final symphony, the Ninth, alongside a less generally admired performance of the ballet Job. This issue is the next in what appears to be a new series of the symphonies from these forces, in vibrant sound. The programme consists of late works piano writing, whereas the…

“This is an epic tale in which one can choose heroes and villains, almost at will” [ MUSIC ] The Poisoned Chalice: Peter Hall and the Sydney Opera House Anne Watson OpusSOH PB, 244pp, $59.95 ISBN: 9780646967394 The tale of the opera house build gets its final chapter Anne Watson, a former curator at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, has written a compelling story; the latest in a series of eulogies to the designers and builders of the spectacular building on Bennelong Point which has had the world in awe since the 1960s. This is an epic tale in which one can choose heroes and villains, almost at will. Like so many others who lived through the whole period, I developed opinions and points of view, many of which are challenged in…

PRELUDE COMPOSERS Rafael Karlen, Gabriella Smart and Kate Moore have been announced as the recipients of the Prelude Composers Residency for 2018. A national network of residencies, Prelude sees Australian composers housed in historic buildings, affording them the time and space to create new work or conduct research. Beneficiaries of the programme also receive financial support throughout the 12-month residency. BARBICAN NABS ACO The Australian Chamber Orchestra has announced an upcoming three-year residency at London’s Barbican Centre. Commencing in its 2018/19 season, the Orchestra will be one of three International Associate Ensembles at Milton Court Concert Hall, alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra. The seeds of the new partnership were sown in November 2016, when Tognetti was the Barbican Centre’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Milton…

1. You have a very extensive, wide-ranging discography. What excites you now and what else do you want to record? I’ve already made many CDs. Of course, there are still pieces worth recording, but I’m increasingly convinced that live concerts are the more beautiful and vivid art form. Having said that, I do have new recordings in the pipeline, such as my next CD featuring Franz Schubert’s Octet. 2. The clarinet has been described as a ‘background’ instrument. Do you agree? There’s no such thing as a ‘background’ instrument. Every instrument sometimes accompanies and then has the lead voice again. The clarinet, for instance, has played an important leading role in the orchestra since Mozart’s time. For wind players, there’s actually nothing better than performing in a very good orchestra.…

While Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin died in Paris in 1849, five months short of his 40th birthday, he left his heart in Warsaw. Obsessively terrified of being buried alive, Chopin requested in his will that his heart be cut out after his death and sent to the city where he grew up. Preserved in a jar of alcohol – probably cognac – the heart was duly smuggled past authorities and across borders (this would go on to happen a few times – at one point it was stolen by the Nazis!) eventually to be encased in the crypt of the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. The carefully preserved heart, however, has offered researchers an opportunity to lay to rest a mystery that Chopin took, along with the…

BORN NEWCASTLE, NSW STUDIED UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE LIKES HALF-EMPTY BARS, BLUE CHEESE, CRYTPTOZOOLOGY DISLIKES WHEN THE DOG BITES, WHEN THE BEE STINGS What are your early musical memories? Taking turns with my brothers to stand at the piano and sing while Mum played – that was a family ritual for a while. I also remember parties at my grandparents’ house where the older generation would take turns to sing; my Grandma and Poppy loved to perform. And of course I remember going to my first violin lesson and learning to play Twinkle, Twinkle. How did you come to the violin? My Mum was the musical instigator in my family. She started my eldest brother on the piano and gave us singing lessons too. We had an heirloom violin that Mum…

“TO BE RECOGNISED IS AN HONOUR. I’M VERY EXCITED, BECAUSE DOING WHAT I DO NORMALLY DOESN’T SCORE HIGHLY IN TERMS OF POPULARITY. MUCH OF WHAT I DO IS BASED AROUND WRITING WEIRD SHIT” When it comes to major Australian artists making waves at home and abroad, not too many can compare to Brett Dean. Since leaving his viola position with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2000 to pursue composing, he’s had success after international success. “To be recognised is an honour,” says the composer–violist–conductor on being named the Limelight 2017 Australian Artist of the Year. “I’m very excited, because doing what I do normally doesn’t score highly in terms of popularity. Much of what I do is based around writing ‘weird shit’.” Dean’s music might sound weird to some, but it…

“I’D ACTUALLY READ GOGOL’S THE NOSE BEFORE I DISCOVERED THE OPERA AND THEN WHEN I DISCOVERED THERE WAS AN OPERA ABOUT IT, I WAS DOUBLY EXCITED” When Barrie Kosky discovered Shostakovich’s first opera The Nose it was “love at first hearing”. He was a student at Melbourne University when he came upon it through his fascination with the work of Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. Having read and relished Gogol’s satirical play The Government Inspector, he quickly moved on to short stories like The Overcoat and The Nose (which was written between 1835 and 1836). “I’d actually read Gogol’s The Nose before I discovered the opera and then when I discovered there was an opera about it, I was doubly excited,” recalls Kosky. “And then because I love Shostakovich, it was…

Can we start at the beginning? What was the first instrument you learned as a child? The voice. I sang through school from six, until my voice changed, and then, when I was 14, I was a great fan of Elvis Presley. I played a little guitar, percussion, harmonica, everything, but then I discovered the cello. The cello was my first real instrument. So how did you come to transition from that to the viola da gamba? The transition was already there at the beginning. When I started cello I started to autodidact [I taught myself]. I went to a music shop in Barcelona, where I bought all the scores I found interesting, and many were transcriptions from viola da gamba music: Bach sonatas, [Marin] Marais’ Folies d’Espagne... There was…

Mark Haddon knew he wasn’t the right person to adapt his own widely loved 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the stage. “I simply can’t see it clearly any more,” he wrote in London’s The Times in 2012. There was a second reason: “Surgeons are quite rightly forbidden from operating on members of their own family. You need to be brutal and you need to be objective.” Fortunately there was someone Haddon thought would unquestionably be tough enough for the task – prolific British playwright Simon Stephens, author of works with titles like Punk Rock, Pornography and Motortown. Their paths had crossed during a residency at the National Theatre Studio more than a decade ago and they had bonded over music, their children, and…

PAVAN AND GALLIARD Dowland regularly de-coupled the Pavan and Galliard, an Elizabeth dance pairing as popularly wedded as the Baroque’s prelude and fugue. Writing in the year Dowland’s First Booke of Songs appeared, the composer Thomas Morley describes the pavan as “a kind of staid music for grave dancing”, and its more cheerful companion as “lighter and more stirring”. MELANCHOLY Dowland’s contemporaries, so John Donne claimed, were given to a “predominant melancholy, a faintnesse of heart, a chearlesnesse, and joylesnesse of spirit” –a condition exhaustively diagnosed in Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy of 1621. Dowland’s music supplies the soundtrack to an age and its obsessions. LACHRIMAE Although Dowland is forever associated with the four-note theme that opens his most celebrated pavan, he was likely inspired by Lassus and Marenzio among…

Strauss Salome Emily Magee s, Wolfgang Koch bar, Peter Bronder t, Michaela Schuster ms, Frankfurt Radio Symphony/ Andrés Orozco-Estrada PENTATONE PTC5186602 (2CD) Recordings of Salome used to be almost ten-a-penny back in the good old days. Labels would line up to capture a leading Wagnerian soprano’s heady plunge into the musical psyche of Richard Strauss’s twisted princess. But that was then, and though this most visual of operas gets regular outings on DVD, the financial risk of large-scale studio recordings has put paid to a lot of that, at least from the majors. This Pentatone release, therefore, recorded live at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper Frankfurt (but so beautifully engineered that you’d never guess the the singers were emoting in front of an audience), is a reason to be cheerful indeed. At…

My Name is Jimi Beloved actor Jimi Bani whisks the audience away to his island for a joyous evening of music, dance, stand-up and storytelling. Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, January 5 – 21 Mother A moving and powerful piece of theatre by one of our great writers, Daniel Keene, written specially for one of our great actors, Noni Hazlehurst. Belvoir, January 24 – February 11 Belvoir Ha Ha A three-way attack on contemporary Australian culture from three of the sharpest comedic minds around – Cal Wilson, Mel Buttle and Anne Edmonds. Belvoir, February 1 – 4 Sorting Out Rachel David Williamson’s brand new social comedy about legacy, entitlement and making good on past relationships. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, January 19 – March 17 Fag/Stag Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Chris Isaacs’ brutally…

Mikala Dwyer: A Shape of Thought Objects and installations, both playful and provocative, re-imagine familiar materials and what they say. Art Gallery of New South Wales, until February 4 Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium A comprehensive survey of Mapplethorpe’s influential life and career, this exhibition features 200 of his photographs. AGNSW, until March 4 A Window on Italy – The Corsini Collection: Masterpieces from Florence Paintings by Botticelli, Tintoretto, Caravaggio et al. Art Gallery of Western Australia, February 24 – June 18…

NON-FICTION Opera for the People Katherine Preston Oxford University Press, HB, 616pp, $90.95 ISBN 9780199371655 Opera for the People is an in-depth examination of a forgotten chapter in American social and cultural history: the love affair that middle-class Americans had with continental opera (translated into English) in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. NON-FICTION Maestros and their Music John Mauceri Alfred A Knopf, HB, 272pp, $40.25 ISBN 9780451494023 Conductor John Mauceri brings a lifetime of experience to bear in an unprecedented, hugely informative, consistently entertaining exploration of his profession, rich with anecdotes from decades of working alongside the greatest names of the music world. NON-FICTION National Identity in Contemporary Australian Opera: Myths Reconsidered Michael Halliwell Routledge, HB, 264pp, $172.79 ISBN 9781472433275 In this study of 18 representative Australian operas from the…

MONDAY - FRIDAY 6am Classic Breakfast Start your day with a delicious selection of the best in classical music, including your daily Swoon 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 / The Game Show 4pm Classic Drive A journey home through classical sounds, designed to relax, refresh and delight you 4pm Evenings Join Damien Beaumont for evenings of beautiful music 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…

FINE MUSIC 102.5 Fine Music 102.5 (previously 2MBS) is Australia’s first FM radio station, broadcasting a mix of classical, jazz and contemporary music. To listen, tune in to 102.5FM or stream online at finemusicfm.com 3MBS 3MBS is a fine music community radio station in Melbourne. 3MBS passionately supports fine music, especially Melbourne musicians and composers, and is the only locally-based classical music radio station in Victoria. To listen, tune in to 103.5FM or stream online at 3mbs.org.au 4MBS One of Australia’s premier classical radio stations, 4MBS has received many awards for the promotion of young and emerging artists in Australia. Based in Brisbane. To listen, tune in to 103.7FM to listen or stream online at 4mbs.com.au 5MBS While mainly a classical station, Adelaide’s 5MBS also broadcasts a wide selection of…

The opera seria Rodelinda consists of some of Handel’s most beautiful music, written after his epic Giulio Cesare in 1723 and the lesser performed Tamerlano in 1724. This production, available to stream on medici.tv is by German director Claus Guth, whose stage is dominated by a rotating white mansion, as if to literally do away with the stasis that can descend on even the best baroque operas. Guth turns the work into a memory play, told from the perspective of Flavio, who remains onstage throughout. While his conceit is interesting, the real drawcard of this production is the cast. Lucy Crowe is stylistically irreproachable as Rodelinda: dignified and moving, her clear soprano navigates the florid demands of Handel’s score with precision. Meanwhile, countertenor Bejun Mehta makes for a truly virtuosic…

TOMPLAY Tombooks, the company behind the interactive sheet music app Tomplay, has recently struck an agreement with label Deutsche Grammophon, meaning users will now be able to learn and play along with some of the greatest musicians of all time. “Our collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon will allow us to provide musicians and schools the ability to listen, be inspired and play along with international music stars”, said Alexis Steinmann, Co-founder and Manager of Tomplay. “Musicians always want to learn from the greatest artists”, added Senior Director of Digital Media, Deutsche Grammophon. “With our collaboration with Tomplay, we’re now making this more possible for everyone. I am looking forward to working with Alexis and his team and I trust our alliance will also lead to many more future projects”. Martha Argerich,…

I was listening to Jimi Hendrix, but I also became interested in Lieder at school I was born on a turkey farm in Tamworth, meaning that I hated country music because that’s all that was on the radio. But so much of country music is about telling a story, and I’ve grown to adore narrative songs that have a journey through them. I suppose Rodgers and Hammerstein was the big influence growing up: Carousel and South Pacific plus My Fair Lady. My parents had those records, and I remember us singing The Sound of Music in the car as we travelled. At the same time as I was listening to Carousel, I was also listening to Jimi Hendrix, but I also became interested in Lieder at school. I don’t know…