Table of contents for September 2018 in Limelight

I remember when I first saw the Sydney Opera House on a dazzling Sydney day. I was at school in England when it was being built so I had seen none of the construction, and at that time I knew little of the controversies surrounding its building. Of course, I knew exactly what it looked like from umpteen photographs, but seeing it there in reality, its spectacular sails glinting in the sun, literally took my breath away. I was in my mid-20s then. All these years on, I still get a little thrill each time I go there. I also vividly recall the widespread excitement when the sails were bathed in International Klein Blue light – during Leo Schofield’s 1998 Sydney Festival, I think. It seemed so radical at the…

PLEASE STOP THE PUNS Please stop the contrived alliteration and puns used in almost every headline of every article in the magazine. In the July issue, it was a hard choice for the most ridiculous one, but in my opinion “Delectable Debussy degustation with French fries on the side” was hard to beat. The final straw was the cover of the August issue which was labelled “Helter Skelton”. Show your readers some respect and ditch these childish, smart-alecky headers. Cathryn Wilkins, Ardross, WA ROSSINI’S PIANO DELIGHTS I enjoyed reading the August “Composer of the Month” being Rossini and thoroughly enjoy his generally bright, lively music. However, the article only made a very fleeting reference to a substantial amount of beautiful piano music which Rossini also composed; a fact I suspect…

Much-loved music educator and conductor Richard Gill was the recipient of the Arts Leadership Award at this year’s Creative Partnership Awards, held on August 6 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Unable to collect his award in person as he is currently undergoing treatment for colorectal and peritoneal cancer, the self-described “bulldozer” is still as fiery as ever talking to Limelight about the honour. “I think it’s the age of awards – and it’s very Lewis Carroll, everyone shall have a prize, like the Caucus-Race,” Gill says. “However, every other aspect of life has awards, I guess why shouldn’t the arts? The thing is that arts awards tend to be on a performance basis, like the Archibalds or Young Performers etc., [so] this type of award is quite…

Claudio Abbado The Complete DG Recordings Berlin Philharmonic DG4835183 I am very happy to be able to listen again to this incredible era of Claudio Abbado with the Berlin Philharmonic. I was lucky to have worked with him as a young boy, and got to see how he shaped the sound and the music. Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice ERATO 9029570794 This is an incredible recording, and Philippe Jaroussky and Amanda Forsythe are both absolutely amazing in it. Philippe is an extraordinary artist that I have been listening to for 20 years – I am always looking forward to his new recordings. He’s also a dear friend. Melody Gardot Live in Europe DECCA5765488 I have been a fan of jazz music – both singers and instrumentalists – since I was seven…

ISABELLA NAWE 1943 - 2018 The Polish soprano Isabella Nawe, a fixture of European houses, has died at the age of 75. Born in Czestochowa, her operatic debut as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto in 1967 impressed enough for her to be performing in Berlin shortly afterward. From 1970 to the mid-1990s, the Berlin State Opera became Nawe’s home company, and she one of their most reliable stars. A coloratura soprano, she sang most of the roles available to her in that repertoire – Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Zerbinetta in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus and Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale were among her signature roles. Outside of Berlin, Nawe also performed regularly in Brussels, Lisbon, Munich, Paris…

A fine composer and brilliant pianist, history has been unkind to Eugen d’Albert. A pupil of Liszt and friend to Richard Strauss, Pfitzner and Humperdinck, d’Albert left some fine works, including the occasionally revived psycho-dramatic opera Tiefland, plus a respectable body of music for piano. Hardly raw sex on legs to judge from surviving photographs, it’s perhaps surprising then to discover that he holds one of classical music’s least important records, for over 50 years he managed to acquire not one or two, but a remarkable six wives. Born in Glasgow in 1864 to an English mother and a German-born dancing master of French and Italian descent, he would become a British, German and Swiss citizen one after the other. Fleeing the stuffy tutelage of Sir Arthur Sullivan – having…

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra is a leader in education for secondary and tertiary students, and in some cases primary aged children. Its youth orchestra, named Young Mannheim Symphonists, was founded in 2014 when approximately 60 enthusiastic school-aged musicians gathered for an afternoon to play through the first movement of Mozart’s Haffner Symphony. After the first reading of this extraordinary music, the only thing that could be safely said was that it was in D Major. The students took the work to be a fairly ordinary Classical symphony, doing their utmost to demonstrate that ordinariness in spades: there was no sense of phrasing, no sense of line, no understanding of any dynamic range except forte and more forte. The most important thing however was that, once we had rehearsed…

After ruffling a few feathers across the pond when Jesus Christ Superstar landed on Broadway, you might think that uppity young Brits, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice – now pillars of respectability as Lord Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim – would have thought twice before immortalising a fascist dictator in song. Musical theatre history teaches us that Evita conquered the West End before carrying off seven Tony Awards on Broadway (though not before the American critics had had their say). Now Hal Prince’s 30-year-old original production – the blueprint for most subsequent stagings – is returning to Australia. So how did such unusual subject matter become box office gold, and why have actors from Elaine Page and Patti LuPone to Tina Arena and Madonna fought so hard to play…

It took Bruce Beresford and his producer Sue Milliken more than 20 years to bring Ladies in Black, based on Australian writer Madeleine St John’s 1993 novel The Women in Black, to the screen. For the film’s composer Christopher Gordon, the time frame could hardly have been more different.“I got a call between Christmas and NewYear just gone and I was basically pretty much starting the next day, so it was a sudden late start,”he says. “I wrote at high speed for three or four weeks and did the entire score in that time – fully orchestrated, final music. And then I gave it to them on high quality synthesised demos, which gives everybody a really good idea of what it will sound like.” The film featuring Gordon’s appealing music…

Late in 1947, Charles Moses is summoned by his secretary from a meeting at the ABC’s federal headquarters in downtown Sydney’s Pitt Street. “Mr Goossens is on the line,” she tells her boss. “He says it’s urgent.” Moses raises his eyebrows. “Not again,” he says under his breath as he paces down the corridor following the waft of her Chanel No. 5 back to his office. He picks up the black Bakelite phone gingerly. “Goossens here,” the conductor says and, without pausing, bellows, “You must do something about getting a new opera house built.” He goes on to list all the reasons why the Sydney Town Hall is not a suitable venue for his symphony orchestra. “Not only that,” he concludes, “the Old Vic is touring here next year with…

Did you always have your heart set on a career in music? In a way. My mother is a piano teacher and my four brothers all learned something or other – they played trumpet and guitar and clarinet and violin, but didn’t keep it up. I ended up being the only musician after my mother and it did seem like something inevitable. It had always been at the front of my mind that I wanted to be a musician. Do you remember at what age you started learning the piano with your mother? I started when I was five and I think I didn’t have very much interest in it, even though I began reading music quite quickly. There’s a video of me sight-reading – well, not sight-reading but playing…

INSPIRATION Sculthorpe found his principal inspiration in the mythic Australian landscape – whether outback loneliness, tropical abundance, or Tasmanian wilderness. COLLABORATIONS He collaborated not only with musical artists, but writers, film-makers, and theatre professionals like Robert Helpmann, Michael Powell, and Tom Keneally. FORM His scores characteristically contrast the austere melancholy of their freely composed slow sections, and the rhythmic energy of faster ostinatodriven sections, often underpinned by long-held bass drones. THE PACIFIC RIM He also found inspiration in traditional music of the Pacific Rim, not only Australian Aboriginal song and dance, but also Japanese, Balinese, Papuan, and Mexican tunes and idioms. His String Quartet No 16 (2005) introduced a love song from Central Afghanistan, embattled home of many then seeking asylum in Australia. DIDJERIDU In 2001, William Barton gave the…

Bartók Violin Concertos Christian Tetzlaff v, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu ONDINE ODE1317-2 Christian Tetzlaff has proven Bartókian credentials: his account of the sonatas with Leif Ove Andsnes is a reference recording and his gaunt, uncompromising reading of the Second Violin Concerto from 1990 in collaboration with arch-modernist Michael Gielen made quite an impression. His new recording is an even more detailed forensic examination but with the expressive intensity ramped up, aided and abetted by state-of-the-art engineering that puts the listener in the front stalls so you hear every strand of rosined hair on strings. “Tetzlaff uses every resource to shape the phrase yet never pushes over the edge to vulgarity” Tetzlaff uses every resource of tone and colour to shape the phrase yet never pushes over the edge to…

Georgy Sviridov Canticles and Prayers Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava ONDINE ODE-1322-2 Tales of composers whose religious faith was seemingly at odds with the prevailing political establishment are dotted through musical history: Byrd and Tallis immediately spring to mind. The life and music of soviet composer, Georgy Sviridov (1915-1998) presents almost the opposite situation. By the time Sviridov reached his forties he had become constantly lauded by the authorities. According to one source he was awarded the Order of Lenin four times, he was hailed as a “people’s artist” and then a “hero of Soviet Labour”, then reaching the dizzying heights of first secretary of the Soviet Union of Composers. Yet here is no cardboard cut-out of a composer. His time studying with Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1936 to…

Book Club Opens: August 23 Genre: Romantic comedy Duration: 104 minutes A dream cast play older women rejuvenating their sex lives First up, Book Club is not to be confused with the UK film The Bookshop, which was released earlier this year. Secondly, a brief outline of the plot – in which four older women set about rejuvenating their sex lives by reading E.L. James’s pulpy, erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey – makes it sound distinctly unpromising. Or at least it did to this reviewer. It’s pleasing then to find that this directorial debut for Bill Holderman (co-writing with Erin Free) turns out to be something of a spirited and readily enjoyable confection. A major reason for this is what must be the dream cast of Jane Fonda, Candice…

Australian String Quartet: Schubert Ledger Shostakovich Works by two of the great quartet composers bookend this fascinating program – Schubert’s Thirteenth and Shostakovich’s Tenth. In between, a contemporary flavour is added with an electric new work by Australian composer James Ledger, renowned for his ability to create striking imagery in musical form. WHEN: September 26 – October 9 WHERE: Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide BOOK: 1800 040 444 [ asq.com.au  ]…

Brisbane Festival: Peter Grimes Peter Grimes is the defining British opera of the 20th century and a masterpiece of musical theatre. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Rory Macdonald, and the staging will be by brilliant UK director Daniel Slater. Joining Stuart Skelton for this once-in-a-lifetime event are British singers soprano Sally Matthews and baritone Mark Stone as Ellen and Balstrode, the two characters who resolutely stand beside the titanic, but shunned outsider. WHEN: September 20 – 22 WHERE: QPAC BOOK: 136 246 [ brisbanefestival.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…

1. Which works geographically link Richard Wagner and Arnold Bax? 2. Bartók’s Mandarin was only debatably flesh and blood, but what was his Prince made of? 3. What did Beethoven call Fidelio before it became Fidelio? 4. A doctor, a painter and a countess all fall for which operatic heroine? 5. Which of Morton Feldman’s works was inspired by an American painter? 6. What Shakespearean play links Benjamin Britten with Erich Wolfgang Korngold? 7. What is the link between Leonard Bernstein’s operas A Quiet Place and Trouble in Tahiti? 8. Maurice Greene may have played second fiddle to Handel, but what did he become that the German composer never did? 9. Which legendary maestro and wit quipped that “The English may not like music, but they love the noise it…

ANTONY PITTS (RE) MAKING MACHAUT PAGE 28 Antony is a composer, conductor and winner of the Prix Italia and Cannes Classical Awards. His career ranges from Chapel Royal treble and New College Oxford Academic and to TONUS PEREGRINUS founder, BBC Radio 3 Senior Producer and Artistic Director of The Song Company. RHYS RYAN DRACULA PAGE 91 Rhys is an emerging contemporary dance maker, performer and writer. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from the Victorian College of the Arts and is engaged as a performer and choreographer in Melbourne’s independent dance scene. PATRICIA MAUNDER AN IDEAL HUSBAND PAGE 92 Patricia has been an arts journalist since the 1990s, contributing to publications including The Age and Opera magazine (UK). Passionate about opera, cabaret and anything Baroque, she’s based in…

Thank you to Chris Lloyd for the entertaining article comparing Test cricket and classical music [in the August issue of Limelight]. As a lover of classical music, especially Wagner and Der Ring des Nibelungen, and as a committed Test cricket supporter, I have also often pondered on their similarities. I would like, however, to add my third obsession to these, which is Alpine trekking. All three last for a number of days and all three can have long passages of struggle, with little apparent progress. Take for instance Wotan’s retelling of his life story, a soporific afternoon session with no wickets, or a long viewless climb up the side of a misty mountain. However these passages allow for the sudden, sometimes unexpected, ecstatic moments. Brünnhilde’s Immolation, a spectacular catch in…

Slovenian conductor Marko Letonja has been named the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Conductor Laureate. The appointment comes at the end of his seven-year tenure as Chief Conductor, which comes to a close this year. Beginning in 2012, Letonja’s tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director was extended through 2018 to coincide with the TSO’s 70th anniversary season. His new appointment will span three years from the 2019 season and will see Letonja return to Tasmania for at least three weeks annually to conduct orchestral and operatic concerts. “Marko’s charismatic conducting style and excellence in repertoire selection have forged a remarkable connection with both the orchestra and our audience,” TSO Managing Director Nicholas Heyward said. The Orchestra has announced that after an extensive international search, it is will announce Letonja’s replacement…

This month I am writing in praise of sleep. I have just read a fascinating book called Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker, Director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California and it seems most of us are not getting enough. Walker says two thirds of adults throughout all developed nations fail to obtain the recommended eight hours of sleep a night, and that routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours “demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer”. That warning is enough to keep you awake at night, just when you really need to be doing the opposite. It is a badge of honour in our society to say we don’t need much sleep, but at what cost? Maybe we are…

You’ll be performing the Bruch Violin Concerto in Australia. Can you remember when you first came across it, and how has your relationship to it changed? Yes, I was 10 when I learnt it for the first time as it’s one of the concertos you do learn when you’re young. Not because it’s easy but because it’s a perfect example of Romantic music and when you’re little you just love this kind of music. It’s a perfect piece. My relationship to it is always changing, even from performance to performance – it’s never the same. It also depends with whom you play, which orchestra and conductor. All of these things can influence how you play it on a particular night. Is there a special challenge in playing a piece that’s…

I’m in this business because it brings me such great joy, but the lessons learned in Evita were phenomenal. It has forever associated me with that part – and I got to play it in Sydney, which was fantastic! – but does anybody ever want to go through any kind of pain? No! Mandy [Patinkin] and I were both desperately filled with fear, fear of the hugeness of it. This was probably the hugest ever musical to come down the pike ever, and there was a lot of responsibility on our shoulders to deliver. The critics were against it from the beginning for a couple of reasons: British composers usurping an American invention, and [a musical] glorifying a Nazi sympathiser. There was a lot of fear every night onstage, to…

In the midst of its biggest upgrade since throwing open its doors in 1973, the Sydney Opera House is turning 45. Firmly middle-aged, it’s being nipped and tucked – call it refreshed – for the 1.5 million that go there to see a show, that stroll up and down the Broadwalk taking photos, having a drink and admiring the projections on the iconic sails. Reflecting on the occasion, Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron leans forward in her seat and gazes out of her office window. It’s a glorious Sydney morning, the kind where sky meets sea in an expanse of blue and everything is shot through with golden yellow. It’s also early, so the curious, excited tourists haven’t yet flocked to the House, leaving the surrounds to assume a…

The ABC Recordings Various artists ABC CLASSICS 4811293 (10CD) The go-to 10CD boxset makes a fitting tribute with a host of essential and authoritative first recordings by leading Australian artists and orchestras. String Quartets Volume 1 Goldner String Quartet TALL POPPIES TP089 The Goldners worked closely with Sculthorpe over many years on these seminal works. All three volumes in this series bear a unique stamp of authenticity. From Australia John Williams g , ACO, LSO/Hickox, Daniel SONY G0100033902113 A beautiful recording and global release that took Sculthorpe’s music abroad. John Williams is a must hear in Nourlangie, From Kakadu and Into the Dreaming. Complete Piano Music Tamara-Anna Cislowska p ABC CLASSICS 4811181 (2CD) Cislowska played Sculthorpe’s Piano Concerto at the age of 14 and became…

Mozart in London Music by Mozart, JC Bach, Abel et al Classical Opera, The Mozartists/ Ian Page SIGNUM SIGCD534 (2CD) What the eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart must have thought of London during his first and only visit to the English capital between 1764-1765. Neither he, nor his 12-year-old sister Nannerl, nor his father Leopold, nor his mother Anna Maria, had even seen the ocean before, when they set out from Calais. But everyone during their Grand Tour of Europe insisted they must visit London, and the 15-month stay was in some ways to be the making of Mozart, musically speaking. “This is as vivid a musical portrait of London during a particular time that one could hope for” Not only was Mozart to meet the great JC Bach – ‘the…

Bach Complete Keyboard works Volume 1 Benjamin Alard hpsd & org HMM90245052 (3CD) The general listener is often wedded to the idea of originality as the hallmark of genius. Professional musicians, having had more of an opportunity to delve into the formation and evolution of a composer’s musical language, know better. Thankfully, more and more are willing to share the fruits of their researches in ways that expand our understanding – of works, as well as the world of the composer – in novel recording projects such as harpsichordist and organist Benjamin Alard’s. By the time he reaches the end of his complete account of JS Bach’s keyboard works, Alard will have been the first musician to do it. On the strength of this first volume, we can look forward…

A centenary is an ideal excuse to revisit the work of a great artist, and this year we have one of the greatest, the Swedish dramatic soprano Birgit Nilsson (featured in the May 2018 issue of Limelight). Nilsson was born in 1918 and died on Christmas Day, 2005. She recorded primarily for Decca, but appeared in EMI and RCA opera sets too. All are included in this elegantly massive Decca box of 79 CDs and two DVDs, simply titled La Nilsson. (Separately, Sony has released a centenary collection of rare live performances.) La Nilsson did not have a creamy voice of sheer beauty: hers was a powerful laser, a combination of silver and steel, formidable at the top, and her stamina made her the perfect singer to battle the orchestras…

Accidental Death of an Anarchist In a first for this play, director Sarah Giles has assembled an all-female cast to bring Dario Fo’s farce to life. Sydney Theatre Company, September 10 – October 27 Calamity Jane There’s a bar on the stage, a single piano, and Virigina Gay giving her all as the title character in this beloved musical receiving a return season. Belvoir St Theatre, August 23 – September 30 Luna Gale This gripping play explores what it takes to raise a child, and whether it’s possible for someone to be completely rehabilitated. Ensemble Theatre, September 7 – October 13 A Doll’s House, Part 2 In 1879, Nora Helmer left husband and home, slamming the door behind her. But what ever happened to her? Melbourne Theatre Company, August 11…

Art Deco Presenting superb examples of the movement’s interest in the meeting of art, architecture and technology. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, until December Brett Whiteley: Pathways to Figuration Demonstrates how his mastery of line, tone and edge informed his pursuit to represent the human figure. Art Gallery of NSW, until October A Modern Life Illustrates the growing engagement with modern design by commercial manufacturers. National Gallery of Victoria, Sydney, until January 2019…

“I always pick up a copy of Limelight magazine when I come home to Australia as it’s a fantastic way of keeping up to date with what’s happening in Australia’s musical world. I love to see the creative projects that have been dreamt up by some of my friends and also by our wonderful orchestras. While I’m away, following the @LimelightEd Twitter feed gives me a little piece of home too, which is lovely.” NEVER MISS AN ISSUE OF AUSTRALIA’S ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC AND THE ARTS Subscribe on page 66 or visit limelightmagazine.com.au/subscribe…

Omega Ensemble: Joy: Farrenc and Beethoven Violinist Veronique Serret and pianist Clemens Leske join forces for Beethoven’s Spring Sonata. This work for violin and piano celebrates new directions in music bridging the Classical and Romantic periods. Also on the program is the Nonet by 19th-century composer Louise Farrenc, a trailblazer for female composers to come, and Schubert’s Notturno, a gift of melody in all its glory. The evening concludes with a special arrangement of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Russian Rag. WHEN: September 25 WHERE: City Recital Hall BOOK: (02) 8256 2222 [ omegaensemble.com.au  ]…

ABC CLASSIC FM SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA September 25 at 1pm “It is important for any musician to keep the repertoire alive,” German cellist Alban Gerhardt told Limelight in 2017. “We can’t just play music by dead composers, that is almost a perversion of what music has always been about. During Bach’s time, one played only music which was contemporary, same during the Classical period. And now it is special if we play also modern music?” He’s certainly a musician who puts his money where his mouth is – having asked his “old and good friend” Brett Dean to write him a cello concerto, he gives the Australian premiere of the new work with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It’s the centrepiece of an intriguing program conducted by David Robertson, which also…

VERISMO MAGIC IN THE SWISS ALPS Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur is one of those operas that creeps in and out of the repertory, usually when there’s a great soprano with oodles of personality to take on the title role. The Metropolitan Opera will soon have the great Anna Netrebko helming David McVicar’s widely seen staging, while the Royal Opera House has mounted it in recent years for diva Angela Gheorghiu. Singers of the past to have left an indelible impression in the title role include Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé and Renata Scotto. But that’s not to say that it’s a mere soprano vehicle – there are juicy roles for tenor, soprano and baritone to boot, meaning it can be a real event when pulled off properly. This concert broadcast from…

My first formal brush with music was shared with the vast majority of young Australians of my era – piano lessons at the age of seven under the stern eye of Eric Clapham in suburban Melbourne. My parents were sure that my long fingers presaged a potential Claudio Arrau, but the daily practice was an ordeal, only relieved years later, when my new teacher explained to them that passing the fourth grade exam by one mark made a concert career for me problematic. Living then in rural Victoria, I joined the local brass band, where the only vacancy was on E Flat Tuba. After lugging that burping monster around for a year, I was hugely relieved to be promoted to cornet. Traditional jazz and folk music was all the rage…

WEST SIDE STORIES Within weeks of the announcement that Opera Australia will be presenting a new production of Leonard Bernstein’s iconic West Side Story as its Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in March 2019, the company has announced that another different production (this one indoors) will come to Sydney and Melbourne next year. It will be at Arts Centre Melbourne in April and the Sydney Opera House in August. ACO VINYL TRIUMPHS The first Australian-produced classical vinyl for two decades has taken out Best Independent Classical Album at this year’s AIR Awards, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association’s annual awards. A collaboration between the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the ABC Classics release pairs Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with Greenwood’s own work Water, written during his time…

1. How did Yehudi Menuhin first come into your life? My family were forced to leave South Africa in the 70s as my father is a political writer who was an anti-apartheid activist. We ended up in London but ran out of money. By chance my mother landed the job of secretary to Yehudi Menuhin. It was supposed to last six months but she remained for 26 years. Menuhin became a huge influence on all my family. He called himself my “musical grandfather”. That is the way I like to remember him. 2. You must have heard some amazing performances and collaborations? I was fortunate to grow up in part in Menuhin’s house, surrounded by wonderful musicians, from Menuhin to Rostropovich, but also Ravi Shankar and Stéphane Grappelli. I recall…

San Francisco Opera had a big hit in June and July with its three-cycle run of Francesca Zambello’s “American” Ring Cycle, which tackles climate change and man’s destruction of the planet. Conducted by Donald Runnicles with Greer Grimsley as Wotan, Iréne Theorin as Brünnhilde and Daniel Brenna as Siegfried, Limelight reviewer Clive Paget said: “As [Zambello’s] keenly-argued, consistently intelligent reading reaches its titanic conclusion, one can’t help but feel that the nature-loving Wagner would have approved.”…

I wrote my first real string quartet in 2011 for the Australian String Quartet. I say real, as I did write an early quartet sometime last century – a work I ended up chopping and re-scoring for wind quartet. The string quartet is almost the perfect ensemble to write for. It has a huge range in expression, colour and power, all within a self-contained unit of four instruments. Having said that, I am very much aware of the legacy of quartet repertoire that has been created since Haydn first thought it would be a good idea to put two violins, a viola and a cello together. It is perhaps because of this legacy that I felt I had to create some sort of subterfuge. And I did this through the…

parcel arrived outside my front door – just a few weeks before The Song Company’s True-Love-Story tour. It weighed over seven kilograms. It was the delivery of a superbly-produced facsimile of the Ferrell-Vogüé Machaut Manuscript (known as “Vg” to use its scholarly siglum or abbreviation), one of the most significant surviving manuscripts from the 14th century. Vg is almost the earliest of the “complete works” of that century’s most accomplished composer, Guillaume de Machaut. In the 21st century, with the help of its modern UK publisher, the Oxford-based Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM), this 800-page manuscript “has gone from being the most secret and enigmatic of the Machaut sources to the most accessible” as DIAMM puts it. So it was with considerable care and some frisson that, having…

Growing up in Brazil, we learned about the Peróns in school. What helps me create the character of Juan Perón is an awareness of how politics worked in Brazil, which was a neighbouring country. And of course, I made lots of research and read lots of books about Evita, because that’s what it’s about after all (and a little bit of the story of Perón). We first see him as one of the generals, playing politicians’ games and being the last one in charge. He’s a sympathetic figure, but he is a strong general and very smart too. When he meets Evita, it’s the first time he realises changes need to be made. Being strong, Evita can handle situations. She is more than a wife, she’s a partner in the…

It has been more than 15 years since The Australian Ballet last performed its popular production of Spartacus choreographed by László Seregi. That 2002 season, which featured Steven Heathcote as one of the dancers playing the gladiator-rebel Spartacus, also happened to be Lucas Jervies’ final ballet as a performer with the company. “Steven actually died on my back. I was also lucky enough to have Robert Curran die on my back. I was 21 and shaking in my slave boots. I was more of an extra or supernumerary. I was never a great dancer,” said Jervies candidly at a lunch for the Friends of The Australian Ballet late last year. But Jervies recalls being inspired as he watched Heathcote, Curran and the other male dancers being given the chance to…

LIVED 1929 - 2014 MOSTLY IN LAUNCESTON AND SYDNEY BEST KNOWN FOR IRKANDA, SUN MUSIC, KAKADU, REQUIEM, STRING QUARTETS SIMILAR TO ANTILL, MEALE, LUMSDAINE, EDWARDS The music of Peter Sculthorpe remains one of the most original creative responses to Australia’s natural landscape and ‘spirit of place’ coined by any non-Indigenous artist. His appreciation of the continent’s vastness and the fragility of its environment, and respect for the wisdom of its traditional owners, were firmly implanted in his artistic makeup, but not without a small note of irony. Sculthorpe was a dedicated city dweller, based for most of his life in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, surrounded by a neat garden of camelias and potted bamboo, but none of the straggling gums-trees that his earlier music, in particular, so deftly conjure.…

Was Mozart’s London trip successful? There is a school of thought that the trip was not a success, based on the fact that at the beginning of his visit he was summoned to give private performances for King George III and Queen Charlotte, while in his final weeks in the city he was performing musical tricks in pubs to a paying public. I don’t really buy into this theory though. The final ‘pub’ performances were a logical way of amassing some extra cash for the long journey home, and the Mozarts would not have stayed in London for as long as they did if it were not beneficial. How much do we know about what he did? We’re lucky that Mozart’s father Leopold and sister Nannerl both kept travel notes,…

Rossini Semiramide Albina Shagimuratova s, Daniela Barcellona ms, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Sir Mark Elder OPERA RARA OR (4CD) Ten years after he conquered Venice in 1813 with Tancredi, Rossini was back with Semiramide, a work notable as both his final Italian opera and his longest. Two-and-a-quarter hours of first act and an even longer second half was bolstered by a five-act ballet inserted by La Fenice management in case anyone felt short-changed. With ten scene changes, a sizable chorus and onstage military band it was a vast undertaking, and only a partial success, not least because of the supposedly waning powers of Rossini’s prima donna, his wife Isabella Colbran. Nevertheless, Stendahl’s review of the 1825 Paris premiere hit the nail on the head suggesting that if Tancredi recalled…

“Felix would often perform sections of Shakespeare’s text with his sister Fanny” After this, what is left for us to write? Such was Schubert’s reaction to the publication of Beethoven’s final string quartet in 1826 – one can only imagine his despair when Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge was published later that year. Happily, this didn’t deter Schubert from composing – from 1826 until his death in 1828, he went through what must rank as one of the richest creative periods in history, composing his Great C Major Symphony, String Quartet No 14 (Death and the Maiden), Ständchen, the song cycles Winterreise and Schwanengesang, his String Quintet, his Impromptus, both piano trios and his final three piano sonatas. Turns out there was quite a bit left to write! 1826 was the year…

Giselle A young girl falls madly in love with a duke in disguise. When she realises his identity, the shock sends her mad and she dies. The Australian Ballet, Melbourne, August 30 – September 8 Cinderella Charming, humorous and blissfully romantic, Ben Stevenson’s acclaimed production is perfect fairy-tale entertainment for everyone. Queensland Ballet, September 7 – 15 Dust An investigation into the architecture of passive personal, social, cultural and political inheritances. Dancenorth, Townsville and Brisbane tour, September 12 – 22…

MUGGLES SPEND BIG THEATRE Australians spent approximately $25 million to see the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in just four days of pre-sales. Estimates put the number of tickets sold at 200,000 seats, across more than 200 available performances, making it the highest-selling play in pre-sale in Australian history. Written by Jack Thorne on a new story by Thorne, J.K. Rowling and the show’s director John Tiffany, the play is divided into two parts, with tickets to each sold separately. Reviewing the New York opening for Limelight, Clive Paget awarded the hotly-anticipated show five stars. AUSSIES DOMINATE GENÉE DANCE Among the more than 50 dancers taking part in this year’s prestigious Genée International Ballet Competition are 20 Australians – the largest representation from any single country. Open to…

Victorian Opera: The Capulets and the Montagues The ultimate tale of doomed love marks the thrilling finale to Victorian Opera’s Bellini concert series. The rarely-heard masterpiece draws two of Australia’s finest singers home as Romeo and Juliet; internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup and superstar soprano Jessica Pratt. In the pit, Richard Mills conducts the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. WHEN: September 14 WHERE: Arts Centre Melbourne BOOK: 1300 182 183 [ victorianopera.com.au  ]…

Having wowed audiences with her recent turn as Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the superstar soprano Jessica Pratt returns to Victorian Opera after last year’s acclaimed La Sonnambula for another Bellini work, this time The Capulets and the Montagues. She’ll be joined by the very fine mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup as one half of the story’s starcrossed lovers. More convoluted than Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Bellini’s opera foregrounds the toxicity of the conflicted families. Marking the beginning of the composer’s mature period, it’ss full of the melting melodies and long vocal lines that he would become famous for. Talking to Limelight, Pratt described Bellini as “incredibly melancholic. It’s really important to find this melancholia in his music. A lot of the Sicilian comes out in him with his music and this melancholia…

Thanks to the Royal Opera House’s agreement with BP Big Screen, audiences across the world can stream its July performance of Don Giovanni on demand, either on YouTube or Opera Vision. Though reviews for this revival of Kasper Holten’s staging remain as ambivalent as when it opened in 2014 – many deplored what they saw as a penchant for unrelenting stage business – notices were markedly more positive for the cast, described as “uniformly wonderful” by The Spectator. Long established as one of the world’s leading exponents of the title role, Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien brings his usual dramatic alertness to proceedings, drawing comparisons to Cesare Siepi. He’s supported by a top-notch cast, standouts including Italian bass Ildebrando D’Arcangelo and American soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensens, a splendidly realised Donna Anna. The…

British clarinettist Julian Bliss toured Australia in August, playing with Camerata, NZTrio and at the AFCM in Townsville. “I’ve always wanted to experiment and try new things,” he told Limelight. What might he be thinking here? ENTER TO WIN... Beethoven String Quartets Beethoven Complete Quartets The Takács Quartet’s Complete Beethoven String Quartets on Decca (7CDs, 1DVD, 1 Blu-ray disc). SEND YOUR CAPTION TO: Limelight Magazine, Suite 37, Level 13, 167 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000, or email caption@limelightmagazine.com.au For full terms and conditions, go to www.limelightmagazine.com.au.…

SCHUBERT STRING QUINTET Pavel Haas Quartet, Ishizaka, Supraphon SU41102 I’d have to split this between ‘Round About Midnight with Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and the Pavel Haas Quartet version of Schubert’s String Quintet. I’ve listened to many versions of the Schubert but the Pavel Haas version seems to capture the work in a way I’ve not quite heard before. It has the intense sadness and melancholy it deserves, but also a driving energy and confidence that makes me feel every choice they made was near perfect.…