Did the ailments of composers influence the music they wrote?! Did Tavener’s life-threatening inherited disease Marfan’s Syndrome initiate the otherworldly sound of his music? Did Beethoven’s deafness cause him to focus on his physiological rhythms?
Click here to read Tom Service’s feature in The Guardian.
The death was announced earlier this evening of Peter Sculthorpe AO, OBE, arguably the best known Australian composer of the day. He was aged 85. His output included works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments and choral works. He is possibly best known for his integration of Aboriginal and South East Asian idioms into his writing creating a distinct…
Congratulations to soprano Zoe Drummond who is the winner of the 2018 Marianne Mathy Scholarship (‘The Mathy’). The 25-year-old received a purse of $30,000 to assist with a programme of study and/or singing activity. As well, she won the Audition Prize from the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, the opportunity to audition for Lyric Opera of…
Gramophone Magazine has packaged its explorations of all of Beethoven’s symphonies by nine leading international conductors – Norrington, Zinman, Jansons, Vänskä, Gardiner, Iván Fischer, Tilson Thomas, Paavo Järvi and Chailly A terrific chance to gain some understanding of these cornerstones of the symphonic repertoire.
If the state of Albania had its way, tenor Saimir Pirgu would have had a career as a violinist after state-sponsored talent scouts spotted him as a pre-schooler at the end of the Communist regime. His parents went along with the plan. But, in a case of State v Fate, the precociously gifted musician, inspired…
Chief Conductor, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson has garnered glowing reviews (Limelight, SMH) for his programming and direction of last week’s 2015 season opening performances of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Last weekend, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Nick Galvin asked 15 Sydneysiders how they would make Sydney better place in 2015. David Robertson’s vision sees a…
This week’s complimentary opera performances from the Metropolitan Opera: three operas inspired by Shakespeare—including Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, starring Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, two classic archival telecasts and Rossini’s madcap Il Barbiere di Siviglia and a dreamy performance of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, starring Renée Fleming as the Marschallin. Each stream becomes available at 7:30PM…