Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the youngest knight ever created? And what did the adult knights think of the appointment?!
Today’s The Australian reports on Vatican documents dating back to 1770 in which Pope Clement XIV awarded Mozart the Chivalric Order of the Golden Spur. More at…
Seong-Jin Cho from South Korea has been announced as the winner of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition recently concluded in Warsaw. The 21-year old student of Michel Béroff at the Paris Conservatoire was in a field of ten finalists drawn from 450 applicants adjudicated by Dmitri Alexeev, Martha Argerich, Philippe Entremont, Nelson Goerner, Garrick Ohlsson and chaired…
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.
Australian theatre director Benedict Andrews’ vision of Puccini’s opera La bohème opened at the English National Opera this week. The director has raised controversy again (remember his 2012 imagining of The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Australia?) with his portrayal of Mimi and Rodolfo as heroin addicts. Read the review in The Guardian, in The Telegraph and The…
….meantime at London’s Royal Opera in Covent Garden, Australian soprano Nicole Car has won hearts with her portrayal of Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen. Making her Covent Garden debut her performance has been described as “the evening’s most complete performance; her luminous soprano proves ideal for Bizet’s soaring lines and she acts with intelligence and immediacy.” The…
It was in July that pianist Yuja Wang dazzled Australian audiences with her performances, described as “dazzling…tender…(and) stylish” (Sydney Morning Herald). She is now poised to release a new recording in Australia, entitled Ravel (available October 23, 2015) on the Deutsche Grammophon label, on which she performs with the celebrated Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under young conductor Lionel…
Receiving personalised presents from good friends is surely one of the best things about celebrating a birthday. New music ensemble Halcyon celebrated its 15th birthday in 2013, with 21 new songs written especially for them by some of Australia’s finest songwriters. These songs have been crafted on to a new recording Kingfisher – Songs for…