2012 Art Music Awards nominees
It’s awards time again and the 2012 Art Music Award winners will be announced at the Sydney Opera House on Amongst the nominees are some of the leading lights of Australian art music – Brett Dean, Elliot Gyger, Paul Stanhope, Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe and Clare Maclean, as well as comparative newcomers Andrea Keller, Peter Knight…
Fiona Campbell: “Love + Loss”
” A CD that displays my music making abilities and music that is rare” is how mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell describes her latest project, Love + Loss, a debut solo recording of three cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti, Joseph Haydn and George Frideric Handel. It’s an achievement of which she is justifiably proud. Her performance earned high praise from…
Operation Opera
Does opera have to develop a two tier format to attract new audiences whilst continuing to present the art form in its purest sense to traditional opera lovers? The current productions of The Marriage of Figaro and The (abbreviated) Magic Flute have generated some very strong opinions and audience reactions. Opera Australia CEO Adrian Collette talks to…
Flying with instruments
Qantas announces its new instrument friendly travel plan: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/qantas-finally-in-tune-with-frustrated-musicians-on-luggage-issue/story-e6frg8n6-1226284405463
Satsuki Odamura on the koto
Don’t look now but there could just be a vibrant new genre of music unfolding. One that makes a statement about Australia’s standing in the world – both musically and geographically. At one level it is another concert in Sydney’s smorgasbord of events. But step back and look at the bigger picture – it is music that embodies antipodean…
The week’s concerts in review…
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra plays Beethoven and R Strauss: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/leaders-note-clash-of-the-titans-strikes-a-timely-chord-20120223-1tqj0.html http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/exhilarating-climb-in-strausss-alps/story-e6frg8n6-1226275087259 The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Venice Secrets: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/a-stumbling-seasonal-start-will-take-time-to-settle-down-20120223-1tq9t.html http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/consistently-inconsistent-solos-mar-vivaldi-concertos/story-e6frg8n6-1226279859757
Marko Letonja takes up the beat with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
For a number of years in the recent past, Sydneysiders were treated to performances by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra during the first week of August. This annual tour was inaugurated by its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing, under whose leadership, the TSO also amassed an impressive discography which included the complete Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies. After…
The Secret’s out!
Beautiful black and white images from the rehearsals of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s current season of Venice Secrets. The season continues at the City Recital Hall. http://soundslikesydney.com.au/shows/the-australian-brandenburg-orchestra-reveals-secret-venice/6281.html Images taken by Steven Godbee and reproduced with his kind permission.
Verdi and Wagner – contemporaries who were worlds apart
Verdi and Wagner. Born in the same year each took opera to unprecedented levels in keeping with their national identities. There the similarities grind to a very definite end. Thames and Hudson has recently published a book on the lives and works of these giants of music drama. The author, Tasmanian born Peter Conrad, taught English Literature at…