Latest news
2014 Menuhim Competition Winners Announced
The first and second place winners in the prestigious Menuhin competition for violinists are just 17 and 14 years old! Founded in 1983 by Yehudi Menuhin, the competition’s previous winners include Julia Fischer and Tamsin Little. The first prize includes the opportunity to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra, an individual prize of $10,000 and the one-year loan of fine Italian…
Honour for Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, now 84 and retired from conducting has been made an Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Read more from Gramophone Magazine.
The Story Behind Handel’s Messiah
Here in Sydney we’re more likely to hear Handel’s Messiah performed at Christmas rather than at Easter. Yet, a significant portion of this oratorio is centred on the Passion, and it’s premiere was in April 1742, in Dublin. Subsequently, Messiah became associated with London’s Foundling Hospital for orphans, where Handel directed a performance of it…
News From Catherine Carby
She has been a versatile and popular performer on Australia’s opera stage – as Carmen, she memorably tied up Stuart Skelton’s Don Jose; wore a beard as Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress for which she won a Helpmann Award; consoled Cheryl Barker’s Cio- Cio San as Suzuki in Madame Butterfly and received…
Richard Strauss – His Music, His Muse And His Marriage
This year marks the 150th birth anniversary of Richard Strauss (b June 11, 1864). Here in Sydney we have just been enthralled by a concert production of his opera Elektra from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Strauss wrote extensively for the voice, inspired by his wife and muse, soprano Pauline de Ahna, with whom he is…
Classical Music In Books
In the United Kingdom, World Book Day is celebrated on the first Thursday in March. To celebrate, BBC Music Magazine lists 12 of the best books which feature classical music.
Latest reviews
Concert Review: Imogen Cooper Plays Schubert, Schumann and Brahms
In her own words, “Schumann and Schubert are central contenders for my heart”, and thus it was that these composers formed the core of the programme which pianist Imogen Cooper CBE, performed during her present tour for Music Viva. Speaking before the second half of her concert in Sydney this week, Cooper observed that…
Review: The Elixir Of Love/Opera Australia
The Elixir of Love (L’elisir d’amore) Melodramma giocoso in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Felice Romani, after Eugène Scribe’s text for Daniel-François-Esprit Auber’s Le philtre (1831); Opera Australia, Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, August 11th, 2014. After a very popular and beautifully executed season of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in 2013,…