Latest news
Pianos for the people
For the third consecutive year, the city of New York has been dotted with 88 pianos (equalling the number of keys on a piano), offering anyone who is taken by the urge, to sit down and tickle the ivories. An initiative of Sing for Hope, a not for profit organisation, the pianos will be moved…
Stephen Hough on happiness
Named in 2009 as one of the top 20 living polymaths, Stephen Hough talks about his main preoccupation – happiness – both for himself and bringing it to others through his music. Click here to read the feature in The New Statesman.
A New General Manager for La Scala
Alexander Pereira, the Austrian director of the Salzburg festival has been appointed General Manager of Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He will work with the Music Director Daniel Barenboim at the historic opera house which was inaugurated in 1778. The incumbent GM, Stéphane Lissner, appointed in 2005, will take over the Paris Opera in 2015. La Scala boasts…
Filming hits the wrong note with pianist Zimmerman
Pianist Krystian Zimmerman made a point about audience filming during recitals at a recent performance in Germany. Click here to read the article from the BBC.
Richard Mills withdraws from ‘The Ring’
Opera Australia announced today that Richard Mills who was to conduct the inaugural Melbourne Ring Cycle at the end of 2013 has withdrawn from the project. Here is the statement in full from Opera Australia: “Opera Australia has today announced that Richard Mills, conductor of the Melbourne Ring Cycle, is withdrawing from the project. Artistic…
NY Times lauds an Australian composer
Australian composer Nicholas Vines has received a ringing endorsement by no less a journal than The New York Times, for his composition for clarinet and piano, Rustling the Deities. Performed by the “superb new-music ensemble counter)induction” (Allan Kozinn in The New York Times), this review happily supports the release last week of the debut recording of Vines’ music Torrid…
Latest reviews
CD Review: ‘Pavarotti – The 50 Greatest Tracks’ reflects a life in song
Pavarotti The 50 Greatest Tracks is a new release from Decca commemorating two half century anniversaries. The first is his international debut in 1963 as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Amsterdam, followed later that year by his Covent Garden debut as Rodolfo in La Boheme, replacing the indisposed Giuseppe di Stefano – the serendipitous call to…
Review: ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year Award, Grand Final 2013
The Grand Final of the 2013 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year Award held at the Melbourne Town Hall on October 12th 2013, was a fine exhibition of musical abilities. It was also an emotional event, due in large part to the evening’s proceedings being dedicated to the memory of John Hopkins, AM OBE,…