CD review: ‘Sappho’ the opera by Peggy Glanville-Hicks
The eagerly anticipated world premiere recording of Peggy Glanville-Hick’s opera Sappho, with libretto by Lawrence Durrell, is at last on the shelves, timed to perfection with the centenary of the composer’s birth on December 29th 2012 (d 25th June 1990). The 2 CD set released by Toccata Classics is a recording of the complete opera…
Vienna Boys Choir ‘Jubilate Deo’ – classics amidst innovation and the traditional
The Vienna Boys Choir CD Jubilate Deo was released by ABC Classics (476 5094) earlier this year to coincide with the choir’s tour to Australia. This would explain the Antipodean content amongst the 17 tracks on the hour long collection of old and new choral classics, many of which sound best when peformed by the lucent voices of…
Simply beautiful: ‘North + South’ from Jane Sheldon, CD review
Soprano Jane Sheldon is a well respected and popular exponent of two broad styles of music at opposite ends of the timeline – Baroque and early music and, ‘New’ music. Her latest venture a CD with the title North + South (Phosphor Records PR 0001), released earlier this month, demonstrates her mastery of yet another style. North + South is a…
‘Queen’s’ winning hand reviewed
Saturday night was the first ot two performances by the Sydney Symphony of a concert version of Tchaikowsky’s Queen of Spades. Not performed in Sydney since 1979 it is a rare opportunity to hear this masterpiece, and the out-of -this-world soloists who have gathered in Sydney to sing with the orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy….
‘The Lighthouse’ reviewed
Sydney Chamber Opera recently presented a superb production of The Lighthouse by Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, highy commended by those who saw it. Peter McCallum reviews it for the Sydney Morning Herald: Click here to read.
Sumi Jo recital reviewed
Murray Black reviews Sumi Jo’s recital for The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/deja-vu-of-the-best-kind/story-fn9d2mxu-1226519854341
S’wonderful – Simon Tedeschi’s ‘Gershwin and Me’
Though separated by time, pianist Simon Tedeschi and George Gershwin have been connected in spirit. Tedeschi’s newly released CD Gershwin and Me ( ABC Classics 481 00322) is an expression of this simpatico, affirmed by Tedeschi’s introduction to the CD in which he says “Gershwin’s music has, in some ways, been the accompaniment to my…
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reviewed
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is the musical from the book written by the alter-ego of Ian (James Bond) Fleming. The musical starring David Hobson opened in Sydney last week. John McCallum reviews the show: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/flying-cars-are-cool-and-so-are-villains/story-e6frg8n6-1226519085593
Synaesthesia: reviewing a journey into the unknown
Descending the spiral staircases into the darkened subterranean caverns of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), was like entering the recesses of the subconscious. The museum was about to host the inaugural coming together of a collision of sensory experiences in the form of Synaesthesia: Music of Colour and Mind, a festival that…