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He was an exacting taskmaster, as this invaluable archival footage demonstrates. Benjamin Britten is seen rehearsing his choral overture The Building of the House for its premiere in 1967.
Click here to view.
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The Goldner String Quartet is spending this week as Ensemble-in-Residence at the Oxford May Music festival. Their opening performance at the festival earned a glowing review from Andrew Clements of The Guardian who said “(their) appearances confirm them as one of the finest string quartets around today.” You can hear them perform in Sydney in late…
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January. It’s a good month to spend in Sydney. The frenzy of Christmas is over; New Year has been cast off with a stretch and a yawn. It’s time to sniff the air of what’s new and enjoy the unbridled ‘eclecticosm’ of Sydney in January before the relative safety of the year’s subscription series. Top…
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It was like trying to keep up with two fine young colts let loose to play after training. Jeffrey Thomson and Hadleigh Adams are in Sydney to sing the twin male leads in Jean-Phillipe Rameau’s Castor and Pollux, which is to hit the boards at the City Rectal Hall under the auspices of Pinchgut Opera,…
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This weekend the Sydney Chamber Choir (see our post), presents their concert “Bach to the Future” performing three of JS Bach’s great motets, and building on them with the works of contemporary composers who include Richard Marlowe, Stephen Paulus, and Gabriel Jackson. Amongst this cohort is a young Australian composer, Joseph Twist who is in fact, a…
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Thespian Simon Callow believes that Der Rosenkavalier is Richard Strauss’ most successful opera. “The stage throngs with action, comic intrigues, genre scenes, farce, double cross-dressing, but …..it hinges on moments of the most sublime stillness: the Marschallin’s meditation on time in the first act, the presentation of the silver rose in the second, and that final trio.” Read the…
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Clare Salaman is a British musicians who founded the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments in 2010 “to explore a repertoire that ranges from folk songs and earthy dances to high art music from the 18th century and before, as well as newly composed pieces.” View this video from the BBC of some instruments in her unusual…