Latest news
Chamber music – 2012 in Sydney
Chamber music is the focus in the continuing overview of Sydney’s 2012 concert agenda. Australia’s flagship chamber ensemble, the Australian Chamber Orchestra continues its innovative and classy programming performing classics as well as thinking outside the square. They’re bringing to Sydney guests artists whom one would otherwise need to travel the world to hear. Chief amongst these…
Opera – 2012 in Sydney
As the summer holidays end and the Sydney Festival wraps up, Sydneysiders contemplate the start of a wealth of subscription series. Despite the struggle to survive and intense competition for audiences and sponsorship, performing arts companies will offer Sydneysiders numerous opportunities for their delectation, ranging from rare one-offs, through to the equivalent of an evening with…
Vale Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt, Dutch harpsichordist, organist and a world authority on early music, has died after ill health caused him to retire from public performance just last month. http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/harpsichordist-and-conductor-gustav-leonhardt-has-died
Gramophone ranks The Sixteen at No 4 in the world.
Here’s the link to Eric Whitacre’s list of his top 20 international choirs and why they deserve to be there. (Gramophone, December 2010). Soon to perform in Sydney, Harry Christophers and his ensemble The Sixteen, are ranked at No 4. Whitacre says: “Under the expert command of founder Harry Christophers, The Sixteen have combined musical excellence with bold,…
Bach in the Dark 2012
Cellist Rachel Scott is presenting her series ‘Bach in the Dark’ again in 2012. In these unusual concerts she invites her audience to the crypt of St James’ Church in King Street Sydney for programmes of music that are founded in the compositions of the great JS Bach, but which she then takes to another…
Science evaulates the art of of the violinmaker – with surprising results!
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on experiment conducted by a researcher at the University of Paris which casts doubt on the superior qualities of violins made by the Italian masters. At the proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, Professor Claudia Fritz and her colleagues reported on their double blinded trial in which 21 violinists attending…
Latest reviews
Reviews from the weekend – Don Giovanni and Evgeny Kissin
Opera Australia’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni opened in Sydney on Saturday night: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/by-cad-this-don-has-really-got-what-it-takes-20110925-1krlu.html Evgeny Kissin with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenzy: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/princely-splendour-of-a-master-of-sound-and-articulation-20110923-1kpa1.html
Bach and Beyond – informed, creative and impeccably performed.
The Choir of St James’ King Street in collaboration with The Choir of Trinity College Melbourne and Ironwood Orchestra, directed by Warren Trevelyan-Jones and Michael Leighton Jones presented the opening performance of Bach and Beyond at St James’ Church, King Street last evening. the concert is repeated tomorrow, Saturday 24th September at 5 pm. The…