Album review: Where Song Began/ Bowerbird Collective
First, there was birdsong. Then, as humans began to generate music, birdsong became a source of thematic material from as early as Janequin’s four-part chanson Le chant des oiseaux (c1559). As music evolved, composers described birds in music and replicated their sounds; birds have been an inspiration in madrigals and folk songs and in the…
Concert Review: Comfort and Joy – Cantatas for Christmas/ Bach Akademie Australia
Comfort and Joy – Cantatas for Christmas Bach Akademie Australia Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney 29 November 2019 First there was Comfort – the cantata Süßer Trost BWV 151, by J S Bach, followed by his Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor BWV 1067. Then the heavens opened in an outpouring of Joy with…
Concert Review: Midori And Mozart/ Midori Seiler/ Australian Haydn Ensemble
Midori and Mozart Midori Seiler/Australian Haydn Ensemble Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney COnservatorium of Music, 24 November, 2019. A programme of violin concerti and symphonies by Mozart and Haydn featured in Midori and Mozart, a refined afternoon concert by the Australian Haydn Ensemble, led from the violin by Guest Director and soloist Midori Seiler. The AHE’s Artistic…
Chamber Opera Review: Acis And Galatea/ Ensemble Polyphème
Acis and Galatea/ Ensemble Polyphème Paddington Uniting Church 10 November 2019 Written by Alex Siegers Ensemble Polyphème is Sydney’s newest “historically informed” performance ensemble” founded by harpsichordist Nathan Cox and tenor Nathan Bryon. For its inaugural season the ensemble presented Acis and Galatea, (HWV 49), a musical work by George Frideric Handel with an English text…
Concert Review: Sydney Sings Brahms – A German Requiem/ Sydney University Graduate Choir and Guest Choir
Sydney Sings Brahms- A German Requiem Sydney University Graduate Choir and Guest Choir/ Christopher Bowen OAM -conductor Sydney Town Hall 10 November 2019 Written by Victoria Watson Sydney University Graduate Choir was formed in the 1950s and has evolved in the decades since into a large ambitious ensemble of over one hundred voices. Christopher Bowen…
Opera Review: Il Viaggio A Reims/ Opera Australia
Il Viaggio a Reims Opera Australia Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, October 24th, 2019 Written by Victoria Watson The father of 19th century bel canto Gioachino Rossini wrote Il Viaggio a Reims specifically to coincide with and celebrate the 1825 coronation of the previously exiled King Charles X at Reims in rural France. The libretto…
Movie Reviews: Enthralling Biopics About Two Opera Icons
Two European film festival in Sydney last week saw the screening of two riveting movies about opera icons Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas. Pavarotti, directed by Ron “Happy Days” Howard is a 2019 documentary, shown as part of the Italian Film Festival, brimming with personal comments from Pavarotti, his first wide Adua and three adult…
Opera Review: The Marriage Of Figaro/ Opera Australia
Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) Opera Australia Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney opera House 18 October 2019 Written by Deen Hamaker Based on Pierre Beaumarchais’ 1778 play La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro (The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera is among the most popular of…
Concert Review: Bach’s Concertos /Bach Akademie Australia
Bach’s Concertos/ Bach Akademie Australia Paddington Uniting Church 4 October 2019 It was a deeply satisfying confluence of music and musicians when the Bach Akademie Australia presented their programme Bach’s Concertos. Founder and artistic director Madeleine Easton led her band adeptly through music which illustrated the expansive genius of JS Bach’s concerto writing in many…