Concert review: Fearless Italian Baroque Violin/ Riccardo Minasi/Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Fearless Italian Baroque Violin Soloist and guest director by Riccardo Minasi October 29, 2015 City Recital Hall, Sydney Playing on an Amati violin from Cremona that is over 300 years old, Baroque specialist Riccardo Minasi performed a selection of rarely heard Neapolitan orchestral gems directing the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra from the…

Concert Review: Australian Haydn Ensemble/Celeste Lazarenko

 Australian Haydn Ensemble with Celeste Lazarenko  Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House 26 September 2015 Erin Helyard, Director and Harpsichord/ Skye McIntosh, Artistic Director and Violin/ Matthew Greco, Violin/ James Eccles, Viola/Anthony Albrecht, Cello/Jacqueline Dossor, Double Bass/ Melissa Farrow, Flute.    Although formed only four years ago, the Sydney-based Australian Haydn Ensemble has established itself as a…

Concert Review: From Chamber To Charleston/Omega Ensemble/Maria Raspopova

Omega Ensemble From Chamber to Charleston Thursday 17 September 7.30,  City Recital Hall, Sydney. In spite of an eleventh-hour personnel change (pianist Daniel de Borah unfortunately having to withdraw from the concert, replaced by Maria Raspopova), the latest addition to Omega Ensemble’s 2015 series was a polished affair. Clarinettist David Rowden’s company of chamber music…

Concert Review: Mozart’s Fortepiano/Kristian Bezuidenhout/Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

It was an evening when the gentlest of instruments took centre stage. The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, performed music for fortepiano and period flute by Mozart and his contemporaries. Upstaged by its more precocious descendent the pianoforte, the fortepiano is infrequently heard as a solo instrument, often being relegated to the role of an accompanying instrument….

CD Review: Chiaroscuro/Sheldon And Kanga

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music was the venue for the concert launch last month of the CD  Chiaroscuro, Modern works for soprano and piano a debut collaboration between soprano Jane Sheldon and pianist Zubin Kanga, two forward-looking Australian musicians with busy international careers. Chiaroscuro is an anthology of works spanning the works of major Australian…

Concert Review: Six Times Three/ Sydney Chamber Choir

Six Times Three Sydney Chamber Choir  Great Hall Sydney University September 6, 2015  In its final concert for 2015, celebrating its 40th year, the Sydney Chamber Choir welcomed its newly appointed Music Director Richard Gill OAM, as conductor, in a (mostly) a capella, numerologically themed program of music by six Antipodean composers – three men…