Concert Review: JS Bach Mass in B Minor/ The Song Company And Ironwood.

JS Bach’s Mass in B minor BWV 232 is described by Sir John Eliot Gardiner in his recent book Bach, as “unprecedented  in its scale, majesty and sobriety.” An ensemble taking on a performance of this masterwork has an exacting task in doing it justice. That task becomes even more formidable when the ensemble reaches…

CD Review: Pilgrimage to Montserrat/The Renaissance Players

It’s very likely that hundreds, if not thousands of Australians have retraced the legendary journeys  undertaken by medieval pilgrims to sacred sites in the Iberian peninsula. The shrine of St James the apostle, Santiago de Compostela in Galicia and the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria at Monserrat near Barcelona, have held a lasting fascination for…

Concert Review: Gazpacho Andaluz/The Renaissance Players

Gazpacho Andaluz The Renaissance Players, The Great Hall, Sydney University, October 5th, 2014 A shot of gazpacho was the perfect antidote to a sweltering Sydney Sunday afternoon as The Renaissance Players directed by founder Winsome Evans, BEM, OAM, presented Gazpacho Andaluz within the cooling stones of the Great Hall at Sydney University. The Renaissance Players…

Concert Review: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto/The Australian Haydn Ensemble

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto, The Australian Haydn Ensemble, Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House, Monday 29th September 2014.   When Daniel Barenboim undertook his recently completed mission to perform and record all of Beethoven’s piano concertos, he did so playing a ‘concert grand’ piano, with a full orchestra – in the case of the recordings, the Staatskapelle…

CD Review: Williamson -The Complete Piano Concertos

  What could Ludwig van Beethoven and Malcolm Williamson possibly have in common? The measure, for the purposes of this feature, is that they each wrote five concertos for piano             (including  the concerto for two pianos by Williamson). By any comparison, this is a substantial output. Apart from the…

Australian Singers Take Centre Stage At The ENO’s Otello

David Alden’s new production of Verdi’s Otello opened at the English National Opera last week with two Australian born singers in the lead roles – Stuart Skelton as the Moor and Jonathan Summers as Iago. Andrew Clements in The Guardian says “It is Jonathan Summers’s totally compelling Iago who holds centre stage.” Read the review.    

Concert Review: Mozart’s Jupiter/ Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

Mozart’s Jupiter The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra  City Recital Hall, September 3rd, 2014.  The Concerto for Flute and Harp was surely the highlight in this programme of music by Mozart performed by flautist Melissa Farrow and harpist Marshall McGuire with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra conducted from the fortepiano by Artistic Director Paul Dyer AO. The evening comprised…

Concert Review: ‘Collusion’/The Marais Project

‘Collusion’ The Marais Project: Jenny Eriksson with Susie Bishop, Emily-Rose Šárkova and Eliska Sarka Recital Hall West, Sydney Conservatorium 24 August 2014.  2014 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Marais Project and their director Jennifer Eriksson has adopted a theme of Re-imaginings which she explains is ‘taking the opportunity to re-imagine my instrument, the viola da…