Concert Review: Faure’s Requiem From The Sydney Chamber Choir:Shining Light Into Worlds Beyond

 Faure’s Requiem The Sydney Chamber Choir and The Metropolitan Orchestra, April 12 2014. the City Recital Hall, Sydney.   In a world where concert producers seem to draw on a dizzying array of devices to tantalise audiences, the Sydney Chamber Choir delivered a potent reminder of the power of music, dispensing with distractions and focusing…

Review: Madame Butterfly, Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour – Excellent Singing And A Scenic Triumph

  Madama Butterfly, G Puccini Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour  23 March 2014  This is the third year that Opera Australia has mounted a production on the waters of Sydney Harbour in Farm Cove.  The location remains unsurpassable: the harbour waters in the foreground, then the lights of the city and the Opera House, and…

CD Review: Dudamel’s Mahler Journey Begins At The End

  Mahler 9Los Angeles PhilharmonicGustavo DudamelDeutsches Grammophon 479 0924 (2CD set) In early 2012, Venezuelan Wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel undertook his journey with the symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860 –1911). Conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic and his own Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, to commemorate the centenary of Mahler’s death, he led performances of all…

Concert Review: Miserere – Music For Lent, The Parsons Affayre

  The Parsons Affayre St James, King Street, Sydney 9 March 2014 Miserere – Music for Lent  The Parsons Affayre was formed in 2009 as an elite choral group, normally with two singers per part and specialising in Renaissance polyphony.  Directed by Warren Trevelyan-Jones, a Lenten concert has become a regular feature of their calendar…

Review: Eugene Onegin, Opera Australia

  Eugene Onegin, Opera in three acts by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky libretto by Konstantin Shilovksy and Tchaikovsky, after the novel by Alexander Pushkin Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Opera Australia, February 28th 2014. Opera Australia unveiled Kasper Holten’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Sydney Opera House last week. It is the first…

Concert Review: Elektra

  ElektraSydney Symphony OrchestraSydney Opera House, Concert HallFebruary 24 As a cathartic experience the Monday evening performance of Richard Strauss’s Elektra by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra would be difficult to surpass. Such was the emotional tension generated by the waves of sheer orchestral power and a dramatic soprano who is nothing short of a vocal phenomenon…

Concert Review: Bach Magnificat, The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra And Choir

  Bach Magnificat Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir City Recital Hall, Sydney February 21st 2014.  The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra celebrating its 25th anniversary this year opened the 2014 season with a concert centred around the music of J S Bach. The programme reached back into history, performing two works which represent the stylistic origins of…