As the world celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, SoundsLikeSydney remembers the legendary cellist Msitislav Rostropovich who arrived at the crumbling landmark and performed the cello suites of J S Bach through the night in an expression of spontaneous joy and freedom.
Ukrainian bass-baritone Andrei Bondarenko in his Cardiff Singer of the World final in 2011. He won the competition’s Song Prize. You can hear him in Sydney this weekend with the Sydney Symphony, singing the role of Yeletsky in a concert version of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Queen of Spades’
Remember As It Is in Heaven and Les Choristes? Two popular movies that told the tales of life as a choral singer. There is a new movie about choral singers to be released nationally on April 23rd. Boychoir is about a troubled eleven-year-old boy at a prestigious American East Coast music school who clashes with the school’s demanding choir master played by Dustin Hoffman….
This excellent mini-documentary talks about the pacifist principles which propelled Britten’s War Requiem. at 5’30” you can see Britten conducting Peter Pears in the tenor solo Futility (‘Move him, move him’). And….. you can read our story about the electrifying 20th century master piece that is Britten’s War Requiem.
Virtuoso guitarist Slava Grigoryan last week released his recording of the Bach Cello Suites Volume II on ABC Classics on CD and digital album. Containing the cello suites 4,5 and 6, It follows Volume I, released in November 2016 which won the 2017 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album and the 2017 AIR Award for Best Independent Classical Album….
The 2013 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year, and best Chamber Music Performer, Hoang Pham gives a shimmering performance of Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan, from Miroirs, at Hilton Head International Piano Competition, NYC, 2008.
Grammy award winning new music ensemble Eighth Blackbird performs in Sydney for Musica Viva on its fourth tour, playing music from their two recent albums Filament and Hand Eye with a world premiere by Sydney composer Holly Harrison. Click here for more on their tour. Check out this excerpt from one of their tour items, By-by…