Schoenberg and Abbott shine in works reconfigured for Piano Trio.

A musically rich and entertaining step back into the Weimar Era.

Tinalley String Quartet, Genevieve Lacey, Piers Lane and the Van Diemen's Band are heading to the new festival in October.

The clarinettist and Head of Wind at Queensland Con hopes to make Brisbane the home of chamber music in Australia.

Novel arrangements see a trio of chamber wizzes shouldering an entire orchestra.

Richard Egarr, Director of the Academy of Ancient Music describes Viennese composer Castello’s music as “utterly boundless in its virtuosity, imagination and colour, and would take anything we could throw at it in performance.” Well, he’s right. Although Dario Castello isn’t terribly well known these days since almost no biographical information about him has survived, back in the early 17th century he was celebrated across Europe with reprint after reprint of his Sonate Concertate. Subtitled in Stil Moderno (in the modern style), these unusual pieces live up to their description by including rapid-fire wind passages and sections that change mood at the drop of a hat. It’s a bit CPE Bach-esque in that Castello seems to delight in confounding both listeners and players with unexpected twists and turns. Castello realised that this sort of thing meant that the pieces were tricky to play but wouldn’t have any of it, writing that although the sonatas “may appear difficult, their spirit will not be destroyed by playing them more than once…this will render them very easy.” Helpful advice! There’s a focus on the winds here, with wind instruments appearing in solo form across a solid three-quarters of the disc. The flashy writing…

A riveting release featuring five leading Australian composers.

Naming your ensemble after a composer creates high expectations when it comes to performing their music, but the London Haydn Quartet certainly don’t disappoint. Brought together through their shared love of Franz Joseph’s string quartets, the group is distinguished from similar ensembles by its period approach to ‘Papa’ Haydn. They’ve spent the last 20 years devoted to the composer’s extensive canon. And having recorded Haydn’s five previous sets of quartets on the Hyperion label, the LHQ is releasing its sixth disc, featuring the Opp. 54 and 55 sets, known, along with the Op. 64 set, as the ‘Tost’ Quartets. The LHQ approaches these performances with detailed consideration for every stroke of the bow. Haydn’s ensemble textures are treated like shapely, rounded surfaces brimming with character, the quartet balancing the most delicate moments with passages of real athleticism. Haydn delights in every quartet, particularly during the gypsy-inflected Op. 54/2 second movement, where first violinist Catherine Manson’s rich yet playful reading shines. More treats lie in store in the sparkling presto finale of the Op. 54/3 quartet, and the minor to major journey of the Razor Quartet, Op. 55/2. Haydn’s quartets were celebrated for not just spotlighting the first violin, but for…

Music and pianos of historical interest in gutsy performances.

FS (“Sep”) Kelly, an Australian who was killed just over 100 years ago in the last days of the Somme Campaign, was a great sportsman (the pre-eminent sculler of his time and a Gold Medallist at the 1908 Olympics), an outstanding concert-pianist and – as this splendid anthology declares – an accomplished composer. In fact, the Elegy for string orchestra, written as a tribute to his friend, poet Rupert Brooke, is a true masterpiece: Australian music-lovers should be proud of it. In this, its second commercial recording, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Fritzsch plays with such technical finesse and emotional intensity, that the radiant quality of the music should be obvious to every listener. Brooke, like Kelly an officer of the Royal Naval Division, had died on April 23, 1915 soon after that force reached Gallipoli: Kelly survived the entire campaign and, as if to keep the sound of war from his ears, composed constantly, producing two major works in that year. The other was a striking Violin Sonata for Jelly d’Arányi, the brilliant young Hungarian violinist and great-niece of Joseph Joachim: she premiered it in London in 1919 during a memorial concert for Kelly, but after… Continue reading…

Hot on the heels of her wedding, the Australian String Quartet cellist Sharon Grigoryan talks about their new album.

Limelight talks to Russell Torrance about this year's strong contenders, Puccini's emotional manipulation, and the passion of the tuba.