We take a look at the rulers who brought musical talent into the palace. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $3 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The famed conductor and pianist will perform his upcoming Schubert recital series on his “radically different” instrument.

This month's list of Australia's top 20 classical music albums.

David Robertson, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, is our Guest Editor.

Watch Matthew Hindson’s explosive marimba showpiece in an exclusive recording for Limelight Magazine.

The award-winning London-based Australian pianist will record three albums for ABC Classics.

Effortless virtuoso in complete command of this (quite literally) electrifying modern repertoire.

Minimalism and complexity rub shoulders in a celebration of contemporary music.

In an increasingly conservative music landscape, pianist Zubin Kanga is a champion of the modern. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $3 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

A birthday salute to the great Romantic icon expertly captures the spirit of the composer’s music.

This combination is even more bizarre than when Klemperer and Barenboim teamed up to record the Beethoven Piano Concertos almost 50 years ago. Any initial misgivings back then were quickly dispelled: the cycle was a triumph. Lang Lang, by contrast, provided one of the most scarifying musical experiences of my life at a 2011 recital in Sydney (complete with mewling infant) with his clueless Beethoven and Albéniz so unidiomatic I gazed up at the ceiling and thought of Larrocha and Rubenstein.  These CDs are mainly a pleasant surprise. Harnoncourt, whose Mozart I generally revere, (although I was bemused to read one blog that said he seemed “out of his depth here”) also has irritating tics (not to mention his “concepts”) but the collaboration works. I hope it doesn’t sound patronising to say Lang Lang is on his best behaviour and his Mozart sounds endearingly old-fashioned and elegant rather than just careful.  There’s not much sturm und drang in the C Minor Concerto and it’s a universe away from what we routinely hear from, say, Brautigam and Levin, but the Vienna Philharmonic’s winds are gorgeous in their exchanges in the slow movement (it’s always salutary to be reminded about how beautifully…

Grey skies the perfect backdrop for this Venezuelan’s prodigious talents.