★★★★☆ British conductor Paul Goodwin works his Baroque magic on this modern orchestra.

Zubin Mehta, an outspoken genius among conductors, shares his astonishing life story.

The manuscript of troubled composer Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Seventh Symphony has been found after 30 years missing.

Paul Stanhope explains how the melancholy music of John Dowland became the inspiration for his upbeat new concerto. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The first in our series of interviews with the jurors for the Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia.

★★★★☆ New WASO concertmaster’s solo debut with the orchestra is a thing of beauty.

We know what Shakespeare gave to the stage, but music has also thrived on slices of the Bard.

Mozart and Salieri were classical music’s biggest rivals… or were they? A newly discovered piece rewrites history. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

This recording presents an unusual juxtaposition. On the one hand, we have the ubiquitous Four Seasons, but on the other, two world premiere concertos. The Four Seasons recording is certainly excellent, with effervescent performances from soloist and director Adrian Chandler. Also on the disc are two bassoon concerti (La Notte in B Flat and per Maestro de Morzin in G Minor), in both of which soloist Peter Whelan shines. However, most interesting on this disc is the presence of  a couple of first time recordings. These world premieres (Concerto in D, RV221 and Concerto in G, RV311) are for a strange hybrid instrument a bit like a tromba marina (a one-stringed, box-like instrument designed to imitate the sound of a trumpet). The violin in tromba marina, then, is designed to imitate the tromba marina in turn. Complicating matters, however, is the fact that there are a grand total of none in existence. Chandler details the research involved in recreating the violin in tromba marina, the resulting instrument having only three brass strings and a bridge that has a metal attachment to give a trumpet-like rasp. This bright-toned instrument proves… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe…

The image on the back cover of the CD depicting Jansen arm-wrestling with Antonio Pappano feels noticeably apt. Not since Herbert von Karajan unleashed the Berlin Philharmonic, issuing a challenge to Anne-Sophie Mutter to bite back in their 1981 recording of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, has a conductor pumped Brahms’ orchestral introduction with such dramatic theatre and pizzazz. This is an opera that just happens to be scored for violin and orchestra, Pappano seems to be telling us, but the high-intelligence of Jansen’s musicality, not to mention her good taste, leads her to pursue a more expressively and colouristically nuanced pathway than this might imply. The genuinely startling feature of this new performance is witnessing Jansen scoop detail out from Pappano’s broad sonic wash. Like two swinging pendulums gradually locking into alignment, the bump-and-grind rootsy grit that Jansen brings to the folksy Finale meets Pappano head on; but otherwise the gossamer delicacy of the Adagio, and the uncountable rhythmic suppleness with which Jansen navigates Brahms’ airborne lines during the opening movement, moves largely by stealth. Bartók’s First Violin Concerto, a promising pairing on paper, proves less adaptable to this good cop/bad cop approach. The unwinding chromatics of the first movement clearly…

★★★½☆ Alondra de la Parra and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra deliver a night of Latin rhythms and urban cool.

★★★★☆ Berlioz’s fantastic passions gets the Australian franchise of the BBC Proms off to a solid start. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in