Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2014 i Limelight

WHAT TAMAR IVERI LEARNED IN AUSTRALIA The Limelight editors had a rather dramatic few days last month. We were informed that soprano Tamar Iveri, scheduled to sing Desdemona in Opera Australia’s upcoming production of Otello, had used her Facebook page to express support for the persecution of gay (or LGBTI, if you will) people in her homeland of Georgia. The article we published online sparked a maelstrom of calls for her dismissal from the production. A few days later, Opera Australia announced that Iveri would not appear in Otello. While OA’s condemnation of Iveri’s statements could have been swifter and more emphatic, good on them for taking action. Having spent a large portion of my life in what used to be known as the Eastern Bloc, I didn’t find Iveri’s…

LETTER OF THE MONTH… SHAKESPEARE WINS EVERY TIME Your very beautifully crafted article on Shakespeare was a delight. However, as an English teacher of many years, then a trainer of English teachers, I can tell you that although the writer got the order right, he possibly got the impact wrong. Year after year, the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet brought even toughest Year Nine thugs to their knees. Tissue boxes were empty at the end of any performance. It was an English teacher’s greatest success. A triumph of brain over brawn. And the glorious music! Nino Rota’s enduring song was a gem amongst gems. I was privileged one year to take a year of (let’s just say) difficult ‘secondary moderns’ in UK Geordie country to the theatre, to watch a performance.…

Composer and Musica Viva’s Artistic Director Carl Vine has been appointed an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. In an excellent year for the arts, his fellow composer Graeme Koehne was likewise honoured as well as the soprano Deborah Cheetham. Other AO recipients included the philanthropists Betty Amsden and Maureen and Tony Wheeler, honoured for their support for the arts. Amsden has given millions of dollars over two decades to Arts Centre Melbourne while the Wheelers supported the recent Opera Australia Ring Cycle to the tune of five million dollars.…

Martynas The classical accordionist who rocketed to No 1 in the UK charts shares his favourite listens with Limelight Marin Marais Suitte d’un Goût Etranger Jordi Savall ALIA VOX AVSA9851 I love early music and this is a great example of ‘pure’ Baroque. I am always captivated by Marais’ dancelike style and cheekiness! Jordi Savall’s viol sound and the ensemble performance is very enjoyable to listen to. Mariza Fado Tradicional EMI 0701722 Even though I am Lithuanian, I think I belong somewhere south! Mariza is one of my favourite performers ever. Fado is melancholic and rich in sound and emotional colours and that’s why I like it. However, my dream is to go to Portugal. Who knows maybe I’d stay... James Blunt Moon Landing ATLANTIC 2419296 Apart from those moments…

RAFAEL FRÜHBECK DE BURGOS 1933 – 2014 The most successful Spanish conductor of his generation, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos has died at the age of 80 after a long battle with cancer. Frühbeck was born on September 15, 1933 in Burgos, the Spanish city whose name he added to his own to create his professional title. He initially studied violin, piano, and composition in Bilbao and Madrid, only taking up conducting while doing his military service in the Spanish Army. He subsequently studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munichwhere where he won the Richard Strauss Prize. Among his many appointments over a 55-year career, Frühbeck de Burgos was music director of the Rundfunkorchester Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of…

What is Regietheater? Regietheater – German for director’s theatre – is a term that refers to the modern practice of allowing a director artistic freedom in staging an opera in a drastically different way than the creator originally intended. Changes to characters, plot and stage directions are often made to mirror contemporary political and social contexts, usually with greater emphasis on race/gender/class-based oppression, sexuality and abstraction. What are some notable Regietheater productions? Patrice Chéreau’s centenary Bayreuth Ring in 1976 was widely celebrated for bringing an anti-capitalist and Marxian subtext to the work, with the gods depicted as a late-19th-century industrialist family. The best-known director of Regietheater working today is perhaps Calixto Bieito, who gained widespread notoriety in 2001 after directing Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Gran Teatre del…

Recently I’ve been keen to consecrate jarringly humdrum language in choral music. In Toy Story 3 = Awesome! I set Facebook status-updates and in The 9 Cutest Things That Ever Happened, I turned a Buzzfeed article about cute animals into a faux-Anglican chant. When the mundane is recycled into art, it can be elevated to an ironic and oddly contemplative level. For Ghosts in the Orchestra, commissioned by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, I decided to have my choir, The Australian Voices, stand playfully among the orchestral musicians, prompting them with sung instructions: “semitone... different... darker... longer... halve the bow pressure”. The orchestra enthusiastically complies, unrolling the commandments into symphonic gestures. A main chord is established:“enjoy the chord: isn’t it just – wicked!? ...remember this chord.” Recently at The Australian Voices…

Singing actors on the opera stage are an exceedingly rare breed. The odds of an opera singer being able to act at all are naturally low – think of how many people you know who can act. Not many? Now how many of those happen to have the freakishly-shaped vocal chords that enable them to produce an inordinately beautiful sound. Even fewer (none?). Now consider how few people are blessed with the kind of voice that can be legitimately turned to a dizzying range of repertoire – Puccini, Massenet, Schubert, Beethoven, Wagner, Mozart, Richard Strauss. How many of those can act? We maybe have one or two at the highest level in every generation. Domingo has been the one for more years than anyone had a right to expect of…

In 1864, the year in which King Ludwig II brought Wagner to Munich, another Richard arrived there too: the newborn son of Franz Strauss, principal horn of the Munich Court Orchestra, and his wife Josephine. Young Richard wasted no time establishing himself as a prodigy. He was six when he penned his first ditties, 17 when his Opus 1 had its premiere, and just shy of his 30th birthday when the curtain went up on his first opera. Yet it would take another decade for Strauss to come into his own in the genre and establish himself among the most important operatic composers since Wagner himself. Strauss’s early works show the hallmarks of the conservative musical education which his father, a staunch anti-Wagnerian and devotee of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven,…

With Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss breaks away from the “modernist” language he composed in with operas like Salome and Elektra. It has remained his most popular opera until today because it is so accessible, beautiful, and never offensive, as for some listeners the music of Elektra is. The wonderful Hugo von Hofmannstahl libretto speaks to audiences, especially in German speaking countries, like few other librettos I know in the repertory, and pushes them into a nostalgic realm. There are many challenges in this work and I find it stylistically to be one of the hardest mainstream operas to conduct. Getting the lightness, without losing the accuracy, while giving the singers complete freedom to play and sing their roles without having to have their eyes glued to the conductor is quite tricky.…

Die Frau ohne Schatten is about voyages of self discovery. Each character goes through one, and in the end, each character has to confront something that is uncomfortable for them. Each receives his or her “reward” in the end. (Although the “reward” for the Nurse isn’t quite what she was hoping for...) The Dyer’s Wife doesn’t exactly lend herself to sympathy. But I was determined to look past what she says and find out why she says it. I saw a woman whose life didn’t turn out the way she’d hoped or dreamed. She’s sad, she’s frustrated, she’s lonely. Given that she already has four “children” (three brothers-in-law and a husband) to care for, I think she’s terrified of losing what little of herself she still has to babies. If…

Historical Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Nicolai Gedda, Hans Hotter, Philharmonia/Sawallisch EMI 9557622 (2CD) Sawallisch leads a stellar cast of masterly singing actors including Schwarzkopf, Fischer-Dieskau, Gedda, Hotter, Waechter and Christa Ludwig in this outstanding 1958 recording. Hi Fi Gundula Janowitz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, Bavarian Radio Orchestra/Karl Böhm DG 4453472 (2CD) A host of noted lieder singers bring a world of textual insight to Strauss’s operatic-cum-philosophical debate on the eternal theme of words versus music. DVD Renée Fleming, Joseph Kaiser, Morten Frank Larsen, Metropolitan Opera/ Sir Andrew Davis DECCA 0743454 Renée Fleming is radiant as the Countess – one of her signature roles. The Met’s stylish, updated production looks ravishing and Sir Andrew Davis is musically insightful.…

Ezio Sonia Prina, Max Emanuel Cencic, Ann Hallenberg, Topi Lehtipuu, Il Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis VIRGIN 0709292 (2CD) Opera seria it may be, but with its all star cast and period sensibilities Ezio clearly points the way forward. Orfeo ed Euridice Bernarda Fink, Veronica Cangemi, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Freiburger Barockorchester/René Jacobs Jacobs conducts an urgent, dramatic account of the original Italian version of Gluck’s revolutionary masterpiece. Armide Mireille Delunsch, Charles Workman, Laurent Naouri, Ewa Podles, Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski Gluck believed Armide to be “perhaps the best of all my works” and in Minkowski’s interpretation it’s hard to disagree. Paride ed Elena Magdalena Kozena, Susan Gritton, Gabrielli Consort/ Paul McCreesh DG ARCHIV 4775415 (2CD) A flop in it’s time, this dramatically static but exquisite musical gem is a discovery waiting to…

How did John Adams come to write you a saxophone concerto? I’d been a huge fan for many years but a friendship began after I seized the opportunity to be part of the premiere of City Noir with the LA Philharmonic. I know John would say that he was taken with the care and commitment I brought to the saxophone part. From then on, John requested I be hired for the work, especially when he was conducting. This allowed him to learn more about my life and work, and I’d like to think I inspired him as much as he inspired me. I made some overtures about a new solo work and he suggested a concerto. It was one of those dream moments. What are the particular challenges of the…

István Kertész: The London Years Music by Dvoÿák, Kodaly, Mozart, Brahms, Bartók, Respighi, Ravel et al. Julius Katchen p, Barry Tuckwell h, London Symphony Orchestra/István Kertész DECCA 4786420 (12CDS) The youthful conductor István Kertész had worked mainly in provincial Hungary when he made his first recording for Decca in 1961, but his reputation was rising rapidly. Everyone responded to the freshness of his music making. His musical memory was acute: he was reputed to learn scores for the first time on the plane on his way to rehearsal. He was booked to do Elgar’s First Symphony for his recording debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, but on the strength of his success in a concert with Dvorÿák’s Eighth, the plans changed. Eventually he recorded all of Dvorÿák’s symphonies, and much…

In 27 Pieces The Hillary Hahn Encores Hilary Hahn v, Cory Smythe p DG 4791725 It’s always a burning question. When the performer walks back on stage, what encore will she play? Something slow and meditative, like Bach, or maybe flashy Paganini at breakneck speed? Encore pieces are a revered repertory, which according to Hilary Hahn were “shaped by the performers who preceded us”. So, this stellar violin virtuoso has asked a different question: what should today's encores sound like? Her answer came in an ambitious project: commissioning 26 composers to write encore pieces, plus holding an open competition to find a 27th. The result is a ripper, two-disc compilation with one of the most profoundly contrasting arrays of compositional style and language you could imagine. You’ll find older, more…

Dowland The Art of Melancholy Iestyn Davies ct, Thomas Dunford lute HYPERION CDA68007 Rediscovered in the 20th century, Dowland’s lute songs have attracted wide attention and equally wide interpretations, from the classic Alfred Deller recordings of the 1940-70s to the less conventional efforts of rock luminaries Elvis Costello and Sting. Iestyn Davies’s voice has little of Andreas Scholl’s muscular emotion or Philippe Jaroussky’s sinuous femininity. His is a voice in the English tradition of choral scholars (he was at St John’s College, Cambridge) combining purity of line with subtle use of vibrato. This more ‘boyish’ vocal quality is readily apparent in Come, heavy sleep and perhaps the saddest track of them all – I saw my lady weep where Davies’s extended lines sit beautifully on top of French lutenist Thomas…

Decca’s Most Wanted Recitals José Carreras, Eugene Conley, Fernando Corena, Flaviano Labò, Bruno Prevedi, Gianni Raimondi, George London, Pilar Lorengar, Janine Micheau, Arnold van Mill, Raphael Arié, Cesare Siepi, Joseph Rouleau DECCA 808142 / 4808145 / 4808146 / 4808162 / 4808163 / 4808164 ETC What extraordinary reissues! These recitals span 1947 to 1979, but most are mono recordings from the 1950s. Digitally remastered by Universal Music in Mexico, the series is called Most Wanted Recitals – there are song recitals too – but the obvious question is: wanted by whom? I can’t imagine a vast public crying out for more of Conley (an American tenor on the Met roster in the 1950s) or Arié (a Bulgarian bass, specialising in Russian repertoire, whose claim to fame was appearing in the premiere…

DALI IKON 1 MK2 PRICE $1,100 If you’re in the market for midrange, standmounted speakers, the DALI Ikon 1 Mk2s need to be on your shortlist. With some neat design tricks and really good sound, these speakers are tremendous value for money. We’ll start with those neat tricks. The most eye-catching element on show is the ‘hybrid tweeter’ or, as normal people might say, two tweeters. The idea is that two’s better than one – good enough for an awesome treble performance, in fact. Further down is a 5in mid/bass driver made with wood fibre, which is stiffer than paper cones. Going straight Onwards to sound, and these speakers want to be kept no less than 20cm from the wall, and pointed straight - no toeing in here. In those…

La Bayadère Bollywood sass meets classical technique in this new production of the classic ballet from choreographer Stanton Welch. Arts Centre Melbourne, August 28-September 6 Threefold An evening of inspirational contemporary dance by three celebrated choreographers: Raewyn Hill, Gavin Webber and Huang Yi. Theatre Royal, Hobart, August 28-29 Culminate Dance-theatre in development presented by some of Force Majeure’s emerging choreographers and dancers. Carriageworks, Sydney, Aug 13-16…

Quills Mockingbird Theatre Company presents the Victorian premier of Doug Wright’s Obie award-winning play about the notorious Marquis de Sade. Arts House, Melbourne, August 1-15 Nora Kit Brookman and Anne-Louise Sarks’ update of Ibsen’s resounding play sets Nora’s story of a tough-minded woman here and now. Belvoir Theatre, Sydney, August 9-September 14 The Removalists David Williamson’s portrayal of suburban life in the 1970s is revived by a cast of leading performers. Glen Street Theatre, Sydney, August 19-24…

STREEP TO PLAY CALLAS FILM Meryl Streep is set to play operatic legend Maria Callas in a film version of Terrence McNally’s Broadway play Master Class. The play sees the great Diva reflecting on the triumphs and tragedies of her life while giving master classes at the Juilliard School in 1971. Streep is due to start filming for the HBO production in January 2015 with a release date planned for later in the year. Mike Nichols will direct. CAVE GETS HERITAGE STATUS VISUAL ARTS A cave located in the Ardeche region of France has been added to Unesco’s World Heritage list. The 1,000 drawings carved in the walls of the Decorated Cave of Pont d’Arc, or Grotte Chauvet, are 36,000 years old and include mammoths and hand prints. UN cultural…

These Final Hours Opens: July 31 Genre: Science fiction Duration: 87 minutes Australian cinema goes back to the future with gripping results We’ve gone years without any significant futuristic cinema from Australia and now two come along in the same year. While David Michod’s brutally nihilistic The Rover was a seriously disappointing follow-up to his crime tale Animal Kingdom, this similarly apocalyptic story from Western Australian filmmaker Zak Hilditch is absolutely gripping throughout. As in the 1950s Nevil Shute novel and its Hollywood movie version, On The Beach, Australia is the last major nation to be hit by a catastrophic event that started in the northern hemisphere and is now rolling south towards this country. As in Mad Max, ferocious hoodlums roam the roads, only here their conquered territory is…

Long before the weekly music talent shows that grace our screens, there were the Australian Young Performers’ Awards. Over the past 70 years these awards have launched the careers of many of Australia’s top musicians, such as pianists Roger Woodward, Ian Munro and Simon Tedeschi and oboist Diana Doherty. This years finalists include violinists Anna Da Silva Chen, Sujin Park, Grace Clifford, Anne-Marie Johnson, Glenn Christensen, and Zoe Freisberg; pianists James Jae-Won Moon, David Soo and Michael Li; flautists Catherine Gregory (left) and Kiran Phatak; and oboist Andrew Kawai. All competitors will play their full program in the first stage. Six will then proceed to the Chamber Music round that will see them collaborate in various chamber works with musicians of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The three most succesful will…

ABC CLASSIC FM QUEENSLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Friday August 9, 8pm Brisbane composer Gordon Hamilton’s Ghosts in the Orchestra is a daring new work for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra that removes the boundaries between singers and orchestral musicians. Individual choristers are scattered throughout the orchestra, who are led by conductor Benjamin Shwartz, in a bold contemplation of freedom of speech. The Australian Voices have been under the directorship of Hamilton since 2009, so it is no surprise that they take to the stage to perform this work alongside, or rather, in between the orchestra. They will be, as Hamilton writes in his online blog, “prompting them with sung instructions: ‘semitone... different... darker... longer... halve the bow pressure.’” and “enjoy that chord: isn’t it just – wicked!?... remember this chord. Feel it.…

Music has always been a vital part of my life, probably because it was an intrinsic part of my childhood. My mother listened to The Supremes, Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding; my grandmother, Angela, was an Alf Johnson fan; and dad liked a lot of Greek, Arabic and Turkish music, as well as Andy Williams. A long drive with dad meant lots of Andy Williams! From a very early age, I was instinctively drawn to music. Whenever I’d hear it I’d start to dance; twist my hips, rock ‘n’roll style. I guess I’ve got Walt Disney to thank for my introduction to classical music. I remember watching his cartoons and laughing as the tenor hit a high note and the character literally exploded! It was my older brother who…

MARTIN BUZACOTT REVIEWS PAGE 70 Martin Buzacott has been a Limelight contributor since its inception. He is currently the Brisbane classical music reviewer for The Australian and an occasional broadcaster on ABC Classic FM. He is also the author of the book The Rite of Spring: 75 years of ABC Music-Making. JAMES INVERNE JONAS KAUFMANN PAGE 52 James Inverne is a former editor of Gramophone, and spent more than five years with Time magazine as their European Performing Arts Correspondent. Apart from his work as a writer, he also runs artist management agency Inverne Price Music Consultancy. LYNDEN BARBER FILM REVIEWS PAGE 98 When not earning an honest coin as a screen studies teacher, Lynden Barber is one of Australia’s most experienced film journalists and critics and a former artistic…

I first met Malcolm Williamson when I participated as a child in an ABC TV program which followed the course of performing one of his children’s operas with a cast that included young, intellectually disabled people. I remember him as a man driven by his belief in the power of music, which he certainly demonstrated throughout that process. As solo performer who has had significant exposure to the opera and theatre works of many of his English-speaking contemporaries, I would rate what I have seen of his dramatic works highly, particularly in his understanding of creating a piece of music theatre. I am a great fan of The Growing Castle and The Happy Prince and regret not having had the opportunity to perform any of his dramatic works since that…

JAZZ EQUALS CREATIVITY A new Austrian study claims to show that jazz musicians are more creative than musicians from a classical or folk background. In a study of 99 music students, jazz musicians were found to participate in a greater number of creative musical projects. Jazz musicians also proved themselves more adept at generating new, multiple or alternative ideas in given situations, exhibiting a greater degree of divergent thinking and ideational creativity. FAIR PAY FOR ARTISTS A new website encourages artists to share employment experiences in an aim to expose the companies which underpay creatives as well as draw attention to industry best practice. The rules of www.whopaysartists.com ensures that all users remain anonymous and artists are invited to reveal how much they were paid for their work and the…

“The playing faithfully represented the composer’s intentions. One could not fault it.” I’ve often read such things – typically meant as a compliment – written by reviewers. It seems an odd form of praise. For one thing, the experience of being unable to find something negative to say hardly seems a moving one. But each to their own. Yet what of the assumption that faultlessness automatically amounts to faithfulness? In his Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music (1911), Ferruccio Busoni got to the heart of the matter when he wrote “What the composer’s inspiration necessarily loses through notation, his interpreter should restore by his own.” But in order to attempt to clarify this profound idea, we need firstly to create something. Imagine a circle (originality is not a criteria…

In a somewhat common occurrence in the history of classical music (both Mozart and Dvorák had similar experiences), Haydn married the sister of his first love. Unlike the two later instances, however, the Esterházy composer’s union was disastrously unhappy. Haydn’s ill-fated wedlock came about after the woman he loved, Therese Keller, chose to turn down his marriage proposal and become a nun. As consolation, Father Keller – a cobbler – convinced the distraught composer to marry his eldest daughter instead. Haydn, who felt indebted to Keller, agreed to the offer and married Anna Maria in 1760. He was 29, his bride was 32. Although there wasn’t a great deal of warm feeling between husband and wife to begin with, Haydn declared that he had begun to “like” Anna Maria in…

Do you remember the first time you experienced opera? When I was living on the Gold Coast I was really into music theatre. There was a gentleman called Robert Young. He did a Les Mis and a Jesus Christ Superstar, and some other Lloyd Webber-ey type musicals. I was only about 12 or 13 but I was desperate to be involved. When I came to London, a friend of mine took me to a performance of Tosca at the Royal Opera House – it was the old Zeffirelli production that Callas did a billion years ago – and I was just blown away. So what were you doing in London? While I did my auditions I went to loads of West End shows. I looked at the biographies and they…

1989 Begins vocal training at Munich Uni and sings small roles at Bavarian State Opera 1994 Began his professional career at Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Stuttgart and Hamburg 1999 Salzburg Festival debut in Busoni’s Doktor Faust followed by Belmonte in 2003 2007 Sings Don José in Carmen at the Royal Opera House to critical acclaim 2009 Sings Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera and in 2010 at Bayreuth 2011 Sings Siegmund at the Met in Robert Lepage’s Ring followed by the title role in Faust. Performances as Parsifal in 2013…

There are several reasons why I adore Salome. First and foremost, being a one act opera, there is no interval to break the journey of the character. Salome goes from an indulged teenager to a petulant vamp, to a woman on a mission for revenge and finally depravity and disappointment. Not bad for one night! Strauss’s score is so interesting and gutsy, and I adore the way he has coloured the orchestra to go with the different characters in the opera. You need a certain vocal stamina and strength to cope with the demands of the role. If you have a sympathetic conductor and an orchestra that pays attention to the dynamics there should never be a balance problem – this is very difficult and needs incredible discipline from the…

Historical Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, Teresa Stich-Randall, Philharmonia Orchestra/Karajan EMI 9668242 (3CD) Still the classic to beat, Karajan’s 1959 recording boasts a stellar line-up, bags of idiomatic Viennese character and some thoroughly idiomatic musical direction. Hi Fi Kiri Te Kanawa, Anne Sofie von Otter, Barbara Hendricks, Dresden Staatskapelle/Haitink EMI 3586182 (3CD) A more sumptuous sound than the Karajan, Haitink’s is an impressive reading with three fine female soloists, especially an impassioned Octavian from Anne Sofie von Otter. DVD Adrianne Pieczonka, Angelika Kirchschlager, Miah Persson, Wiener Philharmoniker/Bychkov ARTHAUS 107139 Robert Carsen’s witty and clever Salzburg Festival staging poignantly relocates the action to a prophetic pre-WWI but retains plenty of lavish Viennese trappings.…

Historical Hans Hopf, Leonie Rysanek, Paul Schoeffler, Christel Goltz, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Karl Böhm DECCA DOWNLOAD (3CD) This 1950s recording suffers from a few cuts but this is glorious singing all round and inspired conducting. Rysanek, Hopf, Golz and Schoeffler are superbly moving. Hi Fi Hildegard Behrens, Julia Varady, Plácido Domingo, José van Dam, Vienna Philharmonic/Georg Solti DECCA 4362432 (3CD) Gloriously recorded by Decca in state-of-the-art sound, the singing of Domingo and Varady in particular stand out in one of Solti’s last and very finest opera recordings. DVD Peter Seiffert, Luana Devol, Alan Titus, Janis Martin, Bayerische Staatsoper/ Wolfgang Sawallisch ARTHAUS 107245 The Bavarian State Opera travelled to Japan for this sumptuous and stylised interpretation of Strauss’s most stylised opera. Sawallisch is a masterly conductor.…

The thing about Capriccio is that people think “Oh my god, what an intellectually tiresome subject, this is going to be the most boring thing I’ve ever seen”, and the fact that it isn’t is totally to do with the personification of words and music, with people and their relationships. I find it spellbinding, and people who don’t know it are always surprised by it. The libretto, which was mainly by Krauss, is quite brilliant. It’s very intellectual, but also clever and funny, and very sophisticated. Theoretically, there is no resolution to the question of words versus music. But the fact is, the last line is “Frau Gräfin, das Souper ist serviert” (Countess, supper is served) and there’s a hell of a lot of music after that, which sort of…

“Perfection,” said Shaw, “is inexhaustible. If ever a nation tried to extinguish Gluck – one of the attainers of perfection – by the simple British method of ignoring him, that nation is ourselves.” Shaw, one of the most communicative of Gluck enthusiasts was here being excessively harsh to the British: Gluck, at the time of his death, perhaps the world’s most famous opera composer, and now (I believe) opera’s most misunderstood creator of front-rank importance, has since 1787 been ignored in Britain neither more nor less than elsewhere. In any examination of Gluck, paradoxes abound. In the history and development of the operatic medium he stands as one of the key figures who inVienna in middle age succeeded with Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767) in imbuing Italian opera…

Schumann Symphonies Nos 1 to 4 Chamber Orchestra of Europe/ Yannick Nézet-Séguin DG 4792437 (2CD) It is not often I take any notice of reviews on Amazon, but the three I found of this new release were not full of praise. They accuse Nézet-Séguin’s Schumann of being “shallow”, too fast, and devoid of the “expression” that these listeners were used to from Bernstein’s late recordings or (for less extreme examples) Kubelik and Sawallisch. In other words, Nézet-Séguin discarded the interpretive signposts that this music has picked up over 150 years of performance practice. Personally, I never learned to love Schumann’s symphonies until I heard the recordings by Neville Marriner (with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra) – a conductor who knows something about clarification of texture. Later, original instrument readings from Gardiner…

Pepe Romero: Master of the Guitar Music by Rodrigo, Giuliani, Tarrega, Romero et al Pepe Romero g, Various Orchestras DECCA 4785669 (11CD) In a career that’s lasted more than half a century, Pepe Romero has proven himself to be an important part of the classical guitar’s 20th-century revival. With a prodigious, flamenco-based technique, his intense and raw performances are celebrated here in a generous 11CD box set, covering the greater part of the Spanish guitar repertoire. If you’re looking for the less Spanish-influenced music that was to appear in the guitar repertoire in the 1960s and 70s (Britten’s Nocturnal, perhaps?), then this definitely isn’t the place. A solid five CDs here are devoted to the guitar repertoire from Spain, but then again Romero’s at his very best in repertoire that’s…

Schubert Various Bertrand Chamayou p ERATO 0825646370788 In this thoughtful and measured recital, French pianist Bertrand Chamayou gives evocative accounts of a wide range of Schubert pieces. In the liner notes, Chamayou suggests that the album is “a kind of imaginary recital programme, along the lines of a concert that could have been heard in Vienna at the beginning of the Romantic period, in the cosy and intimate atmosphere of a salon… but which, for various historical reasons, could not have happened in this form”. While several other pianists have used the idea of a Schubertiade as inspiration for recital programming, the anachronistic inclusion of arrangements and transcriptions by Liszt and Richard Strauss make this a performance to remember, and prove that Chamayou has put a considerable amount of thought…

Poulenc Mélodies Sophie Karthäuser s, Eugene Asti p HARMONIA MUNDI HMC902179 As one of Les Six, Poulenc was acutely aware of modern trends. His mélodies (French Art Songs) set poets like Apollinaire, Éluard and Aragon; the voices of 20th-century French feeling. This charming collection reveals Poulenc as a master craftsman for the voice, affirming his position as heir to the French Art Song tradition, after Fauré and Debussy. His melodic lines are gracefully uncomplicated, and feature a delicate lyricism with a popular edge. Belgian soprano Sophie Karthäuser is the charismatic chanteuse whose voice fills this parlour of musical delights. Her performance pedigree is impressive: she has sung Classical and Baroque roles under conductors such as Chailly, Gardiner and Christie. Her voice is sumptuous on this disc, gliding effortlessly through Poulenc’s…

Cavalli La Calisto, L’Ormindo Soloists, Strings of the London Philharmonic/Raymond Leppard DECCA 4362162, 4445292 If Monteverdi’s contributions to musical theatre remained largely unknown outside specialist circles before the 1960s, then the word “unknown” hardly even begins to describe the state in which Pier Francesco Cavalli’s 40-odd operas then slept. So when Raymond Leppard began reviving some of them at Glyndebourne from 1967 onwards – first L’Ormindo, then La Calisto – there existed no performing tradition to which he could reasonably appeal. Cavalli’s instrumental parts take up no more than three staves, with only the slightest clues as to scoring. Leppard himself, well aware of 17th-century theatrical life’s harumscarum ways, felt free to employ a sizeable string ensemble, organ and harpsichord continuo, and a lavishly but intelligently deployed harp. He also…

DANCE What inspired DESH? Tim Yip, the visual designer of the show, convinced me to try digging deeper into my parent’s history, because that is where I will find the beginnings of my own history. So I was inspired by his immense fascination with my parents’ homeland, Bangladesh. Is the work completely autobiographical or have you incorporated fictitious elements? There is never one truth that stands alone in any work, either mine or others. All stories have some truth. The same applies to DESH, some is real, and some is made up. DESH has a striking design aesthetic – how intense was your collaboration with Tim Yip? It has been one of the most beautiful collaborations I’ve had in my career – intense for all the right reasons.…

THEATRE How did the idea come about to put your life on the stage? I had written about my experience during and after the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody. It became a play called Conversations With the Dead and Wayne Blair acted as me in that play. Naturally we formed a close relationship. Wayne and I would talk on the phone, meet up, hang out. Each time I would tell him stories about my life and I would learn stories of his. Those stories, my poetry and my music seemed a natural vehicle for Wayne to create this play. Why tell the story through song – was it the only medium you considered? Songs, singing and music are such a large part of my life, whether it is…

VISUAL ART Exploring hidden corners of Japanese society, Mekurumeku – a new retrospective exhibition at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art – showcases the ground-breaking video installations of artist Tabaimo. Immersing audiences in constantly moving, changing environments, the artist combines a mixture of surreal events, mangalike line drawings and the softly modulated colouration of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints to present distorted views of contemporary Japan. Utilising traditional animation techniques with sophisticated computer technology, the artist presents layered, surrealistic slice-of-life narratives. Domestic interiors combine with communal spaces such as public restrooms, commuter trains, and bathhouses. It is the artist’s first major retrospective exhibition in Australia. Born Ayako Tabata in 1975, Tabaimo attracted international attention while still a student at Kyoto University of Art and Design. Her first major work, Japanese Kitchen (1999), depicts…

VISUAL ART From Stills Gallery comes a range of works from Pat Brassington, one of Australia’s most influential artists working in photo-media. Brassington presents her series In Search of the Marvellous (2013), along with a selection of other works. Brassington credits her output as inspired by the Surrealists, whose writing and artworks have heavily influenced her practice. Often juxtaposing contradictory everyday objects, she explores the inner drives of humans as made manifest by the possessions they treasure. In Quiescent (2014), a pair of bright red petals wrap themselves around a monochrome figure in a poignant contrast between beauty and brutality. Flowers are a recurring motif throughout her work, with Pansy (2013) depicting a woman’s mouth obscured by a flower. This muteness is echoed in other works: the beasts in Flamingo…

ABC CLASSIC FM WEST AUSTRALIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Friday August 29 – Sunday August 31 Over two weekends in late August, Asher Fisch and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra will perform the entire symphonies of Beethoven. Fisch describes these works as the “Cornerstone of symphonic music in the nineteenth century.” If you’ve never heard these works back to back, ABC Classic FM will broadcast the entire recordings from this two week Beethoven Festival over the final three days of the month. Marcy Stonikas, Fiona Campbell, Steve Davislim and James Clayton join the Orchestra and WASO Chorus for Beethoven’s Ninth. FINE MUSIC 102.5 JANE EDWARDS Friday August 15, 2pm Having perfomed with every major festival and symphony orchestra throughout Australia, soprano Jane Edwards is one of Australia’s most experienced and acclaimed singers.…

FINE MUSIC FM In July 2012, 2MBS-FM was re-branded as Fine Music – broadcasting the same music under the new call sign. The station broadcasts a mix of classical, jazz and contemporary music to the greater Sydney region. To listen, tune in to 102.5FM or stream online at www.finemusicfm.com 3MBS 3MBS is a fine music community radio station in Melbourne. 3MBS passionately supports fine music, especially Melbourne musicians and composers, and is the only locally-based classical music radio station in Victoria. To listen, tune in to 103.5FM or stream online at www.3mbs.org.au 4MBS One of Australia’s premier classical radio stations, 4MBS has received many awards for the promotion of young and emerging artists in Australia. Based in Brisbane, tune in to 103.7FM to listen or stream online at www.4mbs.com.au 5MBS…

A Stradivarius violin that once belonged to Rodolphe Kreutzer has turned up stashed in the closet of reclusive millionaire Huguette Clark. Valued at $10 million, the instrument had not been played in decades, and after going up for auction at Christies in New York, failed to find a buyer. Clark, a copper heiress who died in 2011 at the age of 104 after a long illness, maintained a sprawling 42-room Fifth Avenue apartment for many years, despite living out her final decades in a nursing home. The instrument, a tiny fraction of her $300 million fortune, was found stuffed into a wardrobe. Kreutzer (1766-1831) was a virtuoso violinist and composer, best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven’s violin sonata of the same name, although he famously never played it, deeming…

1. What inspired you to become a singer? Text actually. As a child I studied cello, but I didn’t understand music because my way to musicianship was through poetry. Once I discovered there were people like Schubert and Schumann and Brahms, and all this unbelievably fantastic German poetry of the Romantic period, that was the key. This was how I wanted to express myself. The combination of word and sound – that is still to the present day the human expression that touches my soul most directly. 2. What’s more important: opera or lieder? It is a balancing act always, but I consider myself privileged to be invited to work in all disciplines. If I had to choose, I would choose lieder, definitely. I would give up the entire opera…

Daniel Barenboim has celebrated his 50th anniversary as a pianist with the Berlin Philharmonic in a concert led by Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra performed The Unanswered Question and Metamorphosen before Barenboim took to the stage to perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 1. Berliner Morgenpost described the performance, which was met with a standing ovation, as “rich with contrasts, lulling the audience into his beauty of sound”. Taking to the podium, a visibly moved Barenboim announced: “You’re all family!” to cheering concert-goers.…

Apparently 43 Australians are in the running for a position on Mars One – the plan to put humans on Mars in the year 2024. I’m glad to say I’m not one of them, as this is a one-way mission. No return is possible. Every year or so, Mars One will send more supplies and more Martians. Some 200,000 people around the world applied and now they have selected 1,000 to undergo training and psychometric testing. (I’m a great believer in psychometric testing by the way. This is the same system that determined Jonathan Shier would be an excellent managing director of the ABC, and we all remember how well that worked out.) Eventually four Marstronauts will blast off on a one-way ride to the Red Planet. What criteria might…

4:03am – Wake up in cold sweat. Blasted Grieg third movement ringing in my ears. Dreamed Matthew Krel was conducting and telling me to harden up. 4:15am – Already visualizing performance. Feeling wretched, having stayed up until after midnight watching Hammer Horror Classics. 4:17am – A sickening feeling dawns on me that the Grieg Concerto starts in a disconcertingly similar manner to the Schumann. Have never played the Schumann in public, but the thought ensconces itself in my brain like a festering parasite. 6:02am – Haul myself from bed straight to piano. Play scales. 7:00am – Eat Kellogg’s Sustain, relishing the fact that it is ‘low GI.’ Realise that I have no idea what GI means. Fret. 8:12am – Practising proper begins. Play through Grieg slowly without pedal. Sounds good.…

How did this Mozart project come about? Lyndon [Terracini] made an initial approach to find out if I would be interested, and I said,“I’m always interested in new theatres, new environments, and a pool of singers I don’t know”. There are lots of people who have very successful careers who are Antipodean-based and I don’t know them and they’re wonderful. Then he came up with the idea of doing the complete Da Ponte cycle. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of doing all three of them in one space with a lot of through casting. With this new Don Giovanni , are you building on your previous interpretations or starting with a clean slate? I think that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If I’ve…

Richard Strauss is a tricky man to pin down. From Wagnerian beginnings, he charged to the very brink of atonality before abruptly turning back. He spoke of his own art with self deprecating detachment, yet unabashedly wove his life and philosophy into his music. He maintained cordial relations with the Third Reich, tainting his own reputation for posterity, yet behind the scenes fought bitterly against injustices perpetrated by a murderous regime. Above all, he longed for a quiet, domestic life – and yet his works pulsate with noise, exuberance and barely contained eroticism. Strauss was by no means exclusively an opera composer – his prolific output includes a wealth of Lieder, chamber music and orchestral works – but it is in his works for the stage that the composer’s contradictory…

The Strauss family had been living in the house of Pauline’s parents, but in 1908 they were able to move into the house that Salome had built. The villa in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a mountain resort town in Bavaria, would remain Strauss’s home, and cherished working environment, throughout his life. In the same year, he was appointed as both chief conductor of the Berlin Court Orchestra (now Staatskapelle) and as general music director of the Berlin Court Opera (now Staatsoper) but, almost immediately, he took a working holiday back to Garmisch. His next opera was in the offing. Born in Vienna in 1874, Hugo von Hofmannsthal was already a respected man of letters when Strauss saw his play Elektra in Berlin in 1906. The composer latched on to Hofmannsthal’s Freudian tragedy as…

If all had gone to plan, Der Rosenkavalier would have been followed directly by Die Frau ohne Schatten. As early as 1910, Strauss and Hofmannsthal had conceived of a fairytale opera, and Strauss, always stimulated by contrast, wanted a weightier subject to work on after the frothy comedy of Rosenkavalier. Hofmannsthal began sketching his scenario in 1911, but the pair had another project on the boil, and its increasing demands, along with the intervention of the Great War, would delay completion of Die Frau for several years. Ariadne auf Naxos was originally meant as a half-hour divertissement, to be performed after Hofmannsthal’s own adaptation of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, for which Strauss had written incidental music. When the hybrid creation, now swollen to more than six hours’ duration, premiered in 1912…

During the early 1920s, Strauss split his time between Vienna, as much admired director of the Staatsoper, and the villa in Garmisch, where he returned frequently to compose. Keen for a subject utterly different from the metaphysical Die Frau ohne Schatten, Strauss lit upon his own hectic home life. In the zany Intermezzo, he openly poked fun at himself (now “Robert Storch”), the obstreperous Pauline (“Christine”) and at what was apparently a genuine marital misunderstanding. Hofmannsthal, unconvinced, refused to write the libretto for Strauss’s “domestic comedy” and the pair were not reunited until Die Ägyptische Helena, their convoluted, half-comic, half-solemn treatment of the Helen of Troy story, which premiered in 1928. Their next opera, Arabella, was in many ways a return to form, harking back to both the Viennese setting…

1714 Born in Erasbach in Bavaria to Alexander Gluck, a forester, the first of six surving children. Moves to Bohemia aged three where he receives his first musical training. 1731 Studies logic and mathematics at university in Prague after which he vanishes from the record for six years. 1737 Studies under Sammartini in Milan where he writes his first opera Artaserse in 1741 to a libretto by Metastasio. 1745 Travels to London where he becomes house composer at the King’s Theatre and composes two operas. Handel, however, is not a fan. 1747 Travels include Dresden and Vienna and on to Copenhagen. He allegedly contracts a venereal disease from one of his prima donnas. 1750 Marries 18-year-old Maria Anna Bergin. Major works from this period include Ezio and La Clemenza di…

Adams City Noir, Saxophone Concerto Timothy McAllister sax, St. Louis Symphony/David Robertson NONESUCH 7559795644 It is three decades since John Adam’s Shaker Loops paved a smooth minimalistic path into orchestral subscription concerts. The composer went on to expand his language into an all-embracing neo-tonal post-Romanticism, with an impressive oeuvre in various genres, thus becoming an almost-household-name, and all without leaving the fast lane to Hollywood. There has always been a cinematic aspect to Adams’ writing but maybe that is just cultural memory with his style sitting fair and square in the middle of the grand American 20th-century symphonic tradition with its open road harmonies and Ivesian collages. City Noir, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, taps into that cultural memory grafting film noir imagery onto a tight three part structure.…

Beethoven Symphony No 1, Symphony No 7 Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal/ Kent Nagano SONY 88843036172 Kent Nagano’s ongoing Beethoven recording project is one of the most underrated cycles in the current catalogue and this latest release of Symphonies Nos 1 and 7 again proves the point. As with the previous symphonies (Nos 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9), this ‘Departure – Utopia’ (each installment bears a literary title) has all the dynamic contrasts and tempo changes that one would expect from a project that aims to reveal Beethoven the Revolutionary. But unlike so many other Beethoven re-interpreters who accentuate dynamic contrasts and tempo changes, Nagano never lapses into affectation or sensationalism. Instead, he gets his Montreal Orchestra up on its toes, like a middleweight ducking and weaving while unleashing rat-a-tat…

Composers have more in common than four letters of their names Pierné · Vierne Piano Quintet, String Quartet Piers Lane p, The Goldner String Quartet HYPERION CDA68036 Pierné’s music is unmistakably French – so much so that one could easily believe it to be unmistakably Massenet, under whom he studied. His other teacher was César Franck, whom he succeeded as organist of Paris’s Sainte-Clotilde, eventually following Édouard Colonne as director of the Colonne orchestra. He composed right across the spectrum, and his ballet Cydalise et le Chèvrepied, is a glorious adventure in French orchestral music, containing his greatest ‘hit’, The Entry of the Little Fauns. Dedicated to Fauré, the beautiful Piano Quintet was written in 1919. It begins ruminatively, gathering strength as it goes, the strenuous nature of the music…

Brahms Piano Works Wilhelm Kempff p ELOQUENCE 4806639 (2CD) 4808293 (2CD) Although the German pianist Wilhelm Kempff had embarked on a celebrated concert and recording career by the late 1920s, his gifts would not be appreciated until after WWII and the dawn of the LP, recording for both Decca and Deutsche Gramophon, sticking to central Teutonic repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven (he recorded two celebrated cycles for DG) to Romantics like Schubert and Schumann. Kempff was a pianist who focused on the score at hand rather than presenting a more individualistic approach – as per many of his discographic contemporaries. These two generously filled discs focus on Brahms’ solo works, which show the influence of Schumann. Here are performances which sing, yet are content let his melancholic and darker…

Handel Orlando Owen Willetts ct, Karina Gauvin s, Allyson McHardy ms, Amanda Forsythe s, Nathan Berg b, Pacific Baroque Orchestra/ Alexander Weimann ATMA ACD22678 Unlike most opera seria plots it is not difficult for the modern audience to understand the 18th-century fascination with Orlando Furioso, Ariosto’s epic poem about one of Charlemagne’s knights who gets vamped by a pagan princess leaving a trail of destruction behind him in a fit of pique. The source material would yield no less than three operas for Handel: Orlando in 1733, Ariodante and Alcina in 1735. The were all produced just as the craze for Italian opera in London was at its height and the industry was about to implode with over-supply. The libretto was modified from the original to contrive a convoluted love…

Opera Australia Sydney Opera House JUNE 26, 2014 “I have my tongue, he has a knife”. Thus speaks the sardonic jester Rigoletto in Verdi’s 1851 tale of sex, violence and vengeance set in mid 16th-century Mantua. Whether you shift it to Rat Pack Las Vegas or Mafioso Sicily, the fact remains that Victor Hugo’s 1832 play Le Roi S’Amuse is one of the darker, steamier, more dramatic stories available to the 19th-century bel canto brigade. Darkness there is aplenty in Roger Hodgman’s new production (at times you have to strain to catch a face through the gloom), but too many of the fireworks are of the purely vocal variety. Hodgman and his team have chosen to go back to basics and set the action in Renaissance Italy, but awkwardly not…

COMPONENT OF THE MONTH YAMAHA RX-S600 PRICE $1,000 It is a common misconception that Hi-Fi and AV enthusiasts have a thing for massive boxes. How an amp works is what really matters, and it just happens that the best often come in a package the size of a baby elephant. Thankfully, it is possible to have a smaller box without compromise on sound and handy features – as this Yamaha RX-S600 proves. This is a slim AV receiver. And by ‘slim’, we mean ‘less massive than usual’. At 11cm high and 32cm deep it’s still a hefty machine, only now it’s much easier to fit onto a rack. But just because it’s a smaller amp, that doesn’t mean you will be picking up a lesser amp – at least when…

Milksop Three Sydney-based artists reflect on the importance of art as both fantasy and fetish, testing the relationship between art, artist and audience. Blindside Gallery, Melbourne, August 6-23 Hanga A showcase of over 60 Japanese prints created after 1950, highlighting the ongoing importance of traditional techniques. Queensland Art Gallery, August 16-March 8 Psychic Synth The latest from electronic artist Pia van Gelder is a multi-sensory interactive installation exploring nature and technology. Carriageworks, Sydney, August 8-September 6…

MUSIC The Music of Peter Sculthorpe John Peterson Wildbird PB, 214pp, $39.95 ISBN 9780987514509 A broad study of pioneering Australian composition When Peter Sculthorpe was born in 1929, there was a dilemma in Australian music. New music was too heavily influenced by outdated styles from Britain and the continent, and the search was on to find some genuine Aussie fare – not some old-hat European Romantic, but someone who could truly define the Australian sound of the 20th century. Decades later, Peter Sculthorpe answered the call, with music that spoke (and sang) of the land and seascape of this great country of ours in a way that was fresh and unique. In The Music of Peter Sculthorpe, composer and lecturer at UNSW John Peterson investigates the rich oeuvre of this…

In August, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music will celebrate its 24th year with a program that, as Artistic Director Piers Lane writes in his season brouchure, “salutes the anniversaries of a number of important, and in some cases, unjustly neglected composers.” These composers include the likes of CPE Bach, Peter Maxwell Davies, Panufnik and, most notably, Richard Strauss. The Festival has long boasted its ability to bring together an array of international artists alongside the best of our country’s musical talents. British violinist Tasmin Little (pictured) and Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin are two such examples. As Piers explains, “Tasmin is a truly great concerto player, so to hear her playing Roxanna Panufnik’s Four World Seasons should be top drawer. She has also specially learned Roxanna’s father’s concerto for a…

MONDAY - FRIDAY 6am Classic Breakfast with Emma Ayres 9am Mornings with Christopher Lawrence 12pm Midday with Margaret Throsby 1pm Afternoons Monday to Wednesday with Damien Beaumont, Thursday to Friday with Mairi Nicolson 4pm Classic Drive with Julia Lester 7pm Evenings Mon - Tues Simon Healy Wed - Fri Julie Howard. Includes the evening concert which generally begins at 8pm. However some live broadcasts may be earlier or later. 10.30pm Friday only Jazz Up Late With Gerry Koster ABC Classic FM Digital Radio and streaming online New Music Up Late with Julian Day 12.30am All Night Classics SATURDAY 6am Weekend Breakfast with Colin Fox 9am Saturday Morning with Marian Arnold 12pm Music Makers with Mairi Nicolson 1pm Saturday Afternoon Concert with Mairi Nicolson 4pm The Opera Show with Mairi Nicolson…

Westfield Retail Trust shareholders have backed a controversial 70 billion dollar plan to restructure the shopping centre giant at a meeting in Sydney. Around 76 per cent of investors voted in favour of the plan to split Westfield Group and the retail trust into an Australian business and an international operation. That’s slightly more than the 75 per cent required for the deal to get over the line. The vote was abandoned last month after a shareholder revolt, when Westfield founder Frank Lowy revealed a restructure would go ahead even if it was rejected, creating a firm that would compete with Westfield Retail Trust. The plan had failed to get enough votes before the first meeting to succeed. The last two sentences in this breaking news alert are completely opaque.…