Table of contents for April 2017 in Limelight

Are you a carnivore, a herbivore or an omnivore? Musically speaking, that is. It’s a question I often ponder, since as an editor I aim to cater for all tastes, but this month I thought I’d take a moment to ponder out loud, as it were. The carnivores are music’s hungriest beasts. They like their meat fresh and preferably raw. If it was written before 1950, they’ll probably turn up their noses. A late-night Stockhausen broadcast holds no terrors for them, and they frequently write in to tell me what I’ve missed. They’re well catered for on the Australian live scene, while fine labels like BIS, DaCapo and NMC offer regular chances to feast. Herbivores are more problematic. They like Beethoven, and Mozart, and… more Beethoven. The major labels generate…

GOOD GOD, SIR...! Re. Letter of The Month, March. I am sorry for Michael Hamel-Green that a programme he enjoyed has been moved to a time slot that does not please him. However, his complaint is couched in some very muddled, sanctimonious rhetoric. Who does he mean by “those of us who have faith in something other than profit making”? Does he mean people who believe in God, or does he mean people who like the same music as him? In either case his argument is flawed. Some religious people do believe in “profit making, building walls and bombs”. Surely he doesn’t believe that people who prefer Bach, Handel and Pergolesi are more likely to want to “build bridges” and make “peace” than those who prefer different music? Maybe he…

Jacqueline Dark has been replaced as Kundry for Opera Australia's upcoming concert performances of Wagner’s Parsifal in August. The popular Australian mezzo soprano, who had previously expressed her great excitement at singing opposite star tenor Jonas Kaufmann, appears not to have "withdrawn" from the performances, raising questions from many on social media as to the reasons for the sudden, unannounced cast change. Opera Australia told Limelight the company “doesn’t comment on casting decisions.” However, it is highly unusual for a singer to be replaced at this stage for no apparent reason, and Kaufmann was certainly unaware of any issues when he referred to Dark as his expected Kundry in an interview conducted for Limelight in Paris in January. Dark, who was confirmed in the role when OA launched its season…

“The joy of a choir is that sense of being part of something bigger than yourself” It was reliably reported to me recently (by a 10 year old) that a primary school on Sydney’s Lower North Shore was auditioning children for a place in the school choir. Not only were they being auditioned, they were being auditioned individually – standing in front of everyone, legs quivering with fear, having to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb solo to get a spot. My little friend was bitterly disappointed he didn’t get in, despite having been part of the School Spectacular Choir a few years running. He doesn’t play an instrument, his only access to performance is through the choir, and yet that avenue of pleasure was suddenly closed down. We’re not…

“WHEN YOU ARE SUCKED INTO THIS WORLD OF WAGNER, IT’S VERY HARD NOT TO FALL IN LOVE WITH IT. IT’S ALSO VERY HARD TO PULL YOURSELF OUT. IT TOOK ME A FEW DAYS TO COME DOWN TO EARTH” You were appointed concertmaster at the Concertgebouw aged 18. What were the challenges of taking on that role so young? When you are very young, you can make an enormous number of mistakes. At that age you are supposed to start to go out with girls, and have a great time with friends. But I came to an orchestra with years of tradition who play, week in week out, with only the greatest conductors. That was a youth’s adventure for me! A big step, but an incredible school at the same time.…

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht,Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! DahinMöcht ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn. Kennst du das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach,Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach,Und Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an:Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan?Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! DahinMöcht ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, ziehn. Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg?Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg,In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut,Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut;Kennst du ihn wohl? Dahin! DahinGeht unser Weg! O Vater, laß uns ziehn! Do you know the land where the lemon-trees bloom,The golden oranges glow…

Shakespeare drew inspiration from the ‘dark lady of the sonnets’ and Beethoven found solace in his mysterious ‘immortal beloved’, but Richard Wagner was often inspired by relationships closer to home. Fleeting romantic encounters and domestic celebrations stimulated a private, intimate style of art rarely associated with a composer best known for his lofty theatrical visions of transcendent love. It all began when Richard was a brashly confident 18-year-old in Leipzig, infatuated with a Jewish girl named Leah David, daughter of a wealthy Polish family and a friend of his sister Luise. “Never before had I encountered a young girl so richly attired and so beautiful”, he wrote. “Never before had I been spoken to with such oriental profusion of caressing politeness. Surprised and dazzled, I experienced for the first time…

“BEETHOVEN HAD LITTLE EXPERIENCE OF THE STAGE, AND AT TIMES IT SHOWS” LIVED 1770 – 1827 MOSTLY IN VIENNA, BONN BEST KNOWN FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING HE WROTE SIMILAR TO HAYDN, MOZART, SCHUBERT, CZERNY Nine symphonies, 16 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas – and only one opera. And just look at all those projects that came to nothing: Vesta’s Fire, abandoned after a single scene; Macbeth, similarly discarded and its music reworked (apparently) in the slow movement of the Ghost Piano Trio; Goethe’s Faust Part I, a wish expressed and nothing more. The statistics surely say it all: Beethoven was an instrumental composer first and foremost. Vocal writing – and especially operatic vocal writing – just didn’t come naturally to him, as it did superabundantly to Mozart. In fact, Beethoven…

“Munch proved as volatile and unpredictable in the studio as he was in the concert hall” I have been catching up on some hefty box sets released last year. The Alsatian conductor Charles Munch’s tenure with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1949-62) coincided with the beginning of the LP era, and then stereophonic sound, when a great deal of classical music was recorded in America. Munch proved as volatile and unpredictable in the studio as he was in the concert hall, producing performances that remain perennially exciting. Sony BMG has issued an 86CD box of his complete RCA recordings (and a few from Columbia). The original cover art is reproduced. Munch excelled in French music, especially Berlioz. Included are his two Boston recordings of the Symphonie Fantastique and his galvanizing rendition…

The Rasputin Affair A group with a plate of pink poisoned cupcakes aim to rid the world of one of history’s most despised characters – Rasputin. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, April 1–30 The Dog/The Cat Cowell’s portrait of the tricky line between mateship and romance and Katz’s fable of the perils of co-owning a feline with your ex. Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, April 13–May 7 Once in Royal David’s City Who are we, what are we doing here, and why is it so? Faced with the loss of a parent, what do we do? Queensland Theatre, Playhouse QPAC, April 22–May 14 Stones in his Pockets The hilarious tale of a quiet Irish community turned upside down by the arrival of a Hollywood shoot. Albany Entertainment Centre, Subiaco Arts Centre, WA, April…

Our Lands A collection of works that explore the tensions, conflicts, suspicions and political struggles central to land rights debates in Australia. Art Gallery of New South Wales, until June 18 Bill Henson Presenting recent photographs selected by the artist himself, encompassing themes including portraits, nudes and landscapes. National Gallery of Victoria, until August 27 Lucent Aboriginal and Pacific art is featured alongside each other in this exhibition, illuminating each culture’s connections and differences. Queensland Art Gallery, until April 17…

[NON-FICTION] Bach & God Michael Marissen Oxford University Press, HB, 257pp, $43.99 ISBN 9780190606954 Bach & God explores the religious character of the music of Bach. Michael Marissen offers wide-ranging insights from detailed investigations of both words and music and suggests that there is always more to discover about the composer. [NON-FICTION] Knowledge and Discernment in the Early Modern Arts Sven Dupré, Christine Göttler Routledge, HB, 400pp, $240 ISBN 9781472468390 With contributions by both historians of art and historians of science, this volume reframes recent scholarship on what the editors term “cultures of knowledge and discernment” in the early modern period. [NON-FICTION] Being Wagner: The Triumph of the Will Simon Callow William Collins, HB, 208pp, $34.99 ISBN 9780008105693 135 years after his death, Richard Wagner’s music dramas stand at the…

“Trifonov is possessed of an extraordinary energy and phenomenal dexterity” Good things come in threes, they say. Well, make that four in the case of this smartly coherent programme of a trio of young Russian composers and the anticipated debut of 25-year-old piano wunderkind Daniil Trifonov. Actually, make that five, as the Sydney Symphony debut of the Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno was equally impressive, pulling together three works that, although separated by only a few years, reveal three wildly different musical, political and emotional personalities. Prokofiev first, and the cocky young Turk’s Classical Symphony, perhaps the most charming initial essay in the form ever penned. A naturally elegant conductor, Gimeno brings out the natural elegance in Prokofiev. He was Principal Percussionist with the Concertgebouw for several years, and a crisp,…

3MBS 103.5 SHOWCASING YOUNG AUSTRALIAN TALENT Tuesdays at 7pm The Talent is an exciting live performance programme which assists young performers at the start of their careers. Each season The Talent broadcasts another group of young musicians currently studying at tertiary institutions or recently graduated. Live from the 3MBS studios, the programme features commentary by local Melbourne musicians who mentor this emerging talent. If you can’t tune in on a Tuesday evening, The Talent is available as a podcast for you to listen at your leisure. FINE MUSIC 102.5 SHOWCASING AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS 8pm on April 6 Fine Music will showcase the work of historically informed performance group, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, in a concert of Abel and Haydn. Directed by Skye MacIntosh, the concert will featuring soloists Melissa Farrow and…

ONLINE ELOQUENCE To celebrate its 18th year, Universal Music’s classical music reissue series Eloquence has announced the launch of its first ever website. The series has released over 1000 titles since its inception in 1999, largely from the Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics archives. The recordings have been reviewed extensively, not least by Phillip Scott in his monthly Reissues round-up column in Limelight Magazine (see page 84). The new website is a boon for record collectors and enthusiasts, giving users the ability to search all titles in the catalogue and filter by any combination of composer, artist or series. It also offers preview track listening for many of the albums as well as reviews of some of the original albums and Eloquence reissues. Links are available to immediately stream or…

ROGER NEILL MATHILDE MARCHESI Roger Neill curated an exhibition of photographer Walter Barnett for Canberra’s National Portrait Gallery and helped Sam Wanamaker rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe. Now Secretary of the Historic Singers Trust, he started out as a rock musician. STEVE DOW KATE THE GREAT Steve Dow is a Melbourne-born, Sydney-based arts writer for theatre, screen, music and visual arts. His work also appears in The Saturday Paper, Guardian Australia, The Monthly, The Australian Financial Review and Art Guide Australia. He tweets@dowsteve. PETER BASSETT WAGNER IN LOVE Peter Bassett has been speaking and writing about opera since he was a schoolboy. Today he is best known for his books and talks on Wagner’s stage works, his involvement with the Adelaide productions of the Ring and Parsifal, and for leading opera tours…

CAN WANG WIN IN CARDIFF? Chinese-Australian lyric tenor Kang Wang is one of 20 finalists in this year’s popular BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He is one of four tenors and the only Australian represented. A Queensland Conservatorium graduate, Wang has been a member of the New York Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program since 2015. He will perform in the Main Prize – Round Four recital on June 15. KAUFMANN'S INS AND OUTS Jonas Kaufmann made a triumphant return to the stage in February after an extended vocal rest, earning glowing reviews as Lohengrin for Paris Opera. However, the star tenor – who is scheduled to sing Parsifal for OA in August –announced in March that he was pulling out of a new Tosca for the…

1. Your latest album is music for Wayne McGregor’s ballet Woolf Works. Were you a Virginia Woolf fan before the project? Yeah. I read Woolf when I was in my late teens. I associate her very much with starting to explore reading for myself, beyond things I had to read. It's not like Dickens where you know what you're going to get, broadly. You don't know with Woolf. I have a big soft spot for Mrs Dalloway, because I love the emotional texture. 2. With such a huge body of work and an extraordinary life, what inspired your music? One of the things I turned up almost immediately was this amazing 1937 recording of her reading the essay on craftsmanship, which is the only recording of her voice. That was…

Sir David McVicar’s production of Debussy’s strange, dark opera Pelléas et Mélisande for Scottish Opera has had rave reviews, with The Telegraph saying it “might just be the best thing he’s ever done”. Ingeniously designed by Rae Smith, the beautiful staging takes its visual inspiration from the haunting, subdued paintings of Dutch artist Vilhelm Hammershøi. There was praise for the cast, which included Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko and Carolyn Sampson in the title roles, and for Stuart Stratford’s impassioned conducting.…

His feeling for poetry and drama extends to a profound ability to convey character During my tenure at Victorian Opera, we have embarked on a project to perform all the major Bellini operas in concert. The cynic might well ask “why”? – and add prevailing criticisms about poor orchestration, formulaic accompaniments and lack of dramatic differentiation between characters. All well and good – and perhaps intellectually sustainable points of view – which overlook one important phenomenon: an individuality of musical personality, which has an emotional eloquence of uncommon power that engages the public because of its lasting vitality. Bellini had great regard for the quality of his chosen texts. His most successful collaborator was Felice Romani (1788-1865) who was the librettist for seven of Bellini’s greatest works, including Norma and…

I’ve always wanted to write a concerto, but it is a massive undertaking and it wasn’t until discussions with MSO’s Director of Artistic Planning Ronald Vermeulen that the prospect started to become a reality. I have always wanted to take the oud further than the traditional Arabic music platform and for the last 20 years I have done my best to push it into ‘unorthodox’ musical areas through cross cultural collaboration, understanding of cultures and the composition of new works that challenge the instrument. With this concerto, I wanted to do something big, showcasing the oud in a new light and for it to be a technical benchmark for future players. It was very important for me that the music was true in intention, not just a bombardment of technical…

“I DON’T KNOW IF I’M ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES, WHO’S NEVER HAD ANY SORT OF IDENTITY CRISIS WITH MUSIC” Directing a prestigious orchestra while maintaining a high-flying international career as a soloist is quite an undertaking. Leading them from first violin is no doddle either, especially if you’ve never studied conducting. But virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell didn’t hesitate when offered the role of Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2011. Bell is the only person to hold the position since Sir Neville Marriner (who died in 2016 aged 92) founded the illustrious British chamber orchestra in 1958. “It’s really a dream for me, a dream come true,” he says, chatting affably on the phone from his New York apartment, “because, first of all,…

When Mrs Helen Armstrong auditioned for Mathilde Marchesi in Paris in 1886, Marchesi immediately called out to her husband Salvatore, “J’ai trouvé une étoile” – “I’ve found a star”. Mrs Armstrong was to become the world’s most celebrated diva, Dame Nellie Melba. In fact Marchesi had already been turning out leading prima donnas from around the world for three decades at that point and she was to continue to do so for a further 20 years – so many of them from North America and Australasia. Her 50-year-plus career was altogether an astonishing achievement, one completely unmatched by any other singing teacher before or since. Although her own early teachers included composers Felix Mendelssohn and Otto Nicolai, the turning point in the German-born Marchesi’s life came when in 1845 she…

A bright fanfare of trumpets and drums opens Bach’s Easter Oratorio.“It’s so joyful,” Madeleine Easton tells me over coffee in Sydney, where she has returned from the UK to establish a new historically informed performance ensemble, the Bach Akedemie Australia.“It gets everyone dancing in the aisles.” The Easter Oratorio, BWV249, will be the band’s inaugural offering, the climax of a programme that will also include Bach’s Cantata BWV4 – Christ lag in Todes Banden – and his Concerto for Oboe andViolin, BWV1060. For Easton, who has led the English Baroque soloists for many years under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner – patron of her new Bach Akedemie – the Easter Oratorio was the perfect work to launch the new ensemble. “It’s hardly ever played,”she says.“It’s lesser known even…

LEONORE OR FIDELIO? Beethoven’s opera took ten years to reach its final format. Commissioned in 1803, it had its premiere under the title Fidelio in 1805 – for convenience, this first version is now referred to as Leonore (Beethoven’s preferred title). Beethoven then made cuts to Leonore in time for a second staging in 1806. Eight years later, the composer made further revisions, and Fidelio as we know it was staged for the first time. MIXED FORTUNES Leonore wasn’t a success when it first appeared at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien – with the city occupied by Napoleon, many of Beethoven’s supporters were absent, plus the opera was considered long and rambling. In a different political climate in 1814, however, the shorter revised Fidelio was a success. But the production…

“Finley is completely inside these texts and his warm, resonant voice performs miracles” Sibelius Orchestral Songs Gerald Finley b-bar, Bergen Philharmonic/Edward Gardner CHANDOS CHSA5178 (SACD) Shortly before he died, Jean Sibelius spotted the talent inherent in the music of a bright young Finnish composer by the name of Einojuhani Rautavarra, even helping him pursue his studies in the United States. Nearly 60 years later, Rautavarra repaid some of that debt orchestrating a set of seven Sibelius songs in a cycle he called In the Stream of Life. The midwife to this act was Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley. Rautavarra had written his Rubáiyát for the singer who had become first a colleague and then a friend, so the multilingually ambitious Finley naturally turned to Rautavaara when looking for some Sibelius songs…

“Jaroussky exploits his deeper dramatic side and control of line and dynamic” Bach • Telemann Sacred Cantatas Philippe Jaroussky ct, Freiburger Barockorchester/Petra Müllejans ERATO 0190295925338 For his first album devoted entirely to works sung in German, French star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky has chosen four religious cantatas by two old friends in JS Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. For many listeners, the revelation of this disc will be the two Telemann works, but in fact he wrote more than 30 sacred cantatas, as well as a St John Passion, oratorios, psalms and motets. Although they have been recorded they have necessarily been overshadowed by the Bach cantatas. Jaroussky adopts a jaunty air for the charming Kommet her, ihr Menschenkinder from the otherwise dramatic Mount of Olives cantata Der am Ölberg Zagende…

“Takemitsu uses a pentatonic scale to evoke an image from his own dreams” He burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. And he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of this country. So President Jimmy Carter greets the death of Elvis Presley on August 16, 1977. Carter was one of thousands of Americans to mourn the passing of their iconic son; some 80,000 turn out to line “the King’s” funeral route. Presley’s impact is immeasurable, but his death, following a very public decline in heath and speculation about…

Orb This striking piece explores the power of the moon and the mythology, fable and poetry of mankind to thrill audiences. Sydney Dance Company, Roslyn Packer Theatre, April 29 –May 13 Faster Modern ballet at its visceral best: a heart-pumping triple programme from some of the world’s best choreographers. The Australian Ballet, Sydney Opera House, April 7–26 Rule of Thirds A highly physical performance that celebrates perseverance, audacity and the ongoing desire to reinvent ourselves. Chunky Move, touring regional Victoria April 6–20…

WELL, HELLO MARINA! THEATRE Marina Prior is to play the inimitable Dolly Levi in Jerry Herman’s musical comedy Hello, Dolly!. The show, which opens The Production Company’s 2017 season in May will also star Prior’s real-life husband Grant Piro as Horace Vandergelder. “It’s been a dream of mine to do this iconic show, and right now I feel ready for the challenge,” said Prior. The Melbourne-based company will also produce Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar in July with Rob Mills as Jesus, and Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon in October with a cast led by Rohan Browne and Genevieve Kingsford. PROTESTORS SEE RED DANCE The 1964 Chinese ballet The Red Detachment of Women made its Australian premiere at Arts Centre Melbourne for Asia TOPA. But the Australian Values Alliance, formed…

Denial Opens: April 13 Genre: Drama Duration: 110 minutes Spall and Weisz shine in timely Holocaust denial drama This powerful drama about the legal battle between ultra-right wing UK historian David Irving and US Holocaust studies academic Deborah Lipstadt could hardly have arrived at a more appropriate moment. That the Holocaust as a topic has a lasting relevance is obvious, but as the film’s title makes clear, it’s not just the historical event so much as the associated phenomenon of denialism – the attempt to erase it from history and excuse the perpetrators – that lies at the heart of the drama. Add to that the echoes now being felt of the darkest currents of 1930s politics, and the film’s subtext grows even timelier. In this age of “alternative facts”,…

The Sleeping Beauty The Sleeping Beauty combines the best of classical ballet with splendid music by Tchaikovsky and talented dancers. With wonderful ensembles, solos – including the Rose Adagio as Princess Aurora (Marianela Nuñez) meets her suitors – and of course the concluding celebratory dance for the happy union of prince (Vadim Muntagirov) and princess, this is a spectacle like no other. April 7 – 12 Manon Lescaut Maria José Siri and Gregory Kunde lead an international cast, starring as the ill-fated lovers at the centre of Puccini’s passionate opera about a free-spirited country girl who becomes the toast of Paris and finds herself torn between true love and a life of luxury. The rich score, here conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, is characterised by youthful vitality and filled with Puccini’s…

1. Which tenor only ever sang live in two each performances of Falstaff and Madama Butterfly? 2. Whose works did Brahms condemn as “symphonic boa constrictors”? 3. Upon which Shakespeare play did Wagner base his Das Liebesverbot? 4. Whose first opera is based on a Peter Carey book and his second on a Shakespeare play? 5. Who wrote an operetta in which the despotic King Ouf executes malefactors using a chair and a spike up the bum? 6. The composer of the pictured opera once declared“The idea of a composer having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Night time is for sleeping.” Who was he? 7. Which writer links Rossini’s La Donna del Lago, Bizet’s La Jolie Fille de Perth and Donizetti’s Lucia…

“Music is my friend and comforter, my key to the door of my inner self. My saviour, really” I was first thrilled by music at a deep and sensual level when I was ten years old and my Dad took me to London from our suburban outpost of Teddington in Middlesex to see “Antonio and his Spanish dancers” at the huge Palladium Theatre in the West End. A few weeks prior, I had been given a very basic acoustic guitar by one of my Scottish uncles. I was excited by it without having the slightest clue how to play, or even hold it, so my dear Dad decided in his typically loving way to get a couple of the cheapest tickets to a performance of what he saw as the…

Justin Mitchell, a 14-year-old student at St Kevin’s College in Melbourne has taken out the top prize in the Engineering category of the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards for his Synth-etic, a highly portable keyboard designed to fit in the pocket of a hoodie. The year eight student, who sings with the Australian Boys Choir and plays piano and oboe, built and programmed the tiny piano he describes as a “hood-wind instrument,” which allows the user to compose and play electronic music that only they can hear. The keyboard consists of eight keys – four for each hand – to allow for an eight-note scale, which can be modulated up and down. The device has 127 instrumental settings. “It means you can play whatever you want, whenever you want,…

Bach Partitas & Sonatas Chris Thile NONESUCH 7559795864 I'm a huge fan of this man and his many musical personas, from the Punch Brothers to recent collaborations with Yo Yo Ma and Brad Mehldau. Musically it doesn't get any better than Thile's mandolin arrangements of some of Bach's great solo violin works. Ralph Towner My Foolish Heart ECM ECM2516 Ralph has been an important figure in my life. I listened to him as I grew up and have been fortunate to share the stage with him regularly these last ten years. His latest solo album reinforces what an extraordinary composer he is. To be doing this in one’s mid 70s is truly inspirational. Beethoven Late Quartets DECCA 4708492 (3CD) Guitarists are always envious of other instrumentalists who have great repertoire…

NICOLAI GEDDA 1925 – 2017 Nicolai Gedda died in January at his home in Switzerland aged 91. The Swedish tenor was a giant of 20th century opera, appearing in over 200 recordings and collaborating with artists such as Maria Callas, Herbert von Karajan, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Jessye Norman. Gedda worked at a bank before deciding to pursue a singing career. He studied at the Swedish Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and made his debut in 1951 at the Swedish Royal Opera in the premiere of Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister’s Der Rote Stiefel. Two years later, Gedda made his La Scala debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni before creating the role of the Groom in Carl Orff’s Il Trionfo di Afrodite, under the baton of Karajan at the…

Since his youthful days as a child prodigy, Russian composer Alexander Scriabin dreamed big. “I am God,” he would later write in one of his secret philosophical journals. But it was in the composer’s final work, incomplete at his death, that he allowed his egomaniacal dreams free reign. Mysterium – a proposed synthesis of art-forms that make Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk seem a low bar to hurdle – was designed to bring about the end of the world, no less. The immense seven-day (or more) multi-media spectacle was intended to take place in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, and would involve all kinds of musicians and artists. The performance would feature dancers, poetry, perfumes, colours – Scriabin was a famous synesthete – and would even include bells hanging down from the…

BORN MASSACHUSETTS, USA STUDIED AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC LIKES READING,, SOCCER AND MAGIC CARD TRICKS DISLIKES ONIONS AND EARLY MORNINGS What are your earliest musical memories? Memories of my childhood are filled with the sounds of my sisters practising music around the house. I would often wake up to it in the morning, which has given me a permanent dislike of certain piano exercises! I have clear memories of my some of my earliest piano lessons at the age of three, learning the first pieces from the Suzuki Piano School. What drew you to the cello? I initially picked up the violin at the age of five along with my three older sisters. After a year, one sister switched to viola and I took up the cello. A large…

Few today take the time to read Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister, yet in the 19th century a great many composers were drawn to this philosophical coming-of-age tale, and especially to the subsidiary character of the mysterious and waiflike Mignon. Although the story contains a total of eight songs, one in particular has attracted almost twice as many settings as all the others put together. Kennst du das land (Do you know the land) – in which the enigmatic child reveals tantalising and fleeting fragments of her traumatic past, and expresses her desire to find a father figure in the novel’s young protagonist – commanded the attention of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, of Tchaikovsky, Wolf and even Alban Berg. So, what’s in a song? And what can we…

“I’M USING MY KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT COMES THROUGH THE TEXT, AND THAT DOESN’T ALWAYS HAVE TO DO WITH RICHARD III BEING A MAN” Grigori Rasputin nearly found himself recast as an Australian. Playwright and actor Kate Mulvany studied Russian history in her high school in Geraldton, a remote iron ore port 400 kilometres north of Perth. It was there she “absolutely fell in love with” unpacking events in St Petersburg during World War I, when the doomed mystical faith healer cast a spell on Nicholas II, the last Tsar of the Russian Empire. “I was obsessed with this story of how these noblemen wanted to do him in,” the West Australian-born writer recalls. Several years ago, Melbourne Theatre Company commissioned Mulvany to create a new Australian play, so she decided…

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV7 English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir/John Eliot Gardiner SDG SDG101 (2CD) With its dramatic opening chorus depicting the flowing River Jordan and Christ’s arrival in glory, this is one of Bach’s finest Lutheran cantatas. The following bass aria is an earworm. Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV12 La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken ACCENT ACC25311 The intense cantata ‘Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing’, hails from 1714 and Bach’s Weimar period. The old-fashioned passacaglia that opens the first chorus would be reworked as the B Minor Mass Crucifixus. Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!, BWV51 Carolyn Sampson s, Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki BIS BISCD1471 (SACD) This celebratory cantata for solo soprano and trumpet has been recorded by singers from Dessay to Popp, but few are as magnificent as Carolyn Sampson.…

Fidelio Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado DECCA 4782551 (2CD) A dream cast, matched by peerless, polished playing from the Lucerne FO. Leonore Hillevi Martinpelto, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Gardiner DG ARCHIV 4534612 (2CD) Gardiner and forces on compelling form in Fidelio’s initial version. Symphony No 9 Gewandhaus/Chailly DECCA 4783497 Chailly’s singers and players meet the challenges of the Ninth Symphony with thrilling aplomb. Missa Solemnis Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Monteverdi Choir/Gardiner SDG SDG718 An electrifying performance live from London’s Barbican.…

Sibelius’ fame seems to rest nowadays on his seven symphonies, but how important a song writer was he? He was extremely important to the song repertoire as song was to him. Although his first language was Swedish, his dedication to Finnish national culture spawned many works in that un-mined language, and became important for Finland finding its cultural identity during Sibelius’ lifetime. The song repertoire is greatly enhanced by his extensive work, both with piano and orchestra. They are a staple in Scandinavian recitals. Is it just the language barrier that means his songs are less often heard? Sibelius wrote in different languages, including German and English, so those are definitely accessible! Nordic languages are a small hindrance to singer and audience, but there is great richness in the folklore…

“Stuart Skelton’s magnificent Siegmund is here preserved in excellent sound” Wagner Die Walküre Matthias Goerne b-bar, Petra Lang s, Stuart Skelton t, Heidi Melton s, Hong Kong Philharmonic/Jaap van Zweden NAXOS 866039497 (4CD) Of the Ring Cycle recordings that cropped up in Wagner centenary year, few were fully satisfying. The German big guns came out for Thielemann’s Vienna State Opera effort on Deutsche Grammophon, but it was indifferently recorded, inconsistently inspired and riddled with wobblers. Janowski’s Berlin rival was a sonic masterpiece, but it raced badly at times and was unevenly cast. So perhaps it’s indicative of a new world order that the finest recent attempt at Wagner’s masterwork is shaping up to be the Hong Kong cycle, and on a budget label to boot. Conducted by Dutch maestro Jaap…

PREVIEW For the next three months, Carriageworks – Sydney’s thriving multi-arts centre housed in the old Eveleigh Rail Yards – is giving over its huge main foyer and white-box space in Bay 21 to a broad-ranging exhibition of contemporary Australian art, most of it new. Exploring “the fluidity of identity” as a loose theme, the work is nothing if not diverse: from live performance to video; from a sawdust carpet to six customised strait jackets representing the reasons women stay in abusive relationships; from imagined Aboriginal flags to metal dustbin lids inscribed with poetry. The exhibition is part of a new biennial called The National: New Australian Art co-presented by three of Sydney’s premiere visual arts institutions: Carriageworks, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary…

MONDAY - FRIDAY 6am Classic Breakfast Start your day with a delicious selection of the best in classical music, including your daily Swoon 9am Mornings Spend your morning with great music, including new releases and classic performances, plus the latest news and stories from the world of music 12pm Afternoons Classical music to take you through your afternoon at home, at work, or out and about 4pm Classic Drive A journey home through classical sounds, designed to relax, refresh and delight you 7pm Evenings Brings you recent classical concerts from Australian and international orchestras and ensembles 12am Night Music Classical music that’s perfect for all-night listening, presented by some of your favourite ABC Classic FM voices SATURDAY 6am Weekend Breakfast The relaxing and entertaining way to wake up to your…