Do we really need yet another recording of the Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs)? When it comes to the new recording starring Siobhan Stagg and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín, the answer is a resounding Yes!  Some devotees would have stopped at Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s reading – possibly the 1953 recording but more likely the 1965 version with George Szell wielding the baton. This supposedly benchmark interpretation is rivalled by the Kirsten Flagstad/Furtwängler version – too bad about the recording quality but the tempi have a ..read more

High fives for a deep dive into the lower strings On an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in April, Toorak Uniting Church was packed for the final performance of “Cellissimo Bellissimo”, a program of Baroque cello music featuring guest soloist Mime Brinkmann.   Sweden-based baroque cello specialist, Brinkmann, performs and records as a baroque soloist, chamber musician and ensemble player around the world. While she specialises in historical performance on the cello and viola da gamba, Brinkmann is also involved in creating uniquely eclectic theatrical programs, and in 2022 received ..read more

If you heard Michael Cathcart’s interview with director Suzanne Chaundy on ABC Radio National last week, you will know that Melbourne Opera’s imminent production of Lucia di Lammermoor is going to be something extra special. The painstaking research, attention to musical detail, creative vision and logistical nous that combined to make her production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle such a resounding success last year promises to deliver a memorable Lucia. The following media release also outlines some of what we can expect from a cast of outstanding singers. The role of Lucia i ..read more

It is almost twenty years since the Melbourne Bach Choir began an impressive musical journey with Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion at All Saints Anglican Church in East St Kilda. Back in the same venue, and a little later than the customary Easter offering, MBC’s Artistic Director and conductor, Rick Prakhoff, assembled an inspired program that was perfect for an extended Easter season.  Bach’s celebratory Easter Oratorio and Ascension Oratorio were each prefaced by shorter works that were in keeping with what followed. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Felix Mendelssohn, for ..read more

If it is possible to measure orchestral beauty and the engagement of an ensemble with their audience by a musical yardstick, violinist and artistic director Sophie Rowell is leading the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra over and above the top score. Light + Shade certainly brought a highly refined and mood-enhancing program to its audience. How true to the program’s title was the opening Sinfonia in B minor. C. P. E. Bach’s three-movement work showed constant dynamic change, where themes alternated constantly between sensitive pianissimos and robust settings. With small strings standing in the perfo ..read more

Consistently praised with glowing descriptions of being the most exciting and the best chamber music ensemble around, the standing ovation received by Omega Ensemble’s performance in Elizabeth Murdoch Hall topped off a magnificent musical evening. Superlatives fall short when an audience is speechless, breathless and mesmerised by a perfectly blended and balanced group of musicians united in rhythm, harmony and range of colour in exciting contemporary classical music. Detailed program notes included the catchcry “Embrace the unexpected, celebrate the extraordinary” – an invitation for audience ..read more

Due to an increasing number of champions, the spotlight on Margaret Sutherland (1897 – 1984) has steadily become brighter following her death. Melbourne boasts an outstanding piano trio, the Sutherland Trio, and Jillian Graham’s highly informative and readable book, Inner Song, has been widely publicised – and read. In this concert, presented by Friends of the Auburn Tower, several aspects of Sutherland’s compositions added to more frequent performances of her works. This concert at Auburn Uniting Church went well beyond an admirable performance of a selection of Sutherland’s works for ke ..read more

Melburnians were treated to a marathon three hours of avant-garde chamber music, when New York’s JACK Quartet gave two concerts in one evening at the Melbourne Recital Centre on their first Australian tour.  The Quartet specialises in twentieth and twenty-first century string quartet music and its first concert featured the Australian premiere of “String Creatures” by Sydney-based composer Liza Lim, alongside two twentieth century American quartets.   After a short interval, during which Marshall McGuire presented a post-concert chat with Liza Lim, the JACK Quartet returned to t ..read more

Bach’s first setting of the Passion, that according to St John, was given a commanding performance directed by the acclaimed British choral director Stephen Layton in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Baroque Festival. Remarkably and happily, it was it was the 300th anniversary almost to the day of its first hearing in Leipzig in 1724. Top-notch soloists, a fine orchestra and the MSO Chorus in very good form held us close as the drama of Christ’s arrest, judgement, torture and finally death on the cross was played out in just under two hours.  Although the printed program had stated t ..read more

We are used to hearing Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Acknowledgement of Country as a prelude to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concerts, but it took on a new significance on Thursday night. What was perhaps a false start was interrupted by archival footage of Sir Bernard Heinz projected onto the lamentable Masonite back wall as a prelude to the announcement of the 2024 Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award. Given to “a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia”, last year’s recipient was Nicolette Fraillon. In another piece of synchronicity, this year Emeritus Professor Lin ..read more