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

This was the concert for you if you wanted to hear some fine “Baroquery” gently cloaked in a 21st century large concert hall aesthetic. There was the Baroque sound, balance, colours and liveliness but with 21st century instruments – bar the guitar, lute, theorbo and harpsichords. The typical character of Baroque dance rhythms, but carefully nuanced and intensely musical stretching of those rhythms, were realised under the direction of Erin Helyard, a leading expert in the musicology and performance of early music, and Artist in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra this year. The Bra ..read more

If I gave out gold medals for excellence in music theatre, the ensemble of Chicago would be a shoe-in. This small black-clad ensemble doubles in small roles as well as commenting on the action in the style of a Greek chorus. This is a tight ensemble of incredibly talented people, who really make the show zing. Which is not to take anything away from the principals, who generally fit their roles like a glove. For me there were two standout cast members: Lucy Maunder as Roxie Hart and Anthony Warlow as lawyer Billy Flynn. Maunder proves again that she is a triple threat, and effortlessly sings ..read more

Although Vikingur Ólafsson was the celebrated pianist and international drawcard touring the world’s major concert halls in 2023/24, his audience in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall was given a highly satisfying warm-up with a performance by Consortium, a beautiful (all-female) quintet of viols that set the stage for this exciting night of musical magic. The five viols – a prominently centred bass viol and 2 treble and 2 alto viols – played by elegant musicians were a rare visual and aural experience for many, so this was a very welcome musical treat. We were taken back in time with intimate and sensiti ..read more

To watch the development of young operatic singers is one of the great pleasures of an opera enthusiast’s life; competitions, master classes, recitals and performances by small opera companies offer just some of the many opportunities to do so in Melbourne. Within little more than a week, Melbourne Opera mounted a very fine performance, with orchestra, of The Marriage of Figaro featuring young artists from the Richard Divall Program for emerging and developing opera singers, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra gave three young singers the opportunity to work on arias with Raehann Bryce-Davis in a ..read more