Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson get the Order of the Vasa. (AP PHOTO The four members of the Swedish pop quartet ABBA are set to receive one of the most prestigious knighthoods in Sweden at a ceremony. The Order of the Vasa will be handed out for the first time in almost 50 years. Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad will receive the royal Order of Vasa as “Commander of the First Class” for “very outstanding efforts in Swedish and international music life”. Sweden has several orders, including the Royal Order of Seraphi ..read more

The estate of Freddie Mercury is in talks with surviving Queen members to sell their iconic songs. (AP PHOTO) LONDON – Sony Music is reportedly in talks to buy the Queen music catalogue for Stg800 million ($A1.5 billion). The Bohemian Rhapsody legends – whose biggest hits include We Are The Champions, Radio Gaga and We Will Rock You – are reportedly discussing a potential deal for their iconic collection of songs. According to Bloomberg, Sony is working with another investor on the offer, which would be the biggest of its kind and include merchandise and other business ventures. Discussions fo ..read more

A jazz combo performs at the ANU School of Music Community Music Centre…  Photo: Chloe Hobbs The ANU School of Music Community Music Centre is now well ahead of the pack in making music education widely accessible.  The program received a community outreach grant of more than $550,000 from ArtsACT, which has led to a rebranding of the former Open School of Music as the ANU Community Music Centre, signalling a shift towards providing more opportunities for adults, women, gender-diverse individuals and other minority groups. Also, the centre’s convenor, Jennifer Binovec, says, music sh ..read more

Tenor Stuart Skelton with Richard Tognetti and the ACO. Photo: Nic Walker Music / Mahler’s Song of the Earth, Australian Chamber Orchestra. At Llewellyn Hall, May 24. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA. Words alone cannot evoke the rare quality of this concert. Performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, augmented to 19 by horns, woodwind, percussion, brass, piano, harmonium, celesta and mandolin in the Arnold Schoenberg/Rainer Riehn rearrangement for chamber orchestra, the evenness of the ensemble was notable, at no time allowing the strings to dominate. The evening began quietly with a little gentle ..read more

Patrick Churnside at The Vault… a powerful piece of theatre which worked well with the minimal staging. Photo: Graham McDonald Music / Tjaabi – Flood Country, sung by Patrick Churnside. At The Vault, Fyshwick, May 24. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD This is the latest cross-cultural production from Big-hART, who for 30 years have been producing theatre and music shows.  These often come out of disadvantaged First Nations communities, such as Songs of Freedom, heard here last year and, like this show, from the Roebourne district in the Pilbara in WA. Tjaabi are, from what I gathered from this ..read more

CSO conductor Jessica Cottis… “There is a sense of great enjoyment in what the orchestra, under Jessica Cottis’ direction, is doing.” Photo: Martin Ollman Music / Edge of the World, Canberra Symphony Orchestra. At Llewellyn Hall, May 22. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD This was the first of the CSO’s Llewellyn Hall concerts for the year with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (curiously hyphenated in the program), Nigel Westlake and Jean Sibelius and a totally enjoyable couple of hours of music.  The concert opened with Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with concertmaster Kirsten Williams as ..read more

Anna Fraser, soprano, and harpist Hannah Lane. Photo: Peter Hislop Music / Dolcissimo, Anna Fraser, soprano and Hannah Lane, Italian triple harp. At Wesley Music Centre, Forrest. May 19. Reviewed by LEN POWER. Dolcissimo explored the flowering of Italian vocal music in a program by composers of the late Renaissance through to the Baroque period.  There were songs by Luzzaschi, Caccini, Rossi, Frescobaldi and others, played and sung by two eminent Baroque specialists – Anna Fraser, soprano and Hannah Lane on an Italian Baroque triple harp. Fraser is a versatile soprano specialising in the ..read more

Pianist Kathryn Selby and the Goldner Quartet performing at the National Gallery. Photo: Dalice Trost Music / Goldner Quartet with Kathryn Selby. At the James O Fairfax Hall, NGA. Reviewed by SARAH BYRNE. For 18 seasons, pianist and musical impresaria Kathryn Selby has been curating and touring her popular Selby & Friends concerts in which she is joined by classical ensembles for what often seem like intimate and even personal performances of great music.  This concert, in the bijou venue of the James O Fairfax Hall at the NGA, was a fitting farewell from the storied Goldner Quartet ..read more

  Celebrated pianist Joyce Yang at the Snow Concert Hall’s new Steinway grand piano. Photo: Peter Hislop Music / Kaleidoscopic Colours, Joyce Yang, piano. At the Snow Concert Hall, Red Hill. May 14. Reviewed by LEN POWER. In a program aptly named Kaleidoscopic Colours, Joyce Yang was the first this year in a series of four of the world’s most distinguished international pianists to play at the Snow Concert Hall on their newly acquired Steinway grand piano. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Yang received her first piano lesson from her aunt at the age of four. By the age of 10, she had entered t ..read more

Canberra Bach Ensemble. Photo: Peter Hislop Canberra Bach Ensemble, Three Choral Cantatas. St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka, May 12. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA. The Canberra Bach Ensemble was assigned three cantatas from Bach’s Chorale Cantata Cycle of 1724-1725 by the Leipzig Bach Festival, to which they will travel in June. This proved grist to the mill for the ensemble and its artistic director, Andrew Koll, who took Cantatas BWV 9, 107, 178, written to be performed on the 6th, 7th and 8th Sundays after Trinity, and presented them as a compelling pre-Leipzig recital. Some reading this review ..read more