Jessica Gethin and Andrew Doyle will receive funding to undertake projects overseas.

The classical music recording industry must be in better shape than we think: this is the culmination of Osmo Vänskä’s second Sibelius cycle in little more than a decade. The first with Finland’s Lahti orchestra was widely regarded as “the one to have” but these BIS performances with the Minnesota orchestra (which seems to have at last survived its travails, fortunately) have run that cycle close. This CD lasts 82 minutes – with magnificent sound. As an aside, why, one wonders, can’t more CD’s offer such outstanding value?  The Third, Sixth and Seventh are, each, in its own way, emotionally ambiguous and unconventional and occupy their own unique sound world’s, just as do the symphonies of Beethoven and Vaughan Williams. The Third Symphony has always been one of my favourites, despite, or perhaps, because, of being, along with the Sixth, the least performed, but arguably, the most original, even by Sibelius’ standards. The coherent whole transcends the disparateness of the individual movements. I love the Haydnesque bustle of the opening movement and that sudden pause shortly after the start, which seems like a sort of gasp from someone suddenly realising they’re hovering on the edge of a precipice, or contemplating…

Joyce DiDonato and José Carreras plus a host of festive features. And we ask the question: So you think you know Mozart?

A marvellously realised interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and Sixth Symphony.

Charles Dutoit will direct the composer’s tribute to Rimsky-Korsakov with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in June 2017.

★★★★☆ Sublime performances from WASO’s Wagnerian dream team. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Hyperion deserves its reputation for uncovering hidden gems of the Romantic piano repertoire. This latest recording debuts an early concerto of Moszkowski that was only uncovered in 2008. The conductor, Vladimir Kiradjiev, deemed it too good to remain unpublished (as the composer himself wished) and it was issued by French publishers in 2013. The same conductor leads an impressive BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra through the work. It’s an instantly likeable piece, brimming with tuneful themes, but not without the rhapsodic fever expected of a pianistic showstopper. The soloist, Ludmil Angelov, is known as an interpreter of Chopin, and brings a sparkling dexterity to the faster passages. The second movement is particularly moving, the second theme emerging on the piano from the midst of the chorale previously played by the orchestra. The wonderful stillness is reminiscent of Rachmaninov, though it predates him by a quarter of a century. Angelov is charming throughout, and though the final movement is a little long-winded, it’s a fine recording that should help the piece enter the repertoire. The disc concludes with Schulz-Evler’s Russian Rhapsody, another work deserving of greater acclaim. Angelov again demonstrates his astonishing quick-silver technique in a work of incredible virtuosity, building in…

Brett Dean (b. 1961), born and raised in Brisbane, took up composing during his 14-year tenure as violist with the Berlin Phil. In 2000, he returned to Australia where his appointments have included Artistic Director of ANAM and curating the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals. Shadow Music brings together works for various permutations of chamber orchestra, in addition to an arrangement for flute, clarinet and string orchestra of the (third) Adagio molto e mesto movement of Beethoven’s first Razumovsky Quartet. Dean’s arrangement is approximately half the length of Beethoven’s, and beautifully expands the harmonic intensity of the already symphonic original. This segues into Testament, a reference to the famous Heiligenstadt Testament, written by Beethoven in 1802, in which he despaired of his increasing deafness. These two works form a complementary whole, the latter a meditation on Beethoven’s inner world of tinnitus and chaos. Etüdenfest (2000) is a gloriously hectic melange of string exercises with piano evoking the panic of practice rooms as exam time approaches. Shadow Music is elusive and at various turns dark, veiled, ghostly and diaphanous; Short Stories are a series of five interludes with literary allusions. This is nuanced, complex and fantastically assured music by a renowned Australian…

This is a stunner. Weilerstein manages to make this difficult music absolutely riveting. If I had to point to a collaboration between orchestra and soloist that was as close to ideal as humanly possible, then this would be it. The cellist herself is at the top of her profession. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (described by one English critic as “super-elite”) is in red-hot form, as is Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado,  currently Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, but who has also performed at the Met and with the Vienna Philharmonic.  These concertos are among the most important 20th-century repertoire for the instrument, and Weilerstein’s playing seems to convey that. The first concerto’s Moderato hovers between wonder and melancholy, sentiments not uncommon in Shostakovich’s music. Later we hear the composer’s own motif, DSCH, which he employed often, perhaps as a badge of defiance in the face of Stalin’s grotesque tyranny.  The second concerto reverses the traditional structure. It begins with a long (nearly 15 minutes) Largo, followed by an Allegretto which would test the chops of any cellist. Weilerstein makes it sound as if it was written for her, as indeed many more recent large-scale works have been….

Hot Aussie HIPsters bring out Joseph Haydn’s genial side.

The Slovenian maestro will remain as Chief Conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for its 70th anniversary.

Arts organisations around the world have been stopped in their tracks by the latest Internet fad, here are our favourites.