A U S T R A L I A’ S C L A S S I C A L M U S I C A N D A R T S M A G A Z I N E

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IF IT AIN’T

ALFRED BRENDEL:
NOTES ON A LIFE

NAUGHTY BITS OF THE

GREAT COMPOSERS

THE WHAT, WHY AND HOW

KATIE NOONAN & THE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC’S
BRODSKY QUARTET GREATEST GROWTH INDUSTRY

32 SKELTON ON ROBERT POWELL

REVIEWS...
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 CONTENTS O

Contents
AUSTRALIA’S CLASSICAL MUSIC & ARTS MAGAZINE · APRIL 2016

COVER STORY
30 IF IT AIN’T BAROQUE
What is it about the Baroque? Once upon a time
the music had been virtually forgotten. But
now it’s back, and more popular than ever. We
investigate the what, why and how of classical
music’s greatest growth industry

FEATURES
40 BRENDEL: NOTES FROM A LIFE
The unconventional Austrian pianist talks to
Limelight about life at 85, his long career and
taking stock of his remarkable legacy

46 MUSIC’S NAUGHTY BITS

Even the great composers have let their hair
down on occasion. An irreverent rummage
through the dirty laundry baskets of the masters

52 SKELTON ON TRISTAN
Ahead of his latest role debut, the Australian
Heldentenor talks about Wagner’s tortured
hero and the biggest challenge of his career

54 ON LOVE AND FURY

Behind the scenes with Katie Noonan and the
Brodsky Quartet as they reimagine the words
of iconic Australian poet Judith Wright

58 MAKING KING CHARLES III

He’s played Hamlet, Mahler, even Jesus. Now
the great British actor Robert Powell explains
30 how he goes about tackling the Prince of Wales

52 54 40

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 3

O CONTENTS

12

66

16 28

LIMELIGHT · APRIL 2016 · CONTENTS

REGULARS… 22 OPERA COLUMN

8 LETTERS
12 NEWS
Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has died;
Bartoli’s Polar Prize; Tim Munro’s third Grammy
14 WHAT I’M LISTENING TO...
Pianist Kathryn Selby
16 FIVE QUESTIONS FOR...
Mezzo soprano Vivica Genaux
Reinventing the romantic in Montreal
23 DID YOU HEAR ABOUT...
Shostakovich’s footie fetish?
24 BACKSTAGE WITH...
Paul Fitzsimon’s Gruppen in Paris
25 WORLD PREMIERE
Paul Stanhope’s Cello Concerto
26 RICHARD GILL
On the merits of mentoring
73 THE LIMELIGHT CHART
Australia’s top 20 classical music albums
88 PANORAMA
This month’s round up of everything worth
experiencing in theatre, literature and film
99 WHAT’S ON IN APRIL
104 BROADCAST GUIDE
The best of classical music and arts across
ABC and independent stations this month

18 AROUND THE WORLD 110 DIGITAL & CINEMA

South Pole sell out; Two Aussie successes abroad
20 GUEST COLUMN
What’s all the fuss about Eisteddfods?
21 GUY NOBLE’S SOAPBOX
Hell is a room full of musical theses
28 INTERVIEW
Conductor Christoph von Dohnányi
60 COMPOSER OF THE MONTH
Carl Orff, the Nazis and Carmina Burana
66 MUSICAL JOURNEY
The scents, sounds and tastes of Budapest
The best of classical music and arts in Australian
cinemas and what’s available online this month
113 CLASSICAL CAPTION & QUIZ
114 MY MUSIC
Actor Simon Burke

4 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 CONTENTS O

PAGE
REVIEWS… 71
74
78
ORCHESTRAL
CHAMBER
From the editor
80 INSTRUMENTAL
82 VOCAL & CHORAL THE SECRETS OF THE OLD

I
84 OPERA ’ve been lucky. In recent months opportunities have come my way to chew
86 REISSUES ROUND-UP the fat with several people I would describe as senior figures in every sense
of the word. A few weeks ago I interviewed a very great man – Christoph von
88 LIVE PERFORMANCES
Dohnányi – whose father and uncle were tragically murdered by the Nazis just
weeks before the fall of the Third Reich and whose grandfather, the composer
Ernö von Dohnányi, knew Brahms. Apart from the frisson of hearing him
speak intimately of Karajan and Klemperer, I received a piece of wisdom from
the 86-year-old Maestro that stuck with me. “The more you hear, the more you
72 RECORDING
OF THE MONTH change,” he imparted. “Since life is based on change, if you don’t do it in your
artistic approach or your stylistic approach to music, you would be lost.”
Late last year I spoke with the sprightly 92-year-old pianist Menahem Pressler,
a survivor of both Hitler and heart surgery. He too believes in change. Would he
re-record his works? “I would always say give me another chance!” he explained.
“I have said in music, the higher you fly the more the sky opens up. You never
feel that you get directly into heaven. You have to fight your way into heaven.”
Perhaps growing up in 1930s Germany made Pressler and Dohnányi fighters, or
perhaps it was the need to leave their homeland at a young age (both winding up
in the US), that hardwired them to embrace change.
Another radical pianist, Alfred Brendel, is also still going strong at 85 and was
Handel interviewed by Limelight Editor-at-Large Francis Merson for a birthday feature in
Partenope this issue. Next month, on the occasion of his 80th, I’m doing the honours with
Karina Gauvin s, Philippe Jaroussky ct, Il Pomo Zubin Mehta, a sagacious musical figure who has dedicated a portion of his life
D’Oro/Riccardo Minasi
to fighting for change. Sadly, this week Nikolaus Harnoncourt died, after only
Riccardo Minassi helps Karina Gauvin keep
recently announcing his retirement, and just six months since he talked with
three balls in the air as she looks for love in
Partenope, one of Handel’s rarer gems
Limelight in what will have been one of his last interviews. As I say, I’ve been
lucky, but the loss of Harnoncourt proves we pass up such opportunities at our
peril. The secrets of the old will not be with us forever.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
RECORDINGS

74 Mendelssohn · Berlioz
A Midsummer Night’s Dream etc
Berlin Philharmonic/Abbado

Clive Paget, Editor

78 Brahms
Piano Quartet and Trio
Trio Wanderer, Gaugué vla

80 Ravel
Complete Piano Music
Bertrand Chamayou p

82 One Voice
Palestrina, Sculthorpe et al
Adelaide Chamber Singers/Crossin

84 The Kiss
Opera Arias With apologies to Paul Ghica for not crediting
Nicole Car s, AO&B Orch/Molino his photos in last month’s AWO in India feature!

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 5

O CONTENTS

Contributors EDITOR
Clive Paget

CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Sam Grimmer
ONLINE EDITOR
Maxim Boon

SENIOR DESIGNER
Andrew Bennett

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
William Jeffery
EDITOR-AT-LARGE
Francis Merson

Will yeoman
BAROQUE
PAGE 30
Will Yeoman is Literary
Editor and Senior Arts Writer
for the West Australian. He is
also a regular chair at
writers’ festivals, gives talks
for WA Symphony Orchestra
and broadcasts on ABC 720.
In his spare time he enjoys
playing the guitar and
reviewing for Limelight.
Francis Merson
ALFRED BRENDEL
PAGE 40
Francis Merson is Editor-at-
Large of Limelight. He was
arts editor of The Week and
Editor-in-Chief of Element, a
magazine in Moscow, Russia.
Apart from writing about
music, he also talks about it,
sometimes as a paid lecturer,
and sometimes just to
anyone who will listen.
Elizabeth Hayllar
BUDAPEST
PAGE 66
For over 10 years Elizabeth
Hayllar has worked in the
classical music industry
in Australia and Europe.
She has worked for Musica
Viva Australia, Intermusica
Artists’ Management in
London and is now
Founder and Director of
Hayllar Music Tours.
CONTRIBUTORS
Brett Allen-Bayes, Warwick Arnold,
Andrew Aronowicz, Paul Ballam-Cross,
Lynden Barber, Delia Bartle,
Jason Blake, Philip Clark,
Stephanie Eslake, Paul Fitzsimon,
Hallam Fulcher, Richard Gill,
Elizabeth Hayllar, Gordon Hamilton,
Greg Keane, Sascha Kelly,
James McCarthy, Lisa MacKinney,
Angus McPherson, Steve Moffatt,
Guy Noble, Tony Palmer,
Adele Schonhardt, Phillip Scott,
Paul Stanhope, Tony Way,
Will Yeoman
PUBLISHER
Andrew Batt-Rawden

SALES & MARKETING MANAGER

Carla Bird

WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR WEBSITE? For advertising enquiries contact

Phone: (02) 8599 4205
advertising@limelightmagazine.com.au
Brisbane Baroque in focus
DIGITAL PRE-PRESS
Limelight heads north to experience all Nathan Sargent
the thrills and spills of this year’s Baroque
extravaganza where Handel’s Agrippina
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Arriving in Paris aged 16, the great
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No material may be reproduced without
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The Chinese dragon is about to take its

place on Sydney Harbour. Limelight speaks
with Riccardo Massi, the man charged
with ensuring that “none shall sleep”.

www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Please recycle this magazine

6 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

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O KEYNOTES
Letters
LETTER OF THE MONTH…
DON'T CUT THE CLASSICS
On reading about Nicole Car’s rise to operatic
stardom (Limelight March), I realise to what
extent this should be a wake-up call, not only
to music teachers in Australia but also to the
governments who hold the purse strings. So
many young people only hear pop and have no
idea there is another type of music they could
become acquainted with. What a restricted,
one-sided menu is served to the young potential
we have in this country. Had Nicole not been
taken by a friend to hear Tosca, she might never
have had the chance to be where she loves to
be now and proudly representing her country.
Too many young people are being cheated of
the chance to hear and learn about classical
music. To make matters worse, the ABC has
now been forced to axe the Young Performers’
Award. How short-sighted on the part of those
who hold the purse strings. Australia’s decline
in this area will be Australia’s loss.
Etiennette Fennell, Panorama, SA
LETTERS PRIZE
Letter of the Month wins the
taster set for the exciting new
ABC Classics 1000 Years of
Classical Music series. Over eight
hours of engaging, millenia
spanning music brought to you
in one generous 10CD box.
8 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
LIMELIGHT LETTERS ARE PROUDLY
SUPPORTED BY ABC CLASSICS
THE YANKS GOT IT RIGHT Exhibition raised some interesting points about
In his review of The New Goldberg Variations descriptive music. I enjoyed the performance
(Limelight March) Will Yeoman speculates but the introductory Promenade did sound
that any good violinist from the Baroque era as if the art-lover was keen to get in and out
could have extemporised what I painstakingly of the gallery as quickly as possible. I have
took four months to compose “possibly with performances by William Kapell and Jenő
greater contrapuntal and harmonic daring". Jandó among my CDs and these show that the
His presumption is unverifiable and highly slightest variation in accent or speed produces
unlikely, given its complexity. The violin a totally different impression. In addition to
counterpart is well beyond decorative as he Mussorgsky, there have been many attempts
proposes, because it is symbiotically linked by composers to mimic the visual arts,
with Bach's harmonic fabric and reacts to including Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and
(often pre-empting) his melodic contours so as those featured in Disney's Fantasia. There is a
to create another counterpoint. Zoë Black, one natural link between painters and composers,
of Australia's elite violinists also assures me it both having power to convey meaning
is highly virtuosic, requiring intense emotional in both secular and religious spheres. As
stamina to perform. Nevertheless, to Russian impressionist painter Kandinsky
measure my efforts against those of historical wrote to Schoenberg, "the independent life
characters Mr. Yeoman has never heard relies of individual voices in your compositions
on a blind faith that has no place in rational is exactly what I am trying to find in my
and fair analysis. Finally, this work is a new pictures". One point of difference from
composition superimposed on a pre-existing painting is that music is always presented by
one and is far removed from transcriptions an interpreter, but a truth common to both is
or Schumann's piano accompaniments for that responses by viewers and listeners will be
Bach's Partitas (which merely fill out the as varied as reactions to Rorschach ink blots.
skeleton of Bach's subliminal harmonies). James Moore, Kingsgrove, NSW
Thankfully, following our Carnegie Hall
debut, American critics disagreed with Mr.
Yeoman's summation of my work, believing HAVE YOUR SAY
it can stand proudly alongside the original. Write to us at: Limelight Letters, PO Box
Joe Chindamo, Fitzroy North, VIC R147, Royal Exchange, NSW 1225 or email
letters@limelightmagazine.com.au
MUSICAL PAINTINGS No more than 200 words please. Letters may
Clive Paget's online review of Garrick be edited for length and clarity. Please include
Ohlsson's performance of Pictures at an a daytime phone number with your letter.
MUSICAL ENCOUNTER…
OBSERVING THE LESSER-SPOTTED RUTTER
Sometime last year I was walking down the street in Sydney
when I happened to spot the free-spirited Australian flautist
Jane Rutter crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing. As she
was blithely minding her own business, suddenly one of the
waiting cars honked their horn very loudly. She whirled around
as if to glare at the perpetrator, but her baleful look was soon
transformed into a radiant smile as she realised the offender wasn’t trying to hurry
her up, but instead was attempting to attract her attention – it was a waving fan! She
beamed, waved back, and went off down the street with what could only be described
as a definite spring in her step! Laura Seabrook, Roseville, NSW
We’d love to hear about your encounters with great musicians. Write to the address above
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
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O BIG PICTURE

The Big Picture…

Alexander Ekman’s Cacti (half of Sydney Dance
Company’s CounterMove) is a witty lampoon of
the need for contemporary dance criticism to
explain the abstract, aiming at the pretensions
of ‘those in the know’ – or more importantly,
‘those who pretend to be in the know’.
CounterMove tours to Canberra, Melbourne,
NSW, QLD and NT. Read our review online.

Photograph © Peter Greig

10 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 BIG PICTURE O

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 11

O KEYNOTES
News
Nikolaus Harnoncourt has died
THE PASSING OF AN AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE PIONEER SIGNALS THE END OF AN ERA
The Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
one of the world’s most respected exponents of
authentic period performance, has died at the
age of 86. His health had been in decline for
some time but he announced his retirement
from the concert platform only in December
last year. A statement issued by his wife Alice,
and published on the conductor’s website,
reads, “Nikolaus Harnoncourt is peacefully
asleep. Our grief and gratitude are great; it
was a wonderful collaboration.”
Harnoncourt’s retirement came as a
surprise to many of his fans. A frank and
touching hand-written letter, inserted into a
recent concert programme for his ensemble,
Concentus Musicus Wien, simply said, “My
bodily strength requires me to cancel my
future plans.” It continued, “An unbelievably
deep relationship has developed between us
on the stage and you in the hall – we have
become a happy community of pioneers.”
12 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
Born in Berlin in 1929, Harnoncourt was
distantly related to European Royalty on his
mother’s side, as a great-grandson of Emperor
Leopold II. After studying cello at Vienna’s
Academy of Music, he went on to join the
ranks of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1952.
For the next 17 years, he continued to perform
with the orchestra, but this never diluted
his personal passion for the repertoire of the
Classical, Baroque and Renaissance. His love
of these periods, combined with an incisive
concern for historical authenticity led him to
launch his own ensemble in 1953.
Concentus Musicus began giving concerts
in 1957, reigniting a European interest in
‘early’ music that endures to this day, and
their performances became the gold standard
for period authenticity. In 1969, Harnoncourt
decided to leave the Vienna Philharmonic and
began to forge an internationally recognised
reputation as a conductor, directing opera and
Photo © Hamilton Lund
orchestral performances with many of the
world’s most highly regarded ensembles.
The level of precision and insight that
he offered in the field of historically
informed performance eventually saw him
embracing repertoire spanning the full
canon of western classical music and the
19th and 20th centuries were soon given
the same level of polish that came to define
Harnoncourt’s ‘earlier’ music making. His
accounts of the symphonies of Schubert, in
particular, became some of the conductor’s
most celebrated achievements.
In addition to his accomplishments on
the concert platform, Harnoncourt was also
a prolific recording artist. His goals were
ambitious, but his tenacity and focus yielded
some of the most important recordings ever
produced, including a full cycle of Bach’s
cantatas, recorded over almost 20 years from
1971 until 1990. His loss will be deeply felt.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au

Cecilia wins the Polar Prize
Opera star Cecilia Bartoli and songwriter
Max Martin have been announced as
the 2016 winners of the Polar Prize. The
prestigious award is Sweden’s biggest
music prize celebrating the power and
importance of music and was initiated by
ABBA manager, lyricist and publisher Stig
Anderson in 1989. The prize embraces
music in all its forms and usually
brings together winners from
contrasting musical worlds.
Previous pairs have been
as disparate as BB King
and György Ligeti in 2004
and Valery Gergiev and Led
Zeppelin in 2006.
Italian mezzo-soprano
Bartoli is well known for
her recordings of Mozart,
Rossini and Gluck and
is devoted to early
19th-century music,
particularly Italian
Romanticism and the
works of bel canto
composers, as well as
music from the 17th
and 18th centuries.
She is an incredibly
prolific recording
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
TIM MUNRO WINS
A THIRD GRAMMY
Australian flautist Timothy Munro has
celebrated his third Grammy win, the
only Australian to receive one of the
prestigious music awards this year.
The Chicago-based musician and his
new music sextet, eighth blackbird, won the
gong for Best Chamber Music Performance.
Munro was the Co-Artistic Director of the
contemporary music group from 2003 until
2015, in which time the ensemble performed
extensively, premiering over 100 new works
including Steve Reich’s Double Sextet.
Queensland Conservatorium Director
Professor Scott Harrison is proud of Munro
– a graduate of the Conservatorium – who
accepted an adjunct teaching appointment in
2014. “It’s incredibly inspiring to see one of our
graduates on the world stage, celebrated among
the very best in the industry. It’s testament
to the hard work and passion that pervades
everything Tim does and shows what can be
achieved by Brisbane-born musicians.”
artist and her audio and video releases have
sold more than 10 million copies. “What a
fantastic surprise,” said Bartoli on hearing of
her award. “I feel deeply honoured because
this amazing prize is all about a passion for
good music without boundaries.”
Songwriter Martin Sandberg, who was born
in Stockholm and writes under the name of
Max Martin, has written hit songs
for artists such as Katy Perry, Pink,
Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake
and the Backstreet Boys. Martin
said, “If you can somehow influence
popular culture, shape it in some
way, when something becomes
bigger than just a song, that’s the
greatest thing for me... this is
what I love about music. You
can reach so many people.”
The award includes
1 million Kronor (almost
$170,000 Australian
Dollars) and will be
presented at a ceremony
in Stockholm in June.
Bartoli and Martin join
a distinguished list of
predecessors including Chuck
Berry, Kaija Saariaho, Bob Dylan
and Pierre Boulez.
KEYNOTES O
IN BRIEF
BLISS AND THE RABBITS
Two Australian works have been
nominated in the 2016 International
Opera Awards. Kate Miller-Heidke’s The
Rabbits is up for Best World Premiere
while ABC Classics’ recording of Brett
Dean’s Bliss is listed for Best CD
(Complete Opera). Sadly, no Australian
singers were among the nominees this
year despite Opera Australia’s Lyndon
Terracini joining the high-profile panel of
judges. Winners will be announced on
May 15 at a gala event in London.
PIANO PRACTICE MURDER
A 22-year-old law student accused of
murdering his mother has told an Adelaide
jury that he fought back in self-defence
after she became angry about his lack of
piano practice. Wei Li said his mother
wanted him to reach professional standard
and starting screaming and yelling when
he refused to practise. The court
understands that Li, who started piano
when he was three, was practising martial
arts at the time of the death. He has
pleaded not guilty to murder, but has
admitted that his mother died by his hand.
BREAKING AN 8-YEAR DUCK
Katrina Sheppeard has become the latest
Australian-born, London-based singer
to save the day, going on at the London
Coliseum for American soprano Marjorie
Owens in the title role of Bellini’s Norma.
Sheppeard’s debut in a principal role in
London has been a long time coming
after covering six major roles at English
National Opera over the past eight years.
MUSICAL JOKE
Why is an organ concert like a
religious experience?
In its playing we sense the majesty
of God, and in its
ending we know
His divine mercy.
AS TOLD BY…
Simon Tedeschi,
Pianist
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 13
O KEYNOTES

WHAT I’M
IN BRIEF Kathy Selby LISTENING TO
THIS MONTH
CARRERAS’ LONG FAREWELL This year, the acclaimed pianist
Opera star José celebrates ten years of concertising
Carreras has with her series Selby and Friends.
announced that But when she’s not making music,
his next series what does she enjoy listening to?
of concerts
will effectively
constitute his farewell tour. The 69-year-
old tenor, who is remarkably still singing
after battling leukaemia in the late 1980s,
isn’t calling it quits in a hurry. “It is not
a deadline, it can be long, maybe two or
three years,” he told reporters.

ARTS CENTRE SPIRE PROTEST

A demonstration to stop the Federal
Government from deporting 267
asylum-seeking refugees back to Nauru
briefly shut down the Melbourne Arts
Centre last month. Two women scaled
the 126m spire, chaining themselves to
the top and unfurling a banner as part
of the #LetThemStay campaign. In an
apparent display of solidarity, the Arts
Centre issued a statement via Victorian
Police saying that they would not be
pressing charges. No performances
were disrupted by the incident.

MILLIONS WATCH DIVORCE Schubert Chopin Sondheim Beethoven

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TV experiment, has proven a worthwhile Stern, Katims, Casals, Murray Perahia Original Cast Munich Phil/Sergiu
gamble after ABC ratings showed Tortelier, Schneider SONY G0100012223355 SONY 8287668639 Celibidache
the four episodes reached 1.1 million SONY 82876787592 This work remains To be honest, I EMI DOWNLOAD
viewers – almost double the audience One of my favourite very special and didn’t know this I began listening
for OA’s annual onstage season. “We’re chamber works. continues to affect work terribly well recently again to
extremely happy,” said Artistic Director It feeds the soul, me deeply. Whether until my children the 7th Symphony.
Lyndon Terracini. “I’ve thought for a long soothes the spirit it is Perahia, Gilels or were involved in When I was a student
time that contemporary opera would and is one in which Rubinstein, or one of productions at their at Curtis it was
be best seen through a contemporary I am continually the new greats, the high schools. It was rehearsed by the
medium, like television... We aimed to finding new and work is a powerful a revelation to me orchestra under
make the experience more familiar and wonderful things. I juxtaposition of with its fascinating visiting conductor
accessible, and that’s paid off.” knew Isaac Stern and tenderness, grief, clashing harmonies Celibidache. I got to
grew up with his two love and power. A and wild rhythmic know the work well by
talented sons. All wonderful range for rides, which continue sitting quietly in the
QUARTET’S SHOCK TACTICS remain a source of a pianist to present to make me listen auditorium. It never
The Australian Art Quartet has inspiration. from the stage! ever harder. fails to make one soar!
announced that it will play a concert
in June while receiving electric shocks
of up to 50 volts. The shocks will occur
at random intervals as the musicians
perform Pachelbel’s Canon and Michaela
Davies’ Untitled for Cyborg String Quartet,
creating a new form of performance
where the musicians ultimately have no
control over their body or instruments. The next Selby & Friends tour visits Burradoo, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide from April 7-17

14 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 KEYNOTES O

Paralysed musicians create brainwave music

NEWLY DEVELOPED TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS MEMBERS OF THE PARAMUSICAL ENSEMBLE TO COMPOSE
Four determined British musicians, all of
whom are severely physically disabled and
unable to talk or move, have been given
the chance via cutting-edge technology to
create music using just the power of their
minds. The Paramusical Ensemble, as they
are calling themselves, have worked with
the University of Plymouth and the Royal
Hospital for Neuro-Disability in the United
Kingdom to develop the innovative system,
which allows musicians to engage in real-
time composition of notated music.
The system works by using ground-
breaking computer technology through
which visual stimuli can be registered,
processed and interpreted as a playable
score. Short phrases of music are displayed
on a screen next to a corresponding
flashing light source. As a member of the
Paramusical Ensemble looks at a particular
light source, electrical impulses generated The Paramusical Ensemble
in the brain’s visual cortex are registered
via an EEG cap, relaying the selected
musical fragment to a display screen. The scientists are hoping that the laboratory and into the real world, with both
The system also allows the composer new technology will have an impact on inspiring and very emotional results.”
to control other important aspects of the patients suffering from debilitating medical A recent collaboration with a string
music, Dr Julian O’Kelly of the Royal conditions such as Locked-In Syndrome. quartet was important for one particular
Hospital for Neuro-Disability explained in “Our work is giving people an opportunity member of the Paramusical Ensemble.
an interview with the BBC. “It also picks to put their physical impediments aside, Rosemary Johnston was a violinist with the
up the intensity of their focus... It’s not and use music to communicate in ways that Welsh National Opera Orchestra until she
just an on or off switch, they can control would not normally be possible because was tragically paralysed as a result of a car
volume [ie. dynamics] too.” of their medical conditions,” Professor of accident in 1988. For Rosemary’s mother,
In order to enhance the music making, Computer Music Eduardo Miranda from Mary, the performance was a singularly
each member of the Paramusical Ensemble Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary moving experience. “It was really exciting,”
has been paired with a musician who plays Centre for Computer Music Research told she told the BBC interviewer. “I could tell
the individual fragments of music as they the science site EurekAlert!. “It is an amazing Rosemary was enjoying it, and anything
are relayed to them by their partner. example of research being taken out of the that makes her happy makes me happy”.

performer lookalike WRONG

NOTE
DAME JOAN Opera can damage your door
[ Opera Diva ] An afternoon singalong didn’t
go exactly to plan for one
enthusiastic opera fan in the
Zuid-Buitenveldert district of
Amsterdam. Police arrived after
neighbours reported hearing
“terrifying screams”. Believing
ADELE an act of bodily harm was in
[ Pop Diva ] progress, they kicked in the
door only to find a man wearing
headphones absorbed in singing
along with an opera recording.

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 15

O KEYNOTES
Five questions for…
VIVICA GENAUX MEZZO-SOPRANO
1. Was Alaska a musical place to grow up in?
It was really musical. When I was growing up
Russian airspace was closed to any airplanes
coming from Europe to the Orient, so
everybody had to stop in Anchorage and refuel.
I saw Peter Schickele, Jean-Pierre Rampal, The
Ballet Folklórico de México... The Vienna Kinder
Knabenchor came every two years, and they
stayed at our house because my mum spoke
German. In my last years of high school I was
a member of two jazz choirs, a Monday night
choir at the university, three dance classes,
(modern, ballet and jazz) and aerobics. Anything
you want to do there’s somebody up there who
knows how to do it, and they’ll teach it.
2. You started out in comic operas, Rossini
heroines and such. Was it your keen sense of
humour that drew you to those roles?
No, it was the only thing that I could sing!
I finished my degree – by that time I’d done
so many science courses that they said,
“Well, you’ll get a Bachelor of Science in
Voice Performance.” I was having kind of a
nervous breakdown, thinking, “I’ve got to
start working, I’ve got to start working,” and
my sister said, “Well, give yourself a five-
year window, and at the end of five years if
TOP OF THE CAPTION COMPETITION: LAST MONTH’S WINNER
LIMELIGHT CHART
THE KISS
Nicole Car
The rapidly rising Australian
operatic star’s debut disc
has rocketed to the top
of the charts. An eclectic
mix, it features arias from
previous roles alongside some When Simon met Pierre – but what might they have found to chat about?
fascinating discoveries.
See the full chart on p73 “Honestly Pierre, I was ready to resort to a comb-over too, but my hairdresser suggested
I try a perm and I’ve never looked back!” Anne Engdahl, Evandale, TAS
16 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
you have to go to grad school for science
or something you can still do it.” I made my
professional debut two years later in 1994 in
L’Italiana in Algeri. The same season I did my
first Barbiere and my first Cenerentola.
3. Your career has gone backwards from bel
canto to baroque. Was that a conscious choice?
Again, it was the only thing I could sing! I did
three years of the Rossini, of the comic roles,
and then people said “OK, what else does she
do?” I was advised to look at the music of
Hasse, and I said “What’s that?” A month later
I had an audition for René Jacobs and I got
a role with him at the Deutsche Staatsoper
in Berlin. It was the first time that I sang
something that I felt was constructed for me. 5. You’re singing Vivaldi in Brisabane. What
are the joys of his music for a singer?
4. What are your favourite Baroque roles? I love the coloratura. For me it’s like a
Hasse is my favourite composer. I’m part symphonic or instrumental language. It’s
of the Hasse Foundation in Hamburg and amazing, that feeling of building an arch and
where he was born in Bergendorf and so I a tunnel and a rollercoaster along these lines.
try to promote his work as much as possible. You can really let go and sing with your gut. I
I find the juxtaposition between Hasse and love the pyrotechnics. I love that structure of
Handel fascinating, both Germans and both music, I love the expression that it has.
having studied and worked in Italy, but Handel
maintained his Teutonic style while Hasse Vivica Genaux sings Vivaldi as part of
absorbed the Neapolitan style completely. Brisbane Baroque at QPAC on April 10
FOR THIS
MONTH’S
COMPETITIO
TURN TO
N
PAGE 113
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 2016
SEASON PREVIEW
PIERS LANE ANNOUNCES AFCM’S NEW SEASON!
I am delighted with the artists
coming to Townsville this
year. Tasmin Little (right), the
effervescent UK violinist who
so impressed audiences in 2014,
will join us for a second time.
Other artists returning
include Andrew Barnes;
Bridget Bolliger; innovative
percussionist Claire Edwardes;
the communicative clarinettist
David Griffiths in company with
his trio Ensemble Liaison; one
of our favourite bassists Kirsty
McCahon; and talking favourites,
guitarist Karin Schaupp for a
show with that provocative
and charming actor Tama
Matheson. Finally pianist Andrew
West will accompany one of
the greatest British baritones,
Roderick Williams, in Schubert’s
masterpiece Winterreise.
This year we celebrate Paul
Stanhope as our Composer-in-
Residence – performers love
playing his music! – and at the
Families’ Concert, we’ll present
Oscar Wilde’s enchanting fairy
tale The Happy Prince in its
musical realisation by the late
Malcolm Williamson.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Immediately prior to this
year’s festival, I shall be Artistic
Director and Chair of the Jury for
the Sydney International Piano
Competition. One of the first
engagements the winner will
undertake is an appearance at
AFCM with the chamber music
artists who perform with the
semi-finalists in the competition
– the irrepressible Tasmin
Little and our own Quartet-in-
Residence, the Goldner String
Quartet, who will commence an
28 SEPTEMBER 2016 29 SEPTEMBER 2016
ongoing cycle of the complete SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
quartets by Beethoven.
CONDUCTOR: CONDUCTOR:
The Townsville Council
will co-present another free
concert in the Queens Gardens
ALEXANDER STANLEY
to celebrate its special year.
The 1812 was such a huge hit in
BRIGER DODDS
2015 we simply had to repeat RAVEL: BOLÉRO BEETHOVEN:
it. We’ll see if the audience can AND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
7TH SYMPHONY
make an even bigger racket for ELENA KATS-CHERNIN: DVORÁK:
cannon fire this year! CONCERTO FOR 8
So there’s something for
DOUBLE BASSES 9TH SYMPHONY
everyone, and the blissful winter
ambience in Townsville is in TCHAIKOVSKY:
any case a balm for every woe. 5TH SYMPHONY
Incidentally, we’re off to magical
Orpheus Island again for a
concert on the beach. Last time
we went there were whales!
For more info, visit afcm.com.au
O KEYNOTES

All around the world

THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSICAL EVENTS OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA IN THE PAST MONTH

THE DUDE AT THE SUPER
BOWL, SANTA CLARA
Gustavo Dudamel and Youth
Orchestra Los Angeles thrilled
football fans and a TV audience
of 112 million when they played
at half-time during Super Bowl 50
at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
The young musicians, who come
mostly from poor families, got to
meet other artists at the event
including Coldplay and Beyoncé.
GILLHAM’S ‘COUNTRY’
HIT, NASHVILLE
Queensland-born pianist Jayson
Gillham has conquered the home
of Country and Western with
a performance of Beethoven’s
Fourth Concerto with conductor
Asher Fisch. “Gillham looks like
a young Van Cliburn. His playing
– serious, stylish and sensitive
– calls to mind a young Murray
Perahia,” wrote Nashville Scene.
FLOOD FLOATS ON
WATER, BREGENZ
Aussie soprano Alexandra Flood
has scored a major hit in a
floating production of Mozart’s
Escape from the Seraglio at this
year’s lakeside Bregenz Festival.
“With stunning ease, lots of
wit and her delicate, but very
beautiful voice, Flood wins the
audience as Blonde,” wrote the
Austrian Kulturzeitschrift critic.
PRÊTRE’S 91ST SCALA
GALA, MILAN
Veteran French conductor
Georges Prêtre wowed his
audience and defied those who
thought him too frail to travel at
a gala concert held in honour of
his 91st birthday at La Scala. His
programme of Beethoven, Verdi,
Liszt, Offenbach and Ravel drew
17 minutes of applause and a
triple standing ovation.

WHO BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN?

Sell-out seasons are rare when it comes to contemporary music, but the
latest Bayerische Staatsoper production has bucked the trend with Miroslav
Srnka’s full-length opera South Pole (libretto by Tasmanian author Tom
Holloway), which sold out before opening night. Led by incoming Berlin Phil
chief Kirill Petrenko, the “double opera” about the rivalry between Robert
Falcon Scott (Rolando Villazón) and Roald Amundsen (Thomas Hampson) is
written in English and was generally well received by international critics.

18 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

r
ur
O KEYNOTES
Guest column
THE SILVER-TONGUED BARD
You couldn’t make it up if you tried. But that’s exactly what one man did. The modern eisteddfod stems
from the fantasy of a Welsh forger called Edward Williams. Adele Schonhardt explores its unlikely history
C
lad in flowing robes, the Archdruid
partly unsheathes the Grand Sword.
“A oes heddwch?” – “Is there peace?” he
cries. “Heddwch,” – “Peace,” – answers the crowd.
The Corn Gwlad trumpet sounds, calling the
Welsh from the four corners of the land to join
in the Gorsedd Prayer. So begins the Gorsedd
Ceremony, a highlight of the Royal National
Eisteddfod of Wales. Each year, thousands
flock to a different town for the pageantry
and competitions. Everything is in Welsh and
Europe’s biggest cultural contest is credited for
its role in preserving the native language.
Held in 1176, the first “eisteddfod” – or
“sitting” – was a contest to weed out inferior
bards, much like an early busker’s licence. If
your song earned the silver tongue, you were
set for life. The winning poet was crowned in
an elaborate “chairing of the bard” symbolising
being awarded a place at the king’s table.
Eisteddfodau drifted in and out of fashion until
Edward Williams came along in the 1780s. Better
known by his bardic name, Iolo Morganwg,
Williams was a stonemason and keen historian.
Worried that his county of Glamorgan was
considered less “Welsh” than the north, he
invented a past for it, even “discovering” 14th-
century poems to back up his stories. As one
Welsh men ran wild,
drinking heavily and
becoming slaves to their
lusts and passions
account put it dryly, his laudanum habit “may
have been a contributing factor.”
Because Williams was a recognised expert
on early literature, nobody questioned him. His
success took him to London, where he founded
an assembly of bards, the Gorsedd y Beirdd.
In 1792, he presided over the first Gorsedd
Ceremony in a stone circle on Primrose Hill. His
next masterstroke was to join forces with the
eisteddfod movement. At the 1819 eisteddfod in
Carmarthen, he took a handful of stones from
20 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
Lyle Blackman and the solo vocal contestants for ‘Ladies who
have never won a First Prize at South Street Competitions’ in 1945
his pocket and held a Gorsedd Ceremony in the
grounds of the Ivy Bush Hotel. The Gorsedd
became an integral part of the eisteddfod and
it wasn’t until after Williams’ death in 1826
that the extent of his trickery emerged. By then,
homesick Welshmen had carried his legacy
across the globe, from Patagonia to Ballarat.
In the 1850s, gold lured thousands of Welsh
settlers to Australia, many of them young men.
Far from their strict churches and isolated
from Welsh women, they ran wild, drinking
heavily and “becoming slaves to their lusts
and passions.” The elders were alarmed. Their
solution: an eisteddfod would remind the “bad
Welsh boys” of their heritage. On St. David’s Day
1858, they formed the first Australian Gorsedd
circle in the dusty soil of Ballarat.
It was a hit. Early entrants could try their luck
at knitting and typewriting, join the ladies-only
cooking contest or watch a military tattoo.
The venues weren’t ideal though: Ballarat’s
Alfred Hall straddled a creek, and youngsters
amused themselves by “dropping paper
through cracks in the floor and watching it
float away.” Held in different towns for several
years, the eisteddfod eventually merged with
the South Street Young Men’s General Debating
Society. This year, the Royal South Street
Eisteddfod celebrates its 125th anniversary.
Past contestants include Dame Joan Sutherland
and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and it is still
thriving today, with 10,000 entrants in 2015.
From Gympie to Bunbury, eisteddfodau sprang
up all over Australia. Some retained ties to
Wales, others took different paths. A century
younger than Royal South Street, the council-
run Boroondara Eisteddfod turns 25 this
year. “Over the years, we’ve seen the benefit
an eisteddfod brings, both in helping young
people develop potential and strengthening
the cultural fabric of the community,” says
Councillor Jim Parke, Mayor of Boroondara.
Maxine Chalinor OAM echoes his sentiments.
As Secretary of the Association of Eisteddfod
Societies of Australia (AESA) and President
of the Mount Gambier Eisteddfod, she just
received an OAM for years of dedicated work.
“An eisteddfod isn’t about winning or losing. It’s
a source of inspiration: a chance to watch other
performers, have your work evaluated and be
part of a wider community.” This year 250,000
hopefuls will enter the 114 AESA competitions.
Amid the showbiz mums, junior choirs and
renditions of Let It Go, an army of volunteers will
continue the legacy of a visionary Welshman.
This year’s Boroondara Eisteddfod runs
from April 12-June 19
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 GUY NOBLE’S SOAPBOX
HELL IS A MUSICAL THESIS
Or should Malcolm Turnbull look to music schools if he values
ideas on audiation and psycho-active emergent relationships?
T
he Prime Minister tells us we are to
be an ideas country. Instead of just
ripping things out of the ground and
sending them to China, or stuffing sheep
on ships to Indonesia, we are going to sell
ideas, ideas that come from education and
research. They have made a series of ads
with various sciencey-types peering into
test tubes and high-tech machinery. What
about music though? Surely PhD students
in Australia are doing some
pointy-end music research that
could help the budget deficit?
I decided to look through
the National Library’s
Trove system, which
catalogues theses lodged
around the country. And
what a trove I found!
Exploring the self-concept and
identity of Sydney Conservatorium
students with and without absolute pitch
was the first I saw. Next I came upon
this interesting research – Effects of
premenstrual symptoms on young female
singers. Fair enough – a period can lower
your available range by a semitone. Then
there were some with a more social and
cultural bent – A multi-case study of the
ways music learning is used to meet the
social, emotional and cultural challenges
experienced by refugees and asylum seekers
in Sydney, as well as A study of music
and tradition at Sydney Assyrian wedding
receptions. One wonders how many
Assyrian wedding receptions there are
in Sydney and how many the author
was invited to. Personally I would quite
like to study The use of music on luxury
yachts and the associated difficulties of
playing instruments whilst drinking Dom
Perignon in the Mediterranean.
There were hundreds of these theses,
and the subjects got stranger and stranger.
Factors affecting young beginner piano
students’ motivation to practise (no one likes
to practise when their friends are at the
beach), Clarinet sound identities in Australia:
perceptions of the Melbourne and Sydney
Symphony Orchestras (in other words, in a
blind hearing could you distinguish Frank
Celato in Sydney from David Thomas in
Melbourne). Here was one I couldn’t even
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
understand – The effects of skill specific
training in the use of audiation, enactive
reflections, and tonal chroma concepts, on
written dictation and sight-singing skills and
some emergent relationships. I had to look up
audiation – it means the sensation of an
individual hearing, or feeling sound when
it is not physically present. For the rest of
the evening I practised enactive reflections
on my emergent relationships with
audiation. I was exhausted.
Here’s another. Transformative
influence of Afro-Brazilian
syncopation on European
compound melodies in
Brazilian Choro music
melorhythmical re-
organisation of interleaved
melodic structures in progressive
Afro-Brazilian music from the
late-19th century. The thesis went
585
on to talk about Recapitulating ad interim:
monophonic compound melodies fission into  $
multiple melodic strains by their psycho-active
665
structure. Tonal complements in melorhythms
merge into a single collective tonal pattern, $
essentially the organisational reverse of the
former’s melodic fission. I’m so hungry after
that sentence I could eat fission chips.
•
Once a thesis •
is deposited in a •
university library, •
•
does anyone read it? •
•
We can confidently say that none of
this research constitutes anything that is
going to benefit most musicians, let alone
the country as a whole. Once a thesis is
deposited in a university library, does
anyone read it? What’s the point? I know
many students are only doing a Masters so
they can get a job in a university and then
teach other students who will in turn write
a thesis on the musical abilities of small
marsupials in order to teach other students
– and so it goes on in a never-ending cycle
of audiation and psycho-active enactive
reflective emergent relationships. I can
only think that the word “theses” rhymes
with another much less savoury.
O KEYNOTES

Opera column

ROMANTIC DRAMA IN REVIVAL

When is a film not a film? Answer, when it’s an opera. Melbourne-based composer
Kevin March got to test the waters, thanks to an entrepreneurial Canadian commission

M
arch 2002. Less than five minutes into
the film Lilies it occurred to me that I
was not watching a film but an opera.
It was so easy to imagine the lines being sung.
The words were lyrical, poetic, the characters had
depth. By the time it had finished I was making
plans to adapt the film into an opera. I quickly
learned it wasn’t a film I needed permission to
adapt but rather a play by the renowned Quebec
playwright Michel Marc Bouchard. We were
discussing the adaption by the end of the year.
Set in 1952, Les Feluettes finds Simon, in prison
for a murder he did not commit, summoning
Bishop Bilodeau to hear a last confession. Upon
arrival, the Bishop is kidnapped and forced to
watch a recreation of events that took place 40
years earlier when Simon and Bilodeau were
schoolmates and Simon was in love with Vallier
de Tilly, a young French aristocrat exiled with his
mother to Quebec. The confession the Bishop is
required to hear is not Simon’s but his own.
From 2003 to 2011 Michel Marc and I worked
on the opera via email in between other projects.
We’d produced a working libretto, composed
Québécoise folk is
Irish fiddle mixed with
accordion accompanied
by wooden spoons
test scenes and were looking for workshops,
development programmes, anything that might
bring us a step closer to the stage. It wasn’t
until 2006, almost four years after we began
corresponding, that Michel Marc and I actually
met for the first time face-to-face in Montréal.
The meeting, though brief, was a delight. A
brilliant writer, he is a joy to work with, someone
with a deeply trustworthy artistic intuition.
In March of 2011 Michel Beaulac, the Artistic
Director of the Opéra de Montréal, met with
Michel Marc to discuss a dream project. He
wanted to commission an opera based on one
of Michel Marc’s plays. As it happened, the play
he wanted to adapt was Les Feluettes. As Michel
Marc related to me in an email, “It was a rather
spectacular moment when I presented to him
[the work we’d already done]. He couldn’t
believe his eyes...” Someone once told me, “All
you need is to be in the right place at the right
time with a good idea.” This was our time and
place, and clearly we weren’t the only ones
who thought it was a good idea.
One of the primary challenges was the
opera’s musical language. Because the story is
set in a men’s prison, it was a condition that
all the roles in the opera be sung by men. It’s
a crucial element of both the story and the
sound of the opera. It was an easy condition
to agree to, although determining which
male voice types best portrayed which female
characters proved more difficult. Characters’
voice types were changed repeatedly as the
music was being composed. Ultimately we
decided to go with voices that portrayed the
characters’ hearts rather than their sex.
The play is rich with musical implications.
Vallier and Simon’s love is framed by
D’Annunzio’s infamous Le Martyre de St.
Sébastien. The play’s stage directions even call
for Debussy’s incidental music. Simon’s re-
enactments are set in 1912 when the music of
the Belle Époque and the exoticism of American
A scene from the film, Lilies
ragtime would have appealed to a segment
of Quebec society keen to demonstrate its
sophistication. La musique traditionnelle québécoise
(traditional music of Quebec) would have been
commonplace. Québécoise folk music is itself an
eclectic product of the Irish and French settlers
(Irish fiddle mixed with French accordion and
accompanied rhythmically by wooden spoons).
In creating the sound of Les Feluettes, it seemed
necessary that all these references be respected
and represented. The resulting score contains
music “composed in the style of” as well as
quotes from Debussy, Joplin, québécoise folk
music and entirely original material.
Perhaps one of the biggest musical
influences happens to be one of the most
overlooked aspects of the original play, the
subtitle: La Répétition d’un Drame Romantique
(The revival of a romantic drama). The story is
a grand, tragic, romantic drama in the tradition
of a Tosca or a Romeo and Juliet or a La Traviata,
and the music of the opera seeks to capture and
portray those powerful sentiments of love, loss,
desire, determination and obsession.
Les Feluettes premieres at the Opéra de
Montréal, May 21-28. To hear excerpts, visit
operademontreal.com or kevinmarch.com.au

22 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 DID YOU HEAR ABOUT… Salzburg
SHOSTAKOVICH’S
RABID FOOTIE FETISH
& Lucerne
The Russian composer ate, drank, slept –
and even refereed – ‘the beautiful game’
Festivals
W
hen it comes to football fanaticism, Dmitri
Shostakovich was one of classical music’s most avid
sports nuts. The composer was, according to friends,
“a rabid supporter” and apparently it was
he who coined the phrase, “Football is
the ballet of the masses.”
On Sunday afternoons,
Shostakovich would often take in
two matches, and was frequently
to be seen leaping, screaming and
gesticulating from the terraces
in enthusiastic support of his
hometown teams of Dynamo and
Zenit Leningrad. Not only that, he
would fastidiously record match results,
calculating the odds and then placing bets.
Shostakovich’s letters to his friend Isaak Glikman furnish us
with touching and trivial insights into the composer’s obsessive
relationship to ‘the beautiful game’ complete with quotations
from match-day programmes, newspaper clippings, eulogies
and curses for the fluctuating form of Dynamo/Zenit stalwarts.
Glikman remembers how, with his wife absent one weekend,
Shostakovich invited the entire Zenit team to his apartment
for dinner and ended up playing his latest compositions on the
piano for the increasingly drunk and accommodating players. European Summer
The composer had practical experience too, holding a
prestigious sporting qualification: the official certificate of
Music Festivals
‘Football Referee of the Republican Category’, a licence he
August 21 – September 1, 2016
showed off proudly to friends on regular occasions. The so- From $9,550 per person, land content only
called ‘Republican Category’ in the USSR was proof of the Enjoy 10 exceptional performances at three of Europe’s
highest level of competence and qualified holders to referee most prestigious music festivals, Salzburg, Lucerne and
international games. The only testimony of Shostakovich the Schubertiade at Schwarzenberg.
actually refereeing a game occurred in 1964. The account
Highlights
given by fellow composer Rodion Shchedrin recalls an
occasion while on summer holiday in Armenia: “Two football • Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Gounod’s Faust at
teams were formed at the vacation house. Shostakovich was the Salzburg Festival
the referee and he did it with great pleasure,” Shchedrin • Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebuow Orchestra and
writes. “The field was small with apple trees growing nearby. two concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
When the ball hit a tree, apples would fall to the ground, • Recitals by tenor Ian Bostridge, baritone Gerald Finley,
and our furious referee would give a long whistle: ‘one more violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Igor Levit
strike at the fruit tree and I shall disqualify both teams!’”
Shostakovich’s passion for football infiltrated his musical Tour leader Robert Gay provides in-depth
output as well. The ballet The Golden Age, composed between information on the composers and
1930 and 1935, tells the story of a young communist soccer team performers whom you hear on tour.
that travels to the West and whose wholesome sportsmanship
inspires the capitalists to happily join their cause. The music is Call 02 9235 0023 (1800 639 699 outside
fast-paced with touches of jazz and it includes a climactic soccer Sydney) or visit academytravel.com.au
match in Act II. It was the first of three ballet scores written
by Shostakovich, all of which sank into critical and popular
i EXPERT TOUR LEADERS i MAXIMUM 20 IN A GROUP i CAREFULLY PLANNED ITINERARIES
anonymity when the composer fell into disfavour as a result of
the shifting Soviet cultural politics of the 1930s.
tailored
small group
www.limelightmagazine.com.au Journeys
O KEYNOTES

Backstage with…

PAUL FITZSIMON
One of classical music’s most notoriously challenging works requires the conducting power
of not less than six arms. One brave Australian conductor has done it twice. Here’s how...

K
arlheinz Stockhausen wrote Gruppen
back in 1957. He scored it for three
separate orchestras and three
conductors, and it calls for a total of 109
instrumentalists. Perhaps unsurprisingly
it’s notoriously difficult to perform as the
three orchestras play in completely different
tempi, requiring the conductors to coordinate
with each other so that, in certain thrilling
passages, the orchestras synchronise.
The first time I conducted the piece was
in 2011. I was living in Berlin and learning
Gruppen for the first time took its toll. The night
before I travelled to Frankfurt for rehearsals I
suffered a panic attack. I got into bed, curled up
into the foetal position and had to call one of
my best friends to come over, bring some food
and reassure me. It’s a tough piece.
This year I conducted it again in Paris with
the orchestra of the Conservatoire de Paris
and the brilliant Ensemble Intercontemporain
– the chamber orchestra founded by Pierre
Boulez in 1976 for the purpose of performing
and promoting contemporary classical music.
I was the only one of the 112 musicians who
didn’t speak French, so on occasion in
Three conductors in
a room, waving our
arms in silence, is a
surreal experience
rehearsal, when the other conductors,
Matthias Pintscher and Bruno Mantovani,
forgot to shout out the bar numbers in English,
I was left hanging until a kindly member of
my orchestra shouted out a translation just
in time for me to give the upbeat. Talk about
flying by the seat of your pants!
Arnold Schoenberg was the first composer to
codify the use of serialism in music (the system
whereby all 12 chromatic tones are of equal
importance) and Stockhausen extended that to
include other aspects of the music, including
tempi. Stockhausen uses 12 equally-spaced
Gruppen at Paris Philharmonie 2
tempi ranging from crotchet equals 60 to crotchet
equals 120, all of which the conductors need to
be able to recreate during the approximately 23
minutes of music. It has the potential for making
the conductors go a little crazy.
Gruppen literally means ‘groups’ and the
work is made up of many different pieces, or
groups, which each have a distinct quality,
whether that be the strings playing long notes in
pianississimo or the brass playing incredibly fast
series of notes in fortississimo – and everything
in between! The three orchestras are arranged
in a horseshoe formation with the audience
sitting in the middle. I conducted the third
orchestra, the same one that Boulez conducted
at the premiere in 1958, so I felt very humbled
now to conduct it with his own orchestra.
There’s no easy way to learn this type of
music so it was study, study, study. I love
conducting contemporary music – I think it’s fair
to call Stockhausen that – but it’s very different
from how I go about learning an opera (my
job in Sydney is as a conductor and repetiteur
with Opera Australia). Because I had conducted
Gruppen before, I was able to focus this time on
certain aspects of the score that hadn’t occurred
to me when I first learnt it four years ago.
Perhaps the most challenging part of
conducting this work is that you are following
and being followed not by a concerto soloist or
a singer, but by two other conductors. It is the
only work I know of where this is the case, so
to get our three heads around this we decided
to meet at the beginning of the rehearsal
period to practise together, without any sound,
to make sure that we were all completely
secure before having the orchestras there.
Three conductors in a room, waving our arms
about in silence, is a rather surreal experience.
The concert was thrilling! It took place at the
new Paris Philharmonie 2 to a full and extremely
enthusiastic audience. From talking to several
patrons afterwards, there was a particular
moment in the piece which stood out as a
highlight: about two-thirds of the way through
the work there is a series of rich, dissonant brass
chords which are, as it seems from the audience
perspective, thrown around between the three
orchestras in an incredibly wild display of sound
and movement. Never before or since has anyone
composed a moment like this. It’s completely
singular and awesome in effect. Conductors
don’t say this very often, but next time I’d like
to swap places with the audience.

24 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 City Recital Hall Ensemble In Residence

WORLD PREMIERE

DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN?

Paul Stanhope explains how the melancholy music of John
Dowland became the inspiration for his upbeat new concerto

M
uch of my recent music involves
weaving found objects – for
example fragments of early
music – into my own musical voice.
My aim is to connect to the Western
musical tradition and find new and
inventive combinations of sound that
come about through a process of stylistic
juxtaposition and integration.
My new piece, Dawn and Darkness,
is a short cello concerto commissioned
by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra,
with support from Vicki Olsson, to sit
Photo © Jason Catlett

alongside Tchaikovsky’s grand Rococo

Variations which together form the
first half of the concert. Both works
use similar orchestral forces (mine

Four Last
adds percussion, harp and celesta to a Paul Stanhope
small band of winds, strings and two
horns) and refer to early music themes.

However, rather than being a formal set
of variations as in Tchaikovsky’s work,
my piece is a compact yet free-flowing
series of embellishments on two short
thematic fragments from a lute song,
In Darkness let me Dwell by English
Renaissance composer John Dowland,
composed in the style of a Fantasy.
The title Dawn and Darkness obviously
relates to the ‘darkness’ of the rather
melancholic Dowland song. In addition
to the quiet and contemplative moments
(inspired by Dowland) my piece spins
fragments of the original song into a
lather of exuberant dance episodes that
eventually climax and collapse into a
solo cadenza. I hope that my piece
suggests the possibility of light at the
end of a dark night, rather than
Songs
the prospect of wrapping oneself
permanently in melancholia.
Composing for a solo cello in
conjunction with orchestra is a great
joy, but getting the solo instrument to
balance with the larger forces can be a special guest
challenge. It is written for the Armenian- Lee Abrahmsen, soprano
born soloist, Narek Hakhnazaryan, who
has both terrific projection when it comes
to sound and an outstanding virtuosity. Wagner Vorspiel und Liebestod
I’m looking forward to working with from Tristan und Isolde
him! In the meantime, I very much Ford Contradance
appreciated the advice of the SSO’s
Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor
Chris Pidcock who kindly workshopped
the solo cello part and contributed Strauss Four Last Songs
valuable advice. Working with the SSO
is always a great privilege, and I’m
looking forward to this project which is
Wednesday 20 April | 7:30pm
my first concerto for the orchestra. City Recital Hall
Bookings 02 8256 2222
or cityrecitalhall.com

Principal Sponsor Major Sponsor Venue Partner Media Partner

WORK Dawn and Darkness COMPOSER Paul Stanhope SCORED FOR Cello and orchestra
COMMISSIONED BY Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Vicki Olsson PREMIERE May 4, 2016 Subscribe and Save
PERFORMERS Narek Hakhnazaryan vc, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Oleg Caetani Subscribe to all four Virtuoso Series
concerts and save 20% on the
individual ticket price.
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Contact the City Recital Hall Box Office for more
information.
O KEYNOTES

RICHARD GILL

SINGING IS OUR SALVATION!

The success of the new National Music Teacher Mentoring Program proves
how important it is that every child in Australia gets a musical education

C
an you ever imagine a time in
Australia where every child who
attended a state school, irrespective
of where in Australia, had the opportunity
to sing at on a regular basis? Can you
imagine that through this singing, regularly
offered to every child by a qualified teacher
who knew a great deal about music and
how to teach it, large numbers of children
would excel at music, irrespective of their
natural musical ability? Can you imagine
that all these children would be able to read,
write and compose music at a very high
level in a very short time?
Furthermore, on taking up a musical
instrument later on in their school lives,
because they are able to read music, to
sing in tune, to count accurately, know
music theory from a practical point of view
and present themselves to an instrumental
teacher as fully-fledged readers of
rhythm and pitch, those children would
have an enormous head start on a raw
instrumental beginner. Can you imagine?
Did you know that humans sang before
they spoke? Babies, for example, burble and
gurgle types of musical sounds well before
they utter words. Singing is in our DNA!
Currently, numbers of infants and
primary school classroom teachers,
responsible for teaching children in New
South Wales, Victoria, Western Australian
and the Northern Territory, are having
the experience of being mentored by a
colleague – a colleague who has experience
in the very special business of teaching
music – and it’s all vocally based.
This program, an initiative of the
current Federal Government’s Arts and
Education Departments, is having a
profound effect on children and teachers
nationally as more and more schools
become involved. State and Territory
Departments of Education in NSW, VIC,
WA and NT have embraced mentoring
wholeheartedly and are quintessentially
responsible now for administering the
nuts and bolts of the program, providing
the relief for the teachers who are being
mentored, and relief for the mentors.
In short, mentors teach lessons
which participating teachers watch. The
participating teachers then repeat those
lessons with the mentor observing and so
the process goes on. It is very simple, it is
very cost effective and it breeds a massive
sense of respect and understanding
between the mentor and the participating
teachers. Both parties learn from the
process and both parties improve their
competencies and, (can you imagine?)
children are the ultimate benefactors.
This program is being thoroughly
researched by Professor Margaret Barrett,
Head of the Queensland University School
of Music and shortly, some incredibly
impressive results will be announced. A
sneak preview of these results will reveal
Babies burble
and gurgle musical
sounds well before
they utter words
that the mentors are greatly encouraged by
the ways in which the participating teachers
have developed extra skills and greater
confidence. Comments such as:
“By the end, all her kids were up to reading the
notes on the stave. It was just amazing looking
at their tests at the end... I was overwhelmed
by what they could achieve, and it was things I
thought were not possible with a K/1 class.”
“Boys that wouldn’t even attempt singing are
now singing on their own.”
“Being a mentor is the most incredible
professional development I’ve done in my life.
It’s so powerful.”
“Satisfaction and excitement that I could
help a classroom teacher without any music
qualifications teach and enjoy teaching classroom
music. The program is life-changing.”
Comments such as these can be found in
abundance in every school report from the
program. Principals have become the biggest
converts, with many of them commenting
on the massive impact it has on the school
generally and on learning specifically.
It is of grave concern that so few
children in Australia receive a complete
and thorough music education based
on singing. However, this Federal
Government initiative is a step in the right
direction which, when taken by more and
more schools, should see this country turn
its music education around and put it on a
level with the rest of the educated world.
I look forward to a time when every
child in this country has an opportunity
to learn and make music.
Richard Gill is the founder of the National
Music Teacher Mentoring Program

26 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

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O INTERVIEW
CHRISTOPH
VON DOHNÁNYI
The great conductor learned at the feet of men who actually knew Brahms and Bruckner.
In a revealing conversation with Clive Paget he shares his ideas on life and music making
You grew up in Berlin in the 1930s. Was that
a difficult time to get a musical education?
I was just nine when the war started. Up to
then it was a good time, after this it was not
such a good time. I started early and studied
a little piano – even composition when I was
a kid. But during the war there were other
priorities and problems. My family was in big
trouble because of being against the system.
My father and quite a few of my family were
in prison or in concentration camps. So there
was no time for music. I started again when
I was about 15, after the war.
You’re also related to Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
the theologian. Was he also an influence?
He was brother of my mother and he was my
godfather.The Nazi’s did not allow him to
preach for a long time, so we spent quite a bit
of time together. I think he wrote quite a bit
of his Ethics when we spent a year away from
Berlin, which had so much bombing. He was
a wonderful man, a very, very positive man.
So was there ever a time when you
might not have become a musician?
After the war I was really not so sure because
I had lost five years. I studied law for four
semesters, but while I was studying law I
started making music a lot again, and then
I decided to go only to music. Fortunately I
got the Richard Strauss Award, and with the
money I could go to the United States.
You also studied with your grandfather – a
great composer. Was he a key figure?
I didn’t know my grandfather in Germany – I
met him just once during my childhood. I met
him again when I was 21 in the United States.
28 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
He left Hungary once the Russians came
and he went to Austria first and then went
to Argentina for half a year before going up
to America. Of course, he was a very special,
special influence because to meet someone
who was totally based in the 19th century, and
for me to talk to somebody who met Brahms,
and who saw Bruckner, who saw all these
people, that was something very unusual.
You have a great reputation as a Brahms
interpreter yourself. Did your grandfather
help you to understand Brahms’ music?
Oh sure. I mean, to meet somebody who
was able to talk to this man and to know the
ideas and the style... If somebody like my
grandfather meets Brahms, it gives him a
terrific impulse to go on in composition. To
meet these people, who were experienced
persons and mature musicians already, and
whose experience was so much based in the
19th century is just very, very important, and
in a very important way it increases your
own personality. My feeling for Brahms is of
course different from a 19th-century feeling,
but still I think I know the aesthetic values
of this kind of compositional style.
Have those kind of experiences informed
the music making that has been at the
core of the works you’ve explored over
many, many years now?
My grandfather’s playing came a lot from
improvisation, which was more of a 19th-
century style of making music. Beethoven,
for example, was a great improviser. This
style of improvising I didn’t find in some
of the later composers – I don’t think
Schoenberg was a great improviser [laughs].
interview
But it’s wonderful to have these different
experiences, and then to meet someone like
Bernstein with his approach to Brahms being
so different to what I had experienced with
my grandfather. That was very interesting.
So would you say that your own
interpretations of great composers like
Brahms and Bruckner have changed
fundamentally over 60 years of conducting?
Oh yes, I think very much so. I am going more
and more back to the roots of this music.
Knowing more, and having done it many
times, I hope I am coming closer to the piece
– otherwise I wouldn’t do it. With Bruckner,
the more you know about him, the more you
know the different versions, the more you
study and the more you hear, the more you
change. Since life is based on change, if you
don’t do it and if you don’t try to have similar
experiences in your artistic approach or your
stylistic approach to music you would be lost.
This is a very important and terrific inference.
You have headed many major orchestras,
but how did you develop early in your
career? Who helped and influenced you?
I had this very normal career, going to a
small city and becoming the music director.
In my case it was Lübeck, which is not a
bad city. I learnt a lot and I stayed there for
six years. Later, when I knew Karajan pretty
well, we talked and he told me he was nine
years in Ulm, which was even smaller than
Lübeck, and he said everything he learnt, he
learnt in Ulm. So that’s the way you do these
things. I met many of the great conductors,
but there were certain conductors who
I thought were very close to what I
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 INTERVIEW O

FOR ME TO TALK
TO SOMEBODY
WHO MET BRAHMS,
AND WHO SAW
BRUCKNER, WHO SAW
ALL THESE PEOPLE,
THAT WAS SOMETHING
VERY UNUSUAL

pictured myself about music making. For

contemporary music it was certainly Hans
Rosbaud, early Classical music it was maybe
Fritz Busch, and the late Romantic in those
days it was very much Furtwängler, but also
Bruno Walter for instance.

So what constituted contemporary music

for you in those days?
After the war, we had MusicaViva, which
was very influential.This was Karl Amadeus
Hartmann – I think a very important and good
composer, and a wonderful man who initiated
MusicaViva in Munich.You have to picture
that for 12 years there was no contemporary
music in Germany. Of course, there were
people composing like Strauss or also Orff,
great, great composers, but the real tradition of
Schoenberg and the SecondViennese School,
you couldn’t even hear it, it was not performed.
Photo © Decca

So there was a tremendous urge to listen to

the MusicaViva concerts.They were full and
very well attended by young people.

Berg appears on both of your programmes

in Sydney. How important have the
composers of the Second Viennese School
been to you as a musician?
For me, Berg is the closest to the public, for
sure. For me also he is the most approachable
composer of the Second Viennese school
especially for people who are looking for
some connection to the 19th century. I love
Webern’s pieces, only they are very hard to
play in concert. Webern needs total silence
– the slightest noise is disturbing to the
music, very fundamentally. Berg is more
approachable and more feasible, and he’s a
wonderful composer, especially his operas.
As you get older, which composers and
works draw you back over and over again?
For me, I think, at this time – and it’s just a
matter of being not young – you deal with
the roots very much. To deal with Mozart, to
deal with the whole 19th century, but also
to get closer to some of music of the later
18th century. I think if I reduce my repertoire,
then I might serve people better. It’s so
important not to lose the tradition. There are
very few around now who have this kind of
background. I do have it. That’s why
I say to have met people whose base was in
the 19th century was so important for me.
Which composers today do you find
particularly interesting?
Actually, I wouldn’t like to answer this
question, because the ones I don’t mention
would think I don’t like them [laughs].There
are of course wonderful talents around. I can
only recommend that people try to listen
without being prejudiced. Just open your ears
and don’t close your brain and your mind and
your heart, because there is wonderful music
making and wonderful music around.
Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the
Sydney Symphony from April 6-16

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 29

 O THE BAROQUE

What is it about the

Baroque? Not all that
long ago the music had
been virtually forgotten.
But now it’s back, and it’s
more popular than ever.
Will Yeoman investigates
the what, why and how of
classical music’s greatest
growth industry

IF IT AIN’T

Baro
30 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 THE BAROQUE O

que...
www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 31
O THE BAROQUE

I
n a recent Australian novel, one of the
characters calls the music of Antonio
Vivaldi “low-brow”. Come on – it’s at
least middle-brow. But seriously, thinking
about all of those study and meditation aid
recordings, the numerous articles about
Baroque music and Alpha brainwave
states, and not least the sheer wallpaper
ubiquity of the stuff (except in supermarkets, where
it’s lost ground to ‘70s and ‘80s soft rock), you can
kind of see where she’s coming from. Me, I’m old
enough to remember that my introduction to classical
music was through a cassette tape of the “Albinoni
Adagio/Pachelbel Canon/Corelli Christmas Concerto”
variety. 1970’s chill, in other words.
Today, the music of the Baroque is one of classical
music’s genuine growth areas, with new recordings
of classic works seemingly issued on an almost daily
basis, while new composers and works are being
unearthed almost as frequently. Yet it wasn’t always
thus, with composers such as Vivaldi falling from
grace before their bodies were cold in the clay and
being brought back to life like some bewildered
Lazarus only in the 20th century. But how did it gain
so much ground again to become the single most
popular classical music genre on the planet? To find
out, we need to look at what Baroque music was, what
it became in modern times and what it is today.

I KNOW IT’S ONLY BAROQUE BUT I LIKE IT… Hidden Treasures

“What Windows is to computers, rhetoric was to
Baroque and Renaissance musicians,” writes Bruce
Haynes in The End of Early Music: A Period Performer’s
History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. So there
we have the first clue about what Baroque music
was to its contemporary audiences: growing out of
Renaissance Humanist ideals, it was music that was
calculated to have a specific emotional effect through
the use of more or less codified “gestures”.
As far as the word itself goes, the French baroque,
which is derived from the Portuguese barroco,
meaning an irregularly shaped pearl, was like so
many art history terms, initially one of approbation
before it came to denote a particular period, in
this case that falling between the Renaissance and
the Classical, or roughly 1600-1750. Neither usage
When David Heard
LEO SCHOFIELD FESTIVAL DIRECTOR,
BRISBANE BAROQUE
“Lully. Definitely Lully. Specifically Atys. Back in the early ‘90s
I tried desperately to bring Les Arts Florissants’ stupendous
production of this opera to Melbourne. It was one of the most
ravishing stagings I have ever seen. In 1989, Harvey Lichtenstein, then boss
of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, shocked patrons of that temple of the
avant-garde by presenting a masterpiece of the 17th century as part of a
programme heavy with work by Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, Twyla Tharp and
other such luvvies. Atys was sensationally received and other French Baroque
work followed including Charpentier’s Médée with the incomparable
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the title role. Of course, costs defeated my plans
for Atys in Oz but money was no object for the American agrochemical
magnate who, smitten with Christie’s production the first time around,
funded a recent revival at BAM to the tune of five million dollars.”
Dieterich Buxtehude
Membra Jesu Nostri

Francesco Cavalli
Thomas Tomkins

Meine Freundin,

Franz von Biber

Christoph Bach
Louis Couperin

Rosary Sonatas
Heinrich Ignaz
William Lawes

Marc-Antoine
Vespers of the

Jean-Baptiste
Blessed Virgin

du bist schön
Organ Works

Charpentier
Monteverdi

1643–1704

1644-1704
1602-1645

1602-1676

1626-1661

1642-1703
1632-1687
1567-1643

1637-1707
1572-1656

La Calisto
The Royal
Consorts

Te Deum
Claudio

Johann
Lully
Atys

32 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 THE BAROQUE O

Hidden Treasures
MAURICE STEGER RECORDIST
“I love the Neapolitan violinist, teacher and composer
Nicolò Fiorenza (1700-1764). What power in his music
and personality! He mistreated his students in Santa Maria
di Loreto Conservatorium for 19 years but wrote fantastic
music, full of passion, sadness, aggression and inspiration. In his music the
recorder is like an opera singer, a virtuoso artistic melodic instrument and an
inconspicuous instrumental colour in the polyphonic works.”

Hidden Treasures
RACHEL PODGER VIOLINIST
“Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) was an Italian
composer and violinist. His skills on the violin were heard
and valued by many in various cities across Europe, and
accounts by the diarist Frances Burney and Charles de Brosses
reveal him to have been quite an imposing character, and possibly a little
mad: “his playing is just, noble, knowledgable and precise, but a little
lacking in grace” (de Brosses), “the peculiarities of his performance were
his bow-hand, his shake, his learned arpeggios, and a tone so loud and
clear, that it could be distinctly heard through the most numerous band of
a church or theatre.” He made such an impression on the younger Tartini,
who upon hearing him play in 1712 locked himself away to study and
improve his bow technique in imitation of the older player. He famously
leapt out of a third-storey window in Dresden in a fit of madness brought
on by too much music study and the reading of alchemy! Despite this, all
agreed he was the first, or at least one of the first, violinists in Europe.”

is particularly accurate: the time period is somewhat for different forces, from solo through chamber to
arbitrary and it can extend backwards and forwards orchestral, as well as in various combinations.
depending upon the composer or the country in There was an explosion of forms as well. The
question, while the music itself moved along a instrumental and orchestral dance suite using
continuum between the extravagant and the spare. the classic allemande - courante - sarabande - gigue
Where the word baroque does come into its own pattern developed apace. The solo sonata and the
is in describing the sheer profusion of forms, styles, chamber trio sonata were legion. The concerto grosso
resources and instrumentation available to a composer made famous by Corelli before being taken up by
or a performer working at any one point during those Geminiani, Telemann and Handel and the solo
150 or so years. Around this time, there was a swing ritornello concerto, invented by Torelli but developed
away from the Renaissance modes towards diatonic by Vivaldi and later on by Bach, became de rigueur.
harmony and our modern major and minor scale Opera flourished, especially in Naples, as did the
system, as well as from dense polyphony to simpler large-scale, Handelian oratorio in England, with
homophonic styles. There was also a move away from dazzling vocal soloists such as the famous castrato
purely vocal music towards pure instrumental music Farinelli able to take advantage of the da capo aria
Florilegium Primum
Venus and Adonis

Johann Pachelbel

Trumpet Concerti

Antonio Veracini
Giuseppe Torelli

The Fairy Queen

Johann Pepusch
Concerti Grossi

Violin Sonatas
Georg Muffat

Gamba Suites

Henry Purcell
Marin Marais
Organ Works

The Beggar’s
Alessandro
1649-1708

1659-1695

1660-1725
1658-1709
1656-1728
1653-1706
1653-1704

1659-1745

1667-1752
1653-1713
Arcangelo
John Blow

Scarlatti
Griselda
Corelli

Opera

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O THE BAROQUE
Hidden Treasures
RICHARD GILL PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR,
ORCHESTRA1788
“Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) wrote much more
than just the famous Canon for which he seems to
be universally known. Great though the Canon may be,
his Toccata for Organ in C Major shows a composer gifted in thematic
development with a knowledge of the organ well above the average and a
capacity to delight the ear in a very special way. You should try it!”
Hidden Treasures
MAHAN ESFAHANI HARPSICHORDIST
“I think it’s a real shame that more people don’t know
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784). He is really an
amazing composer. These Bach sons are no joke but
Friedemann in particular is a very special, very troubled
person. He was a great improviser, of course, and there’s very little from
him on paper, but it’s all so worth it. The harpsichord concertos are
marvellous, there’s a couple of symphonies and there are the sonatas.
The D Major Sonata is wonderful as is an E Flat Major Sonata that he
wrote. Of course, we live in an age where we use music as background,
but WF Bach is music that you’ve got to really sit in a room, close the
door and listen to. It demands that and it deserves that.”
to display their improvisational skills by lavishly
ornamenting repeats, often to the delight of adoring
fans and the disgust of the composers.
If rhetoric was the brain of the Baroque, the basso
continuo or thorough or figured bass system was its
backbone, and ran through everything. Basically,
a musician would often be presented with simply
the bass and the melody lines of a piece of music; a
keyboardist or lutenist would then be expected to
improvise harmonies according to set conventions.
This, combined with an equal freedom to embellish
the melodic material and the lack of expressive
markings, is what makes the performance of
baroque music so spontaneous, vital and open to
interpretation. No wonder our attitudes to historically-
informed performance have changed so much over
the years, and will continue to do so as musicians and
scholars learn more about this fascinating period of
music history and how it relates to our own lives.
Alessandro Marcello
Trumpet Voluntary
La Cetra Concerti
The Four Seasons
Jeremiah Clarke
Antonio Vivaldi
Oboe Concerti
Harpsichord
1668-1733
1674-1707
1678-1741
1673-1747
1671-1751
Couperin
Albinoni
François
Tomaso
Works
34 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
THE PROOF IS IN THE PERFORMANCE
Performing ‘early’ music with the kind of voices, or on
instruments for which they were written ie. the male
falsetto, violins with flatter, shorter fingerboards and
gut strings, wooden flutes, harpsichords and lutes etc.
is a relatively new thing; performing earlier music is
not. Mozart arranged Bach fugues for string quartet.
Johann Pepusch set up the original Academy of
Ancient Music in the early 1700s. The Boston Handel
and Haydn Society, which still exists to this day, was
founded back in 1815. In 1829, Mendelssohn gave
a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, thus
bringing that “forgotten” composer to the attention
of a whole new generation of music lovers.
Laypersons had never stopped performing Handel,
especially his Messiah, the favourite of amateur choral
societies just about everywhere; but in the same way
that church organists never stopped improvising,
serious musicians never stopped playing Bach, or
Scarlatti for that matter, and in the 19th and early-
20th centuries the mania for piano transcriptions of
Bach’s works (Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni being
but two chief protagonists here) continued apace.
But the so-called “early music” movement – the
term is now frowned upon and “historically-informed
performance practice” is to be preferred – picked
up only in the 20th century, with more thorough
THE CASTRATI LAVISHLY ORNAMENTED
REPEATS, TO THE DELIGHT OF ADORING
FANS AND THE DISGUST OF COMPOSERS
musicological research and greater attention
being paid to matters of style. Naturally, there
was controversy from the outset, with Sir Thomas
Beecham famously saying the sound of a harpsichord
was like “two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in
a thunderstorm. Pioneering harpsichordist Wanda
Landowska (1879-1959), who made the first recording
of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, equally famously told
the cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973), who is credited
with rediscovering Bach’s Solo Cello Suites: “You
play Bach your way, I’ll play Bach his way.”
Johann Sebastian Bach
St. Matthew Passion
Jan Dismas Zelenka
Wind Concerti
Georg Philipp
Jean-Philippe
Les Boréades
1683-1764
1679-1745
Domenico
1685-1750
1681-1767
1685-1757
Telemann
Keyboard
Requiem
Scarlatti
Rameau
Sonatas
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 THE BAROQUE O

when nigel met VIVALDI

Nigel Kennedy’s eyebrow-raising approach to Vivaldi’s
Four Seasons over the years is an object lesson in
how a talented and imaginative artist can drag the
Baroque kicking and screaming into the 21st century
without bruising the fruit. The Mockney Monkey’s
now-legendary 1989 recording of Vivaldi’s ubiquitous
masterpiece with the English Chamber Orchestra for
EMI blew the cobwebs off what was fast becoming
a cosy baroque favourite, going on to sell more than
three million copies. His sexed-up 2003 recording
with players from the Berlin Phil, again for EMI,
was even more of an ear-opener – intense, lavishly
ornamented and yet utterly authentic. Now we have
Kennedy’s latest assault on the Red Priest with Vivaldi:
The New Four Seasons (Sony Classical). Wielding
his electric as well as his acoustic violin, Kennedy,
accompanied by the Orchestra of Life, rages and
glides amidst jazz, rock, pop and soul contributions by
the likes of former Echo and the Bunnymen drummer
Damon Reece, vibes exponent Orphy Robinson, Z-Star,
former Amy Winehouse collaborator Xantoné Blacq,
guitarist Doug Boyle and jazz muso Tomasz Nowak.
The result? An exhilarating, elemental listening
experience that’s closer to the rustic spirit of Vivaldi’s
original than most ‘straight’ recordings.

But nothing could stop the HIP momentum:

just listen to the Busch Chamber Players’ brilliant
recording on EMI of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.
Period-friendly outfits like Karl Münchinger’s
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1945,
began popping up everywhere, paying due attention
to questions of historical scale and style. Meanwhile,
the British countertenor Alfred Deller took the male
falsetto beyond the realms of the cathedral and the
American barbershop and made it mainstream.
George Frideric Handel

Jean-Marie Leclair
L’Arte del Violino
Giuseppe Tartini

Pietro Locatelli
Leonardo Vinci

Violin Concerti

Flute Quartets
Leonardo Leo

Stabat Mater
Water Music

Trio Sonatas

Sammartini

Friedemann
1690 -1730

1700-1775
1697-1764
1694-1744
1692-1770
1687-1762

1695-1764

1710-1784
1710-1736
Devil’s Trill
1685-1759

Geminiani
Francesco

Keyboard
Artaserse

Pergolesi
Giovanni

Giovanni

Wilhelm
Battista

Battista

Sonatas
Alidoro
Sonata

Bach

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O THE BAROQUE
PERFORMERS ON PERFORMING
RICHARD EGARR
HARPSICHORDIST AND DIRECTOR OF
THE ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC
“When the early music
movement started it had
to be quite radical in an
objective sense. Now, the role
of the performer has been
allowed more cred. There’s
room for subjectivity. What
irritates me is a lack of personal engagement –
which is the most important thing. That’s what
we try to do when we’re playing this funny old
music on funny old instruments – engage the
listener. A performance doesn’t even have to be
on period instruments. My favourite recording
of the Brandenburg Concertos – and there are
over 600 recordings in total – is actually from
the 1930s under the legendary pianist Alfred
Cortot. People are always fascinated by sublime
works of art. This music still speaks to people.”
WILLIAM CHRISTIE
MUSICOLOGIST, HARPSICHORDIST
AND CONDUCTOR OF LES ARTS
FLORISSANTS
“As with all Baroque art,
there is this very strong
idea (in Baroque music)
of wanting to convince, to
seduce. Opera was very,
very important during
this time, and very exciting.
Certainly, the overall
attraction is some of this music is still less
well known than other music. Which means
that people coming to the concert hall discover
things, which is a nice feeling to have. We
want to bring a flavour of old gesture and
choreography, and also exciting things in terms
of contemporary dance and staging. I suppose
we’re very keen on the theatrical side of music
making. It’s about making this music become
eloquent again. That’s why our concerts are as
visual as they are musical.”
36 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
ALFREDO BERNARDINI
OBOIST AND CONDUCTOR
OF ENSEMBLE ZEFIRO
“I want to make sure
that early music doesn’t
sound old, that it really
speaks to the human
emotions. My purpose
is to make this the music
of today. It’s not that
we want to be true to history as a principle,
but very often if you investigate a little
more, you find solutions which are much
more convincing. And I’m sure that for
somebody who hasn’t heard music on Baroque
instruments it can be quite a surprise.”
ANDREW
LAWRENCE-KING
HARPIST. MUSICOLOGIST AND
CONDUCTOR OF THE HARP
CONSORT
“Just as in jazz, the very
best musicians of the 16th
and 17th centuries used
a lot of spontanaity when
they were performing.
They would add
variations or change the
music completely, often creating an entirely
new piece on the spot. But even if you’re
doing free improvisation, you’re working
within a framework of references and
influences. You can play a few bars of a certain
song, a little bit of a melody, a few chord
changes or even a little bit of rhythm, and that
sets up a whole lot of associations. There are
of course different ways of embellishing – a
lot of music is good material for generalised
improvisation because there are things that
evoke modern pop music. I think it’s an
interesting thing to do to throw in some of
these modern influences. But our ensemble
doesn’t do that. We are improvising, yes, but
strictly within the historical framework.”
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 THE BAROQUE O

The 1950s saw the likes of Nikolaus and Alice

Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien, I Musici and
the historically-informed Academy of St Martin in the
Fields, founded by Sir Neville Marriner, arrive on the
scene. The 1960s heralded the arrival of now-veritable
institutions such as the Monteverdi Choir and
Orchestra (the latter becoming the English Baroque
Soloists with the transition to period instruments)
founded by John Eliot Gardiner.
The 1970s were a HIP Golden Age of sorts, with
Collegium Vocale Gent, Hespèrion XX (now XXI),
the English Concert, the Academy of Ancient Music,
and Il Complesso Barocco first seeing the light of day.
The 1980s gave us Concerto Köln, La Serenissima,
Concerto Italiano, Il Giardino Armonico, The King’s
Consort and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra,
the 1990s the Bach Collegium of Japan, Europa
Galante and the madcap period band Red Priest.
Every one of them is still active today.
BAROQUE AND ALL THAT JAZZ
One of the most fascinating aspects of Baroque music
is its influence on, and adaptability to, other genres,
and this is perhaps nowhere more true than in jazz.
This shouldn’t be surprising, given the common
ground between the styles: the improvisation on
‘standards’, whether it be La Folia or My Funny
Valentine. In the first volume of his systematic
four-volume piano method, Jazz Improvisation, John
Mehegan writes, “This is the first serious attempt
to apply figured bass to jazz. Using figured bass,
the jazz musician can for the first time correctly and
completely indicate his music with precision.”
And in his 1979 article Baroque Music and Jazz,
Hans-Peter Schmitz writes, “If one can rightly
say of jazz that its value consists primarily in the
Hidden Treasures
ERIN HELYARD CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, PINCHGUT OPERA
“One of my favourite ensembles is Le Poème Harmonique,
with Vincent Dumestre at the helm. Their 2003 disc Nova
Metamorfosi is a real treasure and shows what imaginative
and intelligent musicians can do with the underprescriptive
scores of the 17th century. The sacred works featured are by Ruffo,
Coppini, Monteverdi and some anonymous composers too. Stunning!”
Hidden Treasures
EMMA MATTHEWS SOPRANO
“I discovered many new baroque works recently when I
toured with Musica Viva and Victorian Opera in Voyage
to the Moon. A new composer to me, Johann Adolph
Hasse really fired me up. I sang O Placido il Mare (or, in our
case, “As Strong as an Army”). Such incredibly difficult runs – I thought
it’d be impossible at first! But now I’d love to sing more of his music. The
audience’s response was as exciting as if I’d sung Sempre Libera! I loved the
challenge of conquering those fiendish coloratura passages and pushing the
rules with crazy ornaments. But you have to ornament! Da capos without
ornaments are deadly dull. So yes, Hasse is my new composer crush.”
Hidden Treasures
JEAN RONDEAU HARPSICHORDIST
“Royer’s (1705-1734) music is wild and fanciful, mining
treasure in the farthest reaches of the imagination. Daring,
surprises, contrasts, humour... he is dizzyingly inventive. For
me, Le Vertigo from the first book of his Pièces de Clavecin, is like
a conjuring trick, the work of an illusionist. It is a fantaisie to the power of ten!
It concentrates a CinemaScope movie into five short minutes; Royer gives us
an opera in 300 seconds; there is even a dizzying cascade at the cadence.”

BAROQUE GOES TO THE MOVIES

Who can forget Woody Allen’s use of Bach’s F Minor Harpsichord Concerto
in Hannah and Her Sisters? Or the majestic orchestral arrangement
of the Sarabande from Handel’s D Minor Harpsichord Suite in Stanley
Kubrick’s period masterpiece, Barry Lyndon (pictured)? Whether it’s in a
contemporary or historic setting, Baroque music has been favoured by
film-makers for decades for its ability rapidly to evoke a period, mood
or emotion. Even films as different as The Silence of the Lambs and The
English Patient can press a delicate piece like the aria from Bach’s Goldberg
Variations into service and get equally exquisite results. But for my money,
one of the most effective and moving uses of Baroque music in film to
date is in Jaco Van Dormael’s magical 2015 movie The Brand New Testament
(Le Tout Nouveau Testament). Whether it’s when God’s mischievous
daughter hacks into his computer and sends everyone on earth a text
notifying them of the time of their death, or when she listens to the ‘inner
music’ of her own all-too-human ‘apostles’, works such as Handel’s Lascia
Ch’ io Pianga from the opera Rinaldo, Purcell’s O Solitude and Rameau’s
harpsichord piece Le Rappel des Oiseaux subtly and heartbreakingly add
multiple additional layers of meaning to already poignant scenes.

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O THE BAROQUE

living sound, not in composition as such, this

feature finds its parallel in the primacy of executio
over inventio in the Italian Baroque style, but special
significance came to be attached to the performance
of old music in general: the performer was far
freer and more self-sufficient with respect to the
composition than in the times that followed.”
No wonder jazz musicians such as Warne Marsh, Lee
Konitz, Lennie Tristano, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond
and of course Jacques Loussier have always been in
thrall of Bach’s bebop; not to mention Glenn Gould and
Keith Jarrett’s jazzy way with Bach. But is it also fair to
call HIPsters such as Jordi Savall and Christina Pluhar,
with their frequent forays into “world” music and
Baroque mash-ups crossover artists? Possibly; but no
more so than any present-day performer who draws on
folk fiddle or pop traditions – and what is a lead break
but a cadenza of sorts? – to inform their playing.
Brisbane Baroque runs from April 8-16, the
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Mozart
Requiem programme runs from April 29-May 8.
Pinchgut Opera’s Armida runs from June 22-28
Hidden Treasures
PAUL DYER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, AUSTRALIAN
BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA
“I programme a lot of baroque treasures and love to shuffle
the cards and pull something out of the pack to present
in a modern and distinctly Australian way. A recent example is
the Ciaccona à 7 in C by the 17th-century German priest Philip Jakob Rittler
(c.1637-1690). I took his simple baroque harmonic structure and, with our
brilliant Brandenburg improvisers, gave it a distinct cinematic flavour – while
paying full respect to Rittler’s brilliant creation. Our audiences loved it!”
Hidden Treasures
EDGAR MOREAU Cellist
The Cello Concerto in C by Carlo Graziani (c.1710-1787) is a
wonderful discovery that deserves a place in the canon. It’s
a multifaceted work remarkable for the variety of its sonic
palette and colours as well as its style, flitting between Classical
and Baroque. It’s a cellist’s dream for its ornaments and expansive lyricism.
I was thrilled to be the first to record it. Listen without moderation!

BAROQUE BLOCKBUSTERS: THE ORIGINAL TOP 10

Bach: St. Matthew Harnoncourt’s return Scarlatti: Pletnev plays piano, yet
Passion to the St. Matthew with Keyboard perfectly captures the
Concentus Musicus a powerful line-up of Sonatas essence of Scarlatti’s
Wien/Harnoncourt soloists in an intense Mikhail Pletnev p genius in a generous
TELDEC 8573810362 (3CD) performance ERATO 5619612 (2CD) selection of the sonatas

Bach: Brandenburg Alessandrini’s Handel: Water & Niquet’s French

Concertos Brandenburgs combine Fireworks Music forces offer a thrilling
Concerto Italiano/ period energy and Le Concert Spirituel/ account of these
Rinaldo Alessandrini drama with musical and Hervé Niquet quintessentially English
NAÏVE OP30412 (2CD) timbral accuracy GLOSSA GCDSA921616 Baroque scores

Corelli: 12 Concerti Biondi leads from the Purcell: Queen Gardiner’s sense of
Grossi, Op. 6 violin in a sumptuous Mary’s Music drama is perfect in the
Europa Galante/Fabio yet lean-spirited Monteverdi Choir and moving Funeral Music
Biondi interpretation of these Orchestra/Gardiner and a selection of the
NAÏVE OP30147 influential works ERATO 2564633314 happy Birthday Odes

Vivaldi: Gloria Robert King’s lively Vivaldi: The Four A vivid new Four
Sampson, Lunn, account features stellar Seasons Seasons from the
DiDonato, The King’s soloists (before they La Serenissima/Adrian British period wizards is
Consort/Robert King were famous) in an Chandler worthy of elevation to
HYPERION CDA66839 ideal perspective AVIE AV2344 the very front rank

Handel: Messiah Butt’s revolutionary Charpentier: Te One of the first and

Hamilton, Wilkinson, Gill, account of Handel’s Deum very best recordings
Cairncross, Dunedin perennial masterwork Les Arts Florrisants/ that revealed the
Consort/John Butt goes back to the first Christie genius of Charpentier
LINN CKD285 (2CD) Dublin performance HMG501298 after years of neglect

38 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

Orava String Quartet Jacqueline Ogeil

10–13 June 2016

Niki Vasilakis Kate Grenville

3LHWUR5RIŵ

Ensemble Gombert

Slava Grigoryan &

Sharon Draper Melbourne Ensemble

Major supporters

Accademia Arcadia
Festivals Australia

Join us for our 12th festival ... a feast of music, words & Jacqueline Ogeil
ideas and visual arts ... and some surprises! Artistic Director

Featuring artists from Australia, Singapore and Europe

Clarence Lee Anna Goldsworthy woodendwinterartsfestival.org.au

O ALFRED BRENDEL
Alfred Brendel
NOTES ON A
MUSICAL LIFE
These days he publishes absurdist poetry rather than appearing on
the concert platform, but then Alfred Brendel has never been entirely
conventional. Francis Merson looks back over his remarkable 85 years
A
t the age of 85, Alfred Brendel is a little
bit tired of being labelled. First and
foremost, could everyone please stop
calling him an ‘intellectual pianist’? While
his learned essays and his lectures on music
may give the impression that Brendel is a think-first,
feel-later kind of musician, he rejects the suggestion
outright.“The tag of ‘intellectual pianist’comes from
a few American critics and does not reflect European
taste,”he maintains.“The fact that I have written about
music doesn’t signify that I’m not a spontaneous
performer. I’m a musician who also thinks.”
Still, it’s not hard to see why the label might have
stuck in the first place. Brendel’s debut recital, given
in Graz at the age of 17, was an impressively cerebral
programme called The Fugue in Piano Literature. It
included intensely contrapuntal works by Bach,
40 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
Brahms and Liszt alongside a complex double fugue
of Brendel’s own composition. Moving forward to
Brendel’s first recording, made in 1951, and you’ll
find no potpourri of crowd-pleasers. Instead, the
21-year-old opts for an obscure work by Liszt, the
Weihnachtsbaum, which had never been recorded
previously (and to this day is rarely played).
Now in retirement, Brendel publishes volumes of
absurdist poetry, and has just curated a season of art-
house cinema for a theatre in Prague. Still, he insists
that his penchant for the highbrow has never extended
to his playing.“I agree with Schnabel that analysis
should be the result of familiarity with a piece, and not
an input. And so I’m not governed by an intellect that
would determine my performances.”In the politically
correct parlance of today, Brendel could be called a
musician who just happens to be an intellectual.
Having given up performing a few years ago (his
hearing was fading), Brendel seems keen to set the
record straight on his legacy as a musician. And the
labels are doing their best to memorialise more than
60 years’ worth of recordings. Decca has just released
a colossal boxed set, which runs to some 114 discs –
a number Brendel says he was stunned by, having
never kept track of his discography. Among them
are two of his three Beethoven sonata cycles, three
cycles of the Beethoven piano concertos, and all the
Mozart piano concertos. Pianophiles will also discover
major surveys of music by Haydn, Liszt, Brahms,
Schumann and, of course, Schubert – the composer
with whom Brendel is most often associated. Brendel’s
1960s discs of little-recorded Schubert works such
as the Drei Klavierstücke, D946, broke new ground,
giving the listening public perhaps their first inkling
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 THE FACT THAT I HAVE
WRITTEN ABOUT MUSIC
DOESN’T SIGNIFY THAT
I’M NOT A SPONTANEOUS
PERFORMER. I’M A MUSICIAN
WHO ALSO THINKS

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O ALFRED BRENDEL
that Schubert’s piano music might inhabit the
same sublime realm as his Lieder. Brendel’s affinity I PUT ON OPERETTA RECORDS FOR THE
GUESTS OF THE HOTEL. I WOULD SING
for Schubert runs deep. In an article for The New
York Review of Books, he called Schubert“the most
immediately moving of the great composers”.
A glance at Brendel’s discography suffices to
ALONG AND FOUND IT TO BE RATHER EASY
show that he has consistently opted for the meat
and potatoes of the Viennese school. Chopin is a
conspicuous absentee from Brendel’s concert or
recording programmes. But the pianist is quick to
point out that“this is certainly not because of a lack of
admiration for Chopin.”Why, then, has the ‘poet of the
piano’ been overlooked?“Chopin’s Preludes are for me
the most glorious achievement in piano music after
PAUL LEWIS ON STUDYING WITH BRENDEL
It was a huge privilege just to learn from someone with Alfred’s knowledge,
experience and grasp of what music is and how it relates to other things
around us. But he was very demanding and very exacting as a teacher. He has
his ideas, and he has his vision and concept of music. He was never a teacher
in the sense that a great teacher might try to tap into what it is that makes
a student tick – to try to get something from them along the lines of their
own personality. He wasn’t like that at all. He communicated his own idea of
the music and it was really up to me to try to make sense of that.
With a musical personality as powerful as Brendel’s, I do feel you have
to take one step back in order to try to translate it into
something that is relevant to your own way of doing
things and your own language. Otherwise you end up
attempting to copy – and that is a disaster, of course. Itt
took me a little bit of time to work out how to handle all
that information. In the ‘90s, when I was playing for himm,
it was such an important process for me, and a great
privilege to have access to someone like that. As he
has grown older, I think he’s become mellow. At this
stage of his life he’s incredibly mellow and sweet,
and seems easier going than he has been in the past.
42 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
Beethoven and Schubert. The magnificence of Cortot’s
1933 recording prevented me from playing them
myself.”And it was the artistic divides of the early 20th
century that prompted Brendel to choose sides.“Such
was the pianistic situation of my young years: players of
a large central European repertory on one side, and the
Chopin specialist on the other. I drew my conclusion.”
Drawing his own conclusions was something
Alfred Brendel was called upon to do often as a
young musician. Of the 20th century’s great pianists,
perhaps only Glenn Gould relied so little on the
tutelage of others. But Brendel’s case may be even
more remarkable as, unlike Gould, he grew up in
a completely unmusical family.Young Alfred’s first
encounter with ‘serious’ music was at a hotel managed
by his father on the Adriatic Island of Krk.“I operated
the record player which I wound up and put on the
records for the guests of the hotel which were operetta
recordings of around 1930 sung by Jan Kiepura. I
would sing along and found it to be rather easy.”
Formal piano lessons began at the age of six, after
the Brendel family moved to Graz, Austria. But his
studies were interrupted when war tore through
Europe. The pianist says he remembers too well“the
craze of the war; hearing Hitler’s voice on the radio;
the sound of bombs,”an experience that left him with
an“abhorrence of fanaticism of any kind”. After being
sent to dig trenches in Yugoslavia, Brendel returned
to the Graz Conservatorium to study piano and
composition.“But I did not have any academic teachers
after my 16th year,”he says.“Apart from attending a
few of Edwin Fischer’s masterclasses, I did it all myself.
I would not recommend this to others, but it seemed
to have worked for me. It was a slower process but
it was my own.”In the absence of a specific teacher
to comment on his playing, the young pianist would
habitually tape-record himself and play it back. He
would also listen avidly to others: he counts fellow
pianists Edwin Fischer, Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm
Kempff as potent influences on his playing.
By his own account, Brendel’s rise to fame was
anything but sensational. His reputation grew steadily
throughout the 1950s, with small recitals leading to
larger ones. If there was any one breakthrough moment,
it was perhaps a concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth
Hall.“It was quite an unpopular programme,”Brendel
said in a 2003 BBC documentary.“I didn’t even like it
much myself, and the next day I got three offers from
big record companies. It seemed really rather grotesque,
like a slow, hardly noticeable rise on a thermometer or a
kettle warming water suddenly beginning to boil and
to bubble and the steam comes out.”
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 ALFRED BRENDEL O

By the mid-1960s, Brendel was one of the world’s

most sought-after pianists – both on stage and in the
recording studio – and he continued to dominate both
spheres until his retirement in 2008. Listeners may be
most familiar with his interpretation of the Beethoven
sonatas – 32 works of daunting genius that Brendel
chose to record not once, but three times, prompting
the critic Michael Steinberg to call him “the new
Schnabel”. Brendel has previously dismissed his first
Beethoven cycle on the Vox label, but the passage of
time has made him more sanguine. “Well, I wouldn’t
erase the first recordings,” he says. “But I hope my third
cycle of Beethoven sonatas shows that I spent a lifetime
with these works.”There are also many recordings
that Brendel loves, but which have not received wide
acclaim: he mentions his live discs of Beethoven’s
Hammerklavier Sonata and Busoni’s Toccata, and his Recording Brahms with Abbado, 1999
latest version of the Schumann Fantasie.
Not content simply with making recordings of
music, Brendel has also made waves as a producer of but a vessel that lets himself be inspired by the world.”
musical axioms. He controversially opined that the Certainly, the image of the starched-stiff musical
masterpiece should tell the performer what to do, analyst does not fit Brendel’s numerous recordings of
rather than the other way round – an assertion that the Romantic repertoire. Listen to his 1981 reading of
fuelled his reputation as a pedant. Brendel says this Liszt’s B Minor Sonata, and you’ll hear as much fervid
statement has too often been misinterpreted.“I do passion, as much Sturm und Drang, as was ever laid
not mean to suggest that the performer is a passive down on record. Brendel simply seems to adjust his
recipient of the music,”he explains.“He needs to have artistic temperament to suit the music – expressing
the ears, the open mind, the heart, the imagination to the mood of the score, rather than his own. He
get the message. He is not a programmed computer summarises the chameleonic requirements of an

Stephen Hough is acclaimed throughout the world 14 APRIL – 2 MAY

as a superb pianist, offering a listening experience musicaviva.com.au/Hough
of great emotion and virtuosity in works by Franck,
1800 688 482
Liszt, Schubert and Hough.
O ALFRED BRENDEL

interpreter in typically gnomic form.“I see the BRENDEL’s own favourites on CD

performer as combining the functions of a curator of a
museum, the executor of a will, and an obstetrician.”
One other role Brendel seems to relish is that of Beethoven: Piano All of Brendel’s final series of
teacher to other musicians. Paul Lewis (see the previous Concertos Nos 4 & 5 recordings of the Beethoven
page), Imogen Cooper and Till Fellner all count Vienna Philharmonic/ concertos can be recommended
themselves among his protégés. His mentorship of the Simon Rattle but the Fourth has a special
British-Taiwanese wunderkind Kit Armstrong, who DECCA 4780349 blend of power and intimacy.
famously buttonholed Brendel after a concert at the age
of 13, is revealed fascinatingly in the 2011 documentary
Set the Piano Stool on Fire.“He played the Chopin B Flat Schumann: Works Chamber music has always
Nocturne so beautifully,”explains Brendel,“I thought for Oboe and Piano been important to the
to myself, I have to make time for him.” with Heinz Holliger ob collegiate Brendel, so
If Brendel’s students can accumulate even a fraction PHILIPS 4263862 unsurpisingly he’s chosen
of the honours he has been awarded, they will be these minature masterpieces.
doing pretty well. Since his retirement, the world’s
major universities have showered the pianist with
honorary doctorates, to add to his KBE and entry in Beethoven: Cello “All five sonatas are in my view
Gramophone magazine’s Hall Of Fame. But the awards Sonatas really extraordinary,” Brendel
he truly values are more modest. He names the Hans Adrian Brendel vc told the Guardian in 2004.
von Bülow Medal, given by the Berlin Philharmonic, DECCA 4753792 Here he achieves an ideal
and honorary membership of the Vienna Philharmonic blend with his son, Adrian.
(a distinction he shares with only two other pianists,
Emil von Sauer and Wilhelm Backhaus) as the most
meaningful tributes to his work.“Nothing could make Mozart: Piano Another late recording from
me happier than the appreciation of a great orchestra.” Concerto No 17 in G 2005. Brendel and Mackerras
As a final, slightly impertinent, question, I ask Scottish Chamber produced four discs of
Brendel about what rewards might await him in the Orchestra/Mackerras concertos. The G Major
country from whose bourn no traveller returns. If we PHILIPS 4756930 remains Brendel’s favourite.
are to entertain the idea of the afterlife, what music
does he think will be played there? The Beethoven
sonatas? Schubert Lieder?“Hypothetically, there should THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION
be a choice,”he responds.“But I think I would choose
Haydn’s string quartets – in glorious performances.”
It’s an appropriate answer for this endlessly searching
artist: music that he himself can never play.

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are out now on Universal Music’s Decca label

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 of the

GREAT
COMPOSERS
Even the most sophisticated musicians have felt the need to let
their hair down on occasion. Clive Paget enjoys an irreverent
rummage through the dirty laundry basket of classical music

Mucky Minds
and Medieval Monks
T
he rich history of bawdy ballads
doubtless goes back to the beginning of
time. They first enter the written record
via the Greek satyr plays, those saucy romps
replete with giant wagging phalluses intended
to cleanse the palate of distressed playgoers
after four hours sitting through The Oresteia.
The first grubby traces of notated smut,
however, come from the Goliards, a group
of ordained priests and monks who wrote
bibulous, satirical and scatological poetry
across Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.
In a time when ‘spare’ sons of the aristocracy
were being pushed into an over-populated
church hierarchy, the devil found work for
the idle hands of an over-educated, under-
utilised clergy, many of whom were unable
to secure benefices. Events like The Feast of
Fools were set up as an annual valve to let off
steam, but that didn’t stop nefarious goings-
on. “Priests and clerks dance in the choir
dressed as women,” complained the Dean of
the Faculty of Theology in Paris. “They sing
wanton songs. They eat sausages at the altar
while the celebrant is saying Mass. They play
Morley’s ad for a herbed loaf?
A
lthough Shakespeare’s prose is
notoriously bawdy, his songs in
comparison are relatively tame. His
compatriots on the other hand were more
than happy to indulge in a musical nod and a
wink. John Dowland’s “hot shafts” in the lute
song Come Again are typical. And then there’s
this ditty, penned in 1600 by Thomas Morley:
“Will you buy a fine dog, with a hole in its head?
With a dildo, with a dildo, dildo, with a dildo,
dildo, dildo;
Muffs, cuffs, ribatos, and fine sisters’ thread.
With a dildo, with a dildo, dildo, with a dildo,
dildo, dildo;
I stand not on points, pins, periwigs, combs,
glasses,
Gloves, garters, girdles, busks, for the brisk lasses;
But I have other dainty, dainty tricks,
Sleek stones and potting sticks.
With a dildo, dildo, dildo, diddle diddle dildo,
with a diddle, diddle, dildo.
And for a need my pretty, pretty, pretty pods
Amber, civet, and musk cods
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
NAUGHTY BITS O
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dice on the altar. They cense with stinking
smoke from the soles of old shoes... Finally
they drive about town in shabby carts and
rouse the laughter of bystanders in infamous
performances with indecent gestures and
with scurrilous and lewd words.” Tut tut.
The most infamous collection of
Goliard texts is of course the Carmina
Burana, rediscovered in 1803 in a Bavarian
monastery. Written in Medieval Latin,
Middle High German, and occasionally in
Provençal, when the poems aren’t attacking
hierarchical abuses within the church they
focus on drinking, gluttony, gambling and
sex, all of which activities the licentious
Goliards were happy to publically promote.
A typical example occurs in the song Ich
Was Ein Chint So Wolgetan (roughly, I was a
good girl, I was) where the despoiled female
HE PUSHED UP MY
narrator declares of a lustful knight: “Er warf BLOUSE, BARING MY
BODY, AND STORMED
mir uof daz hemdelin, corpore detecta, er
rante mir in das purgelin, cuspide erecta”. Or
in other words: “He pushed up my blouse,
baring my body, and stormed my little citadel
MY LITTLE CITADEL WITH
with his erect lance.” You get the picture? HIS ERECT LANCE
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With a dildo, with a diddle diddle dildo,
with a diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle,
diddle, diddle, diddle dildo,
with a dildo, diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle,
diddle, diddle dildo.”
Now some scholars maintain that ‘dildo’ is
an Elizabethan contraction of “dill dough”
and thus Morley was spruiking a herbed
loaf of bread à la Française. Those Frenchies
are a passionate lot, but a spicy baguette?
I’m not so sure. Given the double entendre
inherent in words such as muffs, stones,
pods, sticks and cods, the sly humour seems
all too clear. Seventy years later, the rakish
Earl of Rochester in his poem Signior Dildo
knew exactly what he was talking about,
and it certainly wasn’t bread:
“You would take him at first for no person
of note, And in case you think this is merely low art,
Because he appears in a plain leather coat, it was Alfred Deller no less, the grand doyen
But when you his virtuous abilities know, of the countertenor revival, who first recorded
You’ll fall down and worship Signior Dildo.” Morley’s cheeky ode back in 1950.
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 47
O NAUGHTY BITS
Mr Henry Purcell’s
catchiest catches
I
n 1660, the ne’er-do-wells of London
breathed a sigh of relief. A dull decade
under the puritanical Commonwealth
came to a close and pimps, pickpockets
and prostitutes began to openly ply their
trades once more. Pleasure seekers and
playgoers ventured abroad, and a thriving
entertainment industry blossomed. The
prodigiously talented Henry Purcell quickly
became England’s most sought after writer
of theatre music, and as this was the heyday
of the Restoration Comedy with its fops and
foibles, that frequently meant getting his
compositional hands a little dirty.
Take The Canterbury Guests by failed lawyer
Edward Ravenscroft. In one intricate quartet
(beautifully rendered, I may say, by Dame
Emma Kirkby on disc), one wife sings “Good
Mistress Tart, I caren’t a fart,” as she is accused
by a neighbour of loose morals. “A nasty
quean as e’er was seen, your neighbours all can
swear it. You stole a spoon out of the room, last
christening you were at,” counters the other.
“You lie, you bitch,” wails the first. “You’ve got
the itch,” replies the second, and so on...
Haydn kicks up a stink
P
apa Haydn famously had a keen sense
of humour (for an Austrian, of course).
Not that it made everybody laugh.
An unfortunate incident when the juvenile
prankster snipped off the pigtail of the
choirboy in the row in front of him got young
Joseph expelled from his Viennese school
by the choir director. But in later life, good
old Haydn delighted in symphonies and
string quartets with nicknames like “The
Hen”, “The Bear” and “The Frog”, where his
music revels in depicting the various comical
denizens of his mental musical menagerie.
His favourite trick was to tickle a listener’s
funny bone by an unexpected musical
manoeuvre – a contrived modulation or a
sudden recapitulation (in other words, the
sort of thing that’s actually only funny to
other practising musicians). Occasionally
he went further with what might be called a
“layman’s musical joke”. Good examples are
the several false endings in the Joke String
Quartet, or the Farewell Symphony where
the orchestra leaves one by one at the end,
48 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
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Publishers like John Playford soon realised
the domestic sphere was where money was
to be made as the masses developed a taste
for ayres, ballads and catches (a catch, by the
way, has a built in cadence allowing a song to
terminate after a specified number of repeats
– who said this feature wasn’t educational).
Catches and rounds provided opportunity
for musical naughtiness whereby lyrics may
seem perfectly innocent until sung in three
parts (try Isham’s Celia Learning On a Spinnet
and note the way it highlights the phrase “a
long prick”). Or try this not so subtle lyric:
“Once, twice, thrice, I Julia tried.
The scornful puss as oft’ denied.
And since, and since, I can no better, better thrive,,
I’ll cringe to ne’er a bitch alive.
So kiss my arse, so kiss my arse, disdainful sow. and farts into the score! His colleague John
Good claret, good claret is my mistress now.” Eccles, meanwhile, came up with My Man
John, a catch that sounds perfectly filthy
Listening to the likes of the Deller Consort unless you know that they are singing about
or Pro Cantione Antiqua wrapping their a broom-handle. Many of these modest gems
tonsils around such ripe, counterpointed fare are beautiful music, proving that in the right
is a treat. In one, Purcell even writes belches hands, even a song about dung can shine.
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supposedly a hint to the niggardly Count
Esterházy to allow his musicians enough
time off to return home and ‘see to’ their
wives. Of course, everybody knows the
Surprise Symphony, designed to put paid to
anyone in his London audience nodding off
(presumably Austrian concertgoers would
never have done such a thing), but then there
is his Symphony No 60, “Il Distratto” (The
Absent-Minded) where the orchestra actually
grinds to a halt to allow the violins to retune.
All well and good, but where the old
japester overstepped the bounds of decency
was in his 93rd Symphony (which ought
properly to be nicknamed “The Fart”).
Towards the end of the Largo, the music slows
and diminuendos until suddenly there is a
fortissimo rasp on the bassoon. Conductors
at this point have to take a good taste check.
The great George Szell was notorious for
failing that test. “It sounds loud and funny but audience to laugh out loud at this point – and
not (as with Szell) grossly overdone,” writes why not?” Hodgson does however admit that
killjoy musicologist Anthony Hodgson. “I if no one in the audience laughs, then the
recall a performance by Doráti that caused the episode has probably been “underplayed”.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 NAUGHTY BITS O

Mozart hits rock bottom
Y
ou don’t have to delve very deeply
into music history before you discover
that Mozart was the Classical period’s
most notorious vulgarian. Many of his letters
include lavatorial passages, most aimed at his
immediate family – there’s even one to his
mother! But then it is Anna Maria Mozart,
writing to her husband in 1777, who pens the
immortal lines “Addio, ben mio. Keep well,
my love. Into your mouth your arse you’ll
shove. I wish you good night, my dear, but
first shit in your bed and make it burst.” Nice.
Cultural anthropologists have speculated
that such scatological fascinations are in fact
specific to German national culture, citing
Goethe, Heine and Martin Luther (who
advised the Pope to “do it in your pants and
make a sausage out of it”) as examples of
mucky-minded intellectuals. It is suggested
the target of this ‘humour’ was the German
hereditary aristocracy, who excluded the
Bourgeoisie from political participation.
Mozart indeed refers to some of the nobs
attending a concert in Augsburg as “Duchess
Smackarse, Countess Pleasurepisser, Princess
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Stinkmess, and Prince Potbelly von Pigtail”.
Wolfgang’s lowest artistic endeavour is
probably the canon in B Flat, K231 (don’t you
love that it has a Köchel number?), which
sets the humble lyric “Leck mich im Arsch”
(in modern parlance, Kiss my arse) and not
to be confused with K233: “Leck mir den
Arsch fein recht schön sauber” (or Lick my
arse nice and clean). Sung in appropriate
three-part harmony it can be rather lovely, as
revealed on Sabine Devieilhe’s recent Mozart
and the Weber Sisters album where it comes
squirreled away as a hidden bonus track.
Of course, not everyone agrees. The
director Sir Peter Hall amusingly relates how
Margaret Thatcher came to see his production
of Amadeus. “In her best headmistress style,
she gave me a severe wigging for putting on a
play that depicted Mozart as a scatological imp
p
with a love of four-letter words,” he writes.
“It was inconceivable, she said, that a man ‘I don’t think you heard what I said’, replied
who wrote such exquisite and elegant music the Prime Minister. I offered (and sent) a
could be so foul-mouthed. I said that Mozart’s copy of Mozart’s letters to Number Ten
letters proved he was just that: he had an the next day but it was useless: the Prime
extraordinarily infantile sense of humour. Minister said I was wrong, so wrong I was.”

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O NAUGHTY BITS

Who really lit
Poulenc’s candle?
I
t’s perhaps unsurprising that a temporal
gulf opens up between Mozart’s bottom-
licking and the resumption of musical
naughtiness in the early 20th century. The
Victorians came to call and the Romantics
had little taste for the bawdy – can you
imagine Schumann or Brahms penning
Lech mich im Arsch? The dirty-minded music
lover had to wait for the permissive era of
post-World War I cabaret. Weimar produced
songs by Spoliansky and Hollaender like Sex
Appeal, Ich bin ein Vamp! and the stripper’s
anthem Zieh dich aus Petronella! (Take It Off,
Petronella!) – even Schoenberg tried his hand
at cabaret songs (the rather fine Brettl-Lieder).
Meanwhile, over in 1923 Paris, Francis
Poulenc was working for Diaghilev on
his ballet Les Biches. Rooting out some
anonymous 17th-century poems from the
National Library, he used three in the ballet,
saving the extras for his Chansons Gaillardes.
Now ‘gaillard’ can mean ‘lively’ or ‘vigorous’,
but it also means ‘ribald’, and that’s definitely
the mood of this scurrilous eight-song set that
has been a concert party favourite of baritones
for nearly a century. Poulenc’s tongue-in-
cheek word settings wrong-foot us so we are
never quite sure we actually heard the singer
say what we thought he did, the composer
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advising against any Frankie Howerd “titter
ye not” glances in performance.
First there is La Maîtresse Volage (The
fickle mistress) where a rival lover claims
“if he has her virginity, she must have had
two.” Then there is Madrigal, where Jeanne
is praised as being “beautiful as an angel”
before being put down with “Mais une fille
sans têtons est une perdrix sans orange”
(A girl without tits is a partridge without
orange). However, perhaps the cheekiest
ditty is L’Offrande (The offering), which
related in its full glory goes thus:
“To the god of Love a virgin offered one day a
candle, thus to gain a lover.
The god smiled at her request and said to her:
‘Fair one while you wait, the offering always has
its uses.’ Ha!” THE ROMANTICS
HAD LITTLE TASTE
Pianist, and French mélodies expert
nonpareil Graham Johnson, excuses it
brilliantly: “A straightforward piece of
FOR BAWDINESS.
music this, apart from the high tessitura for CAN YOU IMAGINE
baritone and the imagining of the scenarios
that might have led to the extended piano EITHER SCHUMANN
postlude and the final surprised ‘Ha!’
One can have all sorts of accidents with a
OR BRAHMS PENNING
candle, especially if already lit.” LECH MICH IM ARSCH?

NAUGHTY BUT NICE PRISTINE RECORDINGS OF THE FILTHIEST KIND

Carmina Burana A fine selection includes Haydn: Early London From his portrait, Szell
Ensemble Unicorn/ some of the more Symphonies may not look like he’ll
Michael Posch sexually risqué. This Cleveland Orchestra/ enjoy a fart joke... but
NAXOS 8554837 ensemble go for it George Szell he does! And the rest of
hammer and tongs SONY 88697489042 (2CD) the CD is great too

A Painted Tale Paul McMahon sings Mozart: Secular Yes, they’re all here!
Paul McMahon, Morley’s “Dildo” ditty. For Canons But be warned, 67
Tommie Andersson a good laugh, check out Chamber Choir of minutes of Mozartian
ABC CLASSICS 4761929 Iestyn Davies’ surtitled Europe/ Nicol Matt toilet humour can be
version on YouTube BRILLIANT 94783 quite a challenge

Purcell in the Ale Ian Partridge leads Poulenc: Songs Butter wouldn’t melt in
House this classy ensemble Volume 1 Christopher Maltman’s
Pro Cantione Antiqua in some of the ruder Singers, Malcolm mouth as he tackles
WARNERS 0927408292 catches of Purcell and Martineau p Poulenc’s sly, saucy
his mucky mates SIGNUM SIGCD247 Chansons Gaillards

50 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

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O STUART SKELTON
HOLDING OUT
FOR A HERO With a role debut in Baden-Baden and a prestigious season opener
looming at the Met, leading Australian Heldentenor Stuart Skelton
discusses the long and winding road leading up to his very first Tristan
I
first saw Tristan and Isolde live in San Francisco with
Donald Runnicles conducting and Elizabeth Connell
singing Isolde. I remember the Tristan – he was loud
and not particularly pretty... but I remember being
completely transfixed by the work, musically.
I’d heard some Wagner by that stage in
my career. I’d been involved with Die
Meistersinger when I was in Sydney – the
second iteration of the Michael Hampe
production back in 1993 – but you can’t
really listen to Meistersinger and understand
where Tristan is going to come from.
Back then I was relatively young and stupid,
so I don’t recall whether I got it in the way that I
get it now. But I got it to the point where I knew that,
at that moment, the world had changed for me.
Tristan was never something that I thought I
would sing, not for a long time. It was so rarefied that
I didn’t want to touch it for fear of spoiling it, if that
makes sense. Sometimes there are things that are so
beautiful and on such a different level from what
As Parsifal for English National Opera
52 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
you have ever experienced before that you feel if
you breathe or move you’ll ruin them. It’s really only
been in the last couple of years that the concept of
“Tristan and I”has started to become a reality.
Even with all the Wagnerian repertoire that I’ve
sung, there’s always been something about
Tristan. From a performer’s point of view
you have to be so much more involved
physically and emotionally. Parsifal is
another one of those operas – time just
stands still.You feel like you inhale when
the first A Flat sounds at the beginning
and you exhale at the end.You’re not aware
of time passing or that you’re breathing in or
out (although obviously you do!).
It was Simone Young who first suggested the role to
me in 2008. I was working with her in Hamburg and
she talked about the idea of doing a Tristan at some
point. The fact that somebody as experienced in that
repertoire as Simone was mentioning it seemed quite
shocking to be honest. I hadn’t put myself in the frame
for that sort of thing, but she obviously heard it. I
suppose that once you get to my age – I’m in my mid
40s – and you’ve got lots of Wagner under your belt,
people inevitably start to pose the question. Whether
they pose it to you or not is a separate issue!
When Simone suggested I consider the role I was
incredibly flattered, but at that point I really didn’t think
that I was ready for it. Maybe the proof of that pudding
is in the fact that eight years on I’m doing it for the first
time. But the more often that people with the experience
of Simone and Simon Rattle and Donald Runnicles
mention it, at some point it does begin to become an
inevitably. I wasn’t aware of exactly when that switch
tripped for me, but at some point the concept of singing
Photo © Robert Workman
Tristan didn’t make me run in the opposite direction.
Looking at the hurdles, I don’t think you can pick any
one part of the opera and say“this is the challenge”,
but with any role that is onstage throughout the entire
piece – in works like Siegfried or Tristan, for example – the
final act is always confronting. Even with something like
Lohengrin, which involves a different kind of singing to
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 STUART SKELTON O

a certain extent, Wagner leaves all the really challenging

stuff for the last 25 minutes of the show – and in those
last 25 minutes you’re going into hour five! For Siegmund
in Walküre that doesn’t count (he’s dead by the end of Act
Two), but for Tristan, Wotan, Brünnhilde – and Isolde, of
course – it’s always that last act that is tough.
I think in the odd quiet moment, even the most ardent
Wagner-phile will admit that the great man occasionally
needed an editor! He didn’t have that fertile Strauss-
Hofmannsthal thing – that constant correspondence
asking each other does this really work? Do we need
this sort of thing? No, he was setting his own text and
by Tristan he is well and truly under the influence of
Schopenhauer. Wagner went through the philosophical
buffet pretty much in order, to be fair, but Tristan is like
Photo © Jeff Busby

a love letter to Schopenhauer. And when Wagner did do

love (in his slightly weird way), he did it balls out! The
Wesendonck Lieder and the sketches for Tristan, they are
all for Matilda Wesendonck – somebody he wasn’t even
married to! Whether he was having an affair or not, who
knows, but given his history it’s more than likely. And
when he went for it, he really went for it heart and soul.
Tristan was an advertisement for everything he believed
in at the time, so there was no way he was ever going to
leave you in any doubt of what he was thinking.
I think when it comes to approaching Wagner’s
philosophical argument, you’ve got to look at the music.
That was the composer’s own approach to the text, and
I think with the real greats – Verdi, Britten, Strauss –
those guys have provided you with a written down
instruction manual to get it right. That doesn’t mean you
need to sing it in a particular way. No, you have to bring
your own instrument to bear on that instruction manual.
Photo © Alan Alabastro
As Siegmund in the Melbourne Ring
TRISTAN IS LIKE A LOVE LETTER TO
SCHOPENHAUER. AND WHEN WAGNER
DID DO LOVE, HE DID IT BALLS OUT!
Every singer will get something different out of the same
set of instructions because of the things that their voice
does better, and the things that it doesn’t.
I can’t sing Peter Grimes like Philip Langridge or
like Anthony Rolfe Johnson used to, for example. They
were spectacular exponents of what they did. I can’t
sing like Vickers either, and he was just as spectacular
in a different way. But each of them was singing to the
same set of instructions and they all managed to be
galvanising and visceral in their way. I apply my voice
to the same manual and hope that the combination
works so I can do the piece as much justice as possible,
and that’s true of everything that I sing. At the end
of the day you serve the composer and you serve his
libretto – the libretto to which he composed the music.
You serve it to the best of your ability. And there’s no
point in serving it to the best of someone else’s ability,
because you’re always going to get that wrong.
I think that the greatest challenge for me with Tristan
will be keeping the lid on that slow burn – keeping
things simmering for as long as possible.You’ve got
to have the nerve physically and emotionally to save
your vocal resources. When he really does blow the
roof off the world, then you’ve got to be ready to sing
that last act like you’re going to retire afterwards – and
then do it the same way 48 hours later! And I guess

that’s the huge, huge challenge.

Stuart Skelton sings Tristan and Isolde with the Berlin

Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle at the Baden-Baden
As Seattle Opera’s Siegmund Festival in April. Australians can watch the concert on
April 4 at 1am AEST. Visit digitalconcerthall.com

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O KATIE NOONAN
TOLD IN
SONG & STORY
Australia’s versatile vocalist, Katie Noonan, has a story to share
– the Australian story – and she’s not afraid to tell it as it is.
Maxim Boon talks to the songstress and her collaborators
T
he humble art song might not
immediately spring to mind
as an important historical
yardstick, but they have
long been insightful cultural
barometers, taking the temperature of
their respective musical and social
climates. Whether it’s the verdant modality
of Vaughan Williams and Britten, the
rugged drama of Schubert and Schumann’s
great Lieder cycles or the sweeping plains
and touching poignancy of Copland and
Barber, the art song has repeatedly shown
an acuity for capturing a moment of
artistic history. Like the laminated layers
of some weathered limestone cliff face,
this tradition of music and poetry offers
a preserved record of the shifting
topography of a particular culture’s ideals,
aspirations and philosophies.
Australia too has a rich vein of art song
to mine, most notably the vocal settings of
Peggy Glanville-Hicks and the folksong
arrangements of Percy Grainger. These
compositions are highly accomplished
works, communicating with a deft skill
an emotional and musical richness. But
arguably, they lack some of the illustrative
potency of other collections that vividly
conjure the atmosphere and landscape of
a specific time and place. Where art song
is concerned, it’s difficult to pinpoint the
archetypal Australian sound.
Now, an ambitious collaboration,
spearheaded by indomitable vocal
chameleon Katie Noonan, hopes to chisel
out a collection of songs from the rust-
54 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
red earth and enterprising spirit of the
land Down Under. Not only will this
new anthology be written by a roll call of
Australia’s most celebrated composers,
but it also aims to bring the craft of the
art song into the 21st century.
A multi award-winning singer and
songwriter herself, Noonan is no stranger
to the high-voltage visceral power that
words and music can deliver. “I have been
interested in Australian poetry for a very
long time,” she tells me. “There are just
so many brilliant, unique writers here
that use the English language in an
incredible and very distinctive way. So,
the love of our Australian poetry has
been there for a long time. It’s always
been a compelling inspiration for me.”
Noonan has called upon the words of one
particular Australian poet for this new cycle
of songs: Judith Wright. Noonan discovered
Wright’s work by chance, after her curiosity
was piqued by a new arts centre named
after the poet in the singer’s home city
of Brisbane. After learning more about
Wright’s extraordinary life, the personal
and cultural resonances that saturate her
writings made her the ideal philosophical
anchor for Noonan’s Australian songbook.
A trailblazer for female equality within
Australia, Judith Wright studied philosophy,
English, psychology and history at the
University of Sydney during the early 1930s
– a period when academic accomplishment
was often discouraged in women. In addition
to her achievements as a scholar and poet,
she was also an ardent environmentalist
and social activist. She was one of the first
campaigners for the conservation of the
Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island, and
also played a significant role as an advocate
for the Aboriginal land rights movement –
a cause she would continue to fight for
up until her death in 2000.
Some years later, in 2009, her legend
would take on a tinge of compelling
scandal, as a 25-year affair with Dr HC
“Nugget” Coombs, the former head of the
Reserve Bank, was revealed in a tell-all
interview she had given before her death.
Far from staining her reputation, this
passionate secret brought an endearingly
relatable air to the otherwise illustrious
poet, revealing an intimate side to one of
Australia’s most fascinating minds.
“She’s a beautiful writer, but her
deep respect for Aboriginal culture is
also so inspiring,” Noonan explains.
“She constantly fought for meaningful
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 KATIE NOONAN O

THESE SONGS TALK

ABOUT THE STARK
BEAUTY AND BRUTAL
EXTREMITIES OF OUR
ENVIRONMENT AND
OUR CITY STREETS

reconciliation between Indigenous and

non-Indigenous Australians, which
remains a very important issue in this
country. She was also such a voice for the
conservation of our environment. So as you
can see, her writings are still so relevant
even posthumously – her words speak of
truths that we all know still exist.”
A catchphrase of Wright’s, which she
used as a personal sign-off in her letters,
immediately leapt out at Noonan as the
ideal title for this collection of Australian
songs. Just like Wright’s bright, bold
personality, it was a phrase laden with
emotive potential and yet crackling with
capricious wit: “With Love and Fury.”
Now that a narrative vista had been
traced out, drawn through the poems of
Judith Wright, Noonan was faced with
the task of finding the composers whose
music could paint a distinctly Australian,
yet creatively varied scene. Fortunately,
with a career that has effortlessly traversed
the world of classical, pop and jazz music,
Noonan didn't have to look too far in order
to cherry-pick a roster of collaborators that pot of musical styles could hardly be a more social issues on our city streets, but they
reads like a who’s who of Aussie new music. apt reflection of the unity in diversity at the also deal with everyday things, that as
As Noonan simply explains, “I just picked heart of modern Australian life. Australians are so familiar – our home lives
the people whose music I love the most.” Each composer was given a free-hand to and the things that makes us happy, like
These nine composers – Paul Dean, choose whichever Wright poem touched memories of the beach,” she observes.
Andrew Ford, Elena Kats-Chernin, Carl them the most, and with only a little Some say a song does not truly exist
Vine, Iain Grandage, Richard Tognetti, guidance from Noonan, the final collection until it is heard, and Noonan has recruited
David Hirschfelder, Paul Grabowsky for With Love and Fury offers a frank yet fair four of the world’s most experienced
and John Rodgers – are all aesthetically microcosm of Australian society, warts chamber musicians to help her bring this
remote from each other and hail from and all. “These songs talk about the stark new collection of songs to the eager ears
different corners of the country. But such a beauty and brutal extremities of our of the Australian public: the Brodsky
cosmopolitan yet culturally distinct melting environment, and the sometimes harrowing Quartet from Great Britain. Having first

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 55

O KATIE NOONAN
RICHARD TOGNETTI
It didn’t take me long to find one of
Judith’s poems that grabbed me. It’s
this extraordinarily graphic but very
well-observed portrait of a metho
drinker. You don’t see many on the
streets these days, but the figure in
this poem could be representative of
anyone who is locked in the tragedy
of addiction. I remember as a kid
looking at these guys, drinking these
bottles of metho, and it was just
horrible – heartbreaking actually. It’s
stayed with me for a very long time.
There’s something very profound
about the way the Wright poem
places this person as if we’re looking
at him from afar. We’re watching,
but unable to do anything, and this
somehow makes it all the more
powerful. It is, of course, evoking
an Australian scene, but with a very
specific nuance. It starts with the line,
“Under the death of winter’s leaves he
lies...” and that extraordinary image
immediately got to me. It very vividly
conjures up feelings that I remember
from seeing the metho drinkers as a
child – a kind of deep sadness.
The structure of this particular
poem is really extraordinary and
unfortunately when you set a text
to music you lose some of the
ingenuity of its written aspect. But
you can of course still feel the words
and their meaning. You can feel the
pain and anguish of this devastating
but familiar story,
as well as feeling
something for
this person, even
though we have
no idea who he is.
With Love and Fury
Katie Noonan, The
Brodsky Quartet
UNIVERSAL MUSIC 4784979
56 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
encountered the quartet on one of their
previous tours to Australia, Noonan has
been searching for the right opportunity
to work with the Brodskys for the past
two years. The quartet’s viola player,
Paul Cassidy, says the With Love and
Fury project taps into a passion that is
particularly close to the quartet’s heart.
“Since way back in the 1980s we’ve been
very keen to build the repertoire for string
quartet and voice because we feel it's a
combination that’s made in heaven and it’s
massively underused,” he explains. “But,
the attraction of this collaboration is also
very much to do with Katie’s voice and her
stature as a musician. She has the most
impeccable intonation, a gorgeous sound,
and she’s able to use her voice almost like
an instrument, in some astonishingly
virtuosic ways.” The Brodsky Quartet
may not be true-blue Aussies, but they
share a close affinity with Antipodeans.
“We owe a lot to Australia. We’ve been
coming here for 20 years or more and we
adore the country and people,” Cassidy
says. “Peter Sculthorpe was one of our
closest collaborators. Iain Grandage and
Andy Ford have both written quartets for
us in the past. So we have many friends
and colleagues in Australia.”
The Brodsky String Quartet and
Noonan will premiere With Love and Fury
I THINK AUSTRALIA
in Brisbane, before taking the song cycle SHOULD BE PROUD OF
THIS AMAZING CROP
on a national tour, visiting seven other
major Australian cities. For a programme
of almost entirely new repertoire (it will
also feature works by Icelandic songstress
OF COMPOSERS. THE
Björk and Elvis Costello), it’s a bold debut, LEVEL OF MUSIC ON
but Cassidy believes the combination of
Noonan’s charismatic talent, coupled with DISPLAY IS FIRST RATE
the range of musical ingenuity on offer,
will leave audiences wanting more. “I think
Australia should be proud of this amazing singing, and its power to unite people
crop of composers. The level of music and across social barriers, at the heart of her
the imagination that’s on display is simply first programme in 2017. “I’m very proud
first rate,” Cassidy notes. “People are going of the music we make here, which is
to walk out of these performances having absolutely world class, without a doubt,”
experienced something amazing.” Noonan says. “It’s from that wealth of
With such ripe fruit feeding this music, talent that we’ve created this unique
in the form of Judith Wright’s poems, the Australian songbook, and I want anyone
level of creative chutzpah from each of to be able to sing them. Once you release
the composers involved has tapped into music into the world, I really believe it
a lexicon of styles and techniques that should become anyone's, in any way
are tailored to Noonan’s uniquely nimble they choose – whether that’s listening or
voice. However, making these Australian performing or even reimagining it. Where
stories, communicated through song, music is concerned, I say all for one.”
accessible to other singers is also front
of mind. Recently announced as the new With Love and Fury premieres at QPAC on
Artistic Director of the Queensland Music April 28 and tours Australia until May 5.
Festival, Noonan is placing community The CD is out now on Universal Music
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 ELENA KATS-CHERNIN
I have written for Katie’s voice before, but every time I get
Richard Strauss
to write for this incredible instrument I just marvel at her
range and this honeyed, nuanced tone she has. It’s a voice
that has so many beautiful, ethereal qualities, and it’s also
very supple – it just moves with such ease between notes,
A R I A DNE
completely pitch-perfect of course, and her high notes are
to die for! I have also previously set the poetry of Judith
Wright, and these texts are wonderful for a composer to
AUF NA XOS
work with. They are words that are so vivid and evocative;
they offer an invitation to create music.
I didn’t grow up in Australia, but I know what an Sat 2 & Thu 7 April, 7.30 pm
intrinsic part of Australian culture her poems are, so I had
to get to know Judith through her incredible writings. It’s
Sun 10 April, 4 pm
been like getting to know a friend I’ve never met. I love
the economy of her words, how delicate and considered Hawthorn Arts Centre
her choices are. She creates this
t rich, vibrant environment
in her poems, but her words are also very singable.
360 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn VIC 3122
Having the chance to reacquaint myself
Tickets: www.hawthornartscentre.com.au
with Judith Wright’s work has been an
incredibly emotional and inspiring phone (03) 9278 4770
thing, and as a composer, the most
important thing to me is to be e
inspired. If something manage es
that, I am forever grateful, and
d in
this case, I’ve been inspired by
y
two amazing women: Judith
Wright and Katie Noonan.
What more can you want?

www.limelightmagazine.com.au www.citiopera.com.au
O KING CHARLES III
CHARLES III
THE MAKING OF A MONARCH
Over a 50-year career he’s played Hamlet, Mahler, even Jesus of Nazareth, and now he’s taking
on the Prince of Wales. Clive Paget talks to Robert Powell, the man who would be King Charles III
It has been described as “Shakespearean”,
but what are the most obvious parallels
between Shakespeare’s History Cycle and
Mike Bartlett’s play King Charles III?
I always get nervous about stressing that.
I have a worry that people are put off the
moment you say the word“Shakespeare”or
mention blank verse, but audiences are a bit
like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh – they don’t
know what they like until they taste it. Having
said that, there are elements of Hamlet
at the beginning of the play, when
you have a prince who is about
to be king and who doesn’t
really relish the idea. He’s
quite nervous about it and a bit
tentative, because he’s waited
all his life.Then, throughout
the play you have elements of
Macbeth. I can’t say too much as I
don’t want to give the plot away, but
there is one quite famous Royal character
who has a touch of the Lady Macbeth about
her. And because it’s a play about fathers and
sons and betrayal, when his children turn their
backs on him at the end you have King Lear.
In many ways, it’s a very poignant play.
So in the play, does Charles come across as
ruthless, or bold, or foolish?
He is who he is. I know Charles – not terribly
well, but our paths have crossed on more than
one occasion and we’ve had conversations.
He is an extraordinary man. He’s a man who
is built by his conscience and being true to
himself is what governs his life. This is his
problem in the play, because he decides to
take a particular action, with a particular
law that he is supposed to sign for the
58 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
government, and he declines to sign it. He
asks the government to have another think.
The government, being stubborn, refuses to
do so, which leads to a constitutional crisis.
He’s not ruthless at all. He’s a man who is
swept away by events, but is driven by his
conscience. And he’s certainly not a villain.
Who are his antagonists in the play? Who
are his greatest threats?
First of all it’s the politicos.There’s
a Prime Minister who is very
stubborn, and there’s a duplicitous
leader of the opposition who
pretends to be on Charles’s side
and then betrays him.The bill
that Charles declines to pass is
the very one you think he would
be happy with because it’s a bill
to restrict the freedom of the press.
Although they do many outrageous
things, there has been an outcry in the UK
about trying to restrict the freedom of the
press. But the moment you do that it means
the government has nobody to hold it to
account. We have a very low corruption rate in
the UK because the press hold us to account.
Charles sees this law that the government is
trying to pass as a terrible avenue to go down
so he refuses to sign it and then finds himself
struggling alone with this. He thinks he has
the backing of his children, but eventually that
proves not to be the case.
Have you been called upon to embrace
any Charles mannerisms, or do the voice?
Whenever an actor impersonates a living
person the audience gets more involved in
judging the impersonation than they do with
the character. So I don’t impersonate Charles.
But having said that, I wear his signet ring, and
I play with it under stress. So there are certain
of his mannerisms and little tics that I adopt.
But that’s just to remind the audience that I am
playing him even though I don’t look like him.
I’ve not spoken to you before, but I have to
admit that you do sound a bit like him...
[Laughs] Well I can. [Sounding increasingly
like Prince Charles] When he’s speaking,
when he gets slightly over-excited, Charles
has a tendency to stress certain words, which
don’t really need stressing. So every now and
again I will stress something. It just makes the
audience think,“Oh, yeah, it is Charles!”
Do you know if any of the Royal Family
have ever seen the play?
Oh God [laughs]. I should think it’s incredibly
unlikely. It wouldn’t be possible, no matter
what their disguise. If Charles or Camilla
were in the audience, I think everyone would
look at them instead of watching the stage.
If Prince Charles were to see the play, how
do you think he’d find it?
I think it’s a very warm and generous play
about him. But Charles would probably see
weaknesses that he thinks he probably doesn’t
have, and that’s all he would see. I don’t think
he would see the good things. No, I don’t
know whether he’d like it or not.
You’ve had an incredibly diverse, long and
fruitful career, how did you get started?
I was reading a Law degree in Manchester,
but I was also doing a huge amount of
drama as an amateur and as a student. While
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 KING CHARLES III O

PEOPLE ARE PUT

OFF THE MOMENT
YOU MENTION BLANK
VERSE, BUT AUDIENCES
ARE A BIT LIKE TIGGER
IN WINNIE THE POOH
– THEY DON’T KNOW
WHAT THEY LIKE UNTIL
THEY TASTE IT.

I was doing a play at university, the head of

the drama department came to see it and
invited me to switch courses and do a drama
degree with him. So I said yes. I didn’t
know at the time, but I wasn’t qualified
to do drama because I didn’t have certain
English A-levels and O-levels – I had Latin,
Greek and Ancient History. I was a Platonist.
In the end I wound up with nothing and
needed to get a job. One day I wandered
into the drama department and my lecturer
suggested I write to this particular little
company. I got a job and I stayed there and
that was it. I became an actor.

You’ve played roles that people might

consider pretty career defining – Jesus of
Nazareth, which was huge, and roles like
Mahler in the Ken Russell film. How have
you managed to have such a diverse career?
It’s largely because I work to entertain
myself. I sometimes make a choice just for
Photo © Hubert Smith

the novelty. And sometimes I have made very

bad choices – I’ll freely admit that. When I
was a lot younger, if somebody asked me
to go off and do Ibsen in a small town in
Northern England, or go off to Venezuela to
do a silly thriller, I’d go off to Venezuela – just
because it was more fun. So certain career
choices were not great, but having said that
I’ve managed to spread myself around and
do lots of different things. I very much enjoy
comedy as well. I think that is my métier.
Is there anything still on your bucket list?
[Laughs] Well, I played King Lear when I
was 18 at school, so I don’t really want to
do that again. I’ve always rather fancied
Prospero in The Tempest. I like Prospero
because it’s a wonderfully mental part. I’ve
always wanted to do Uncle Vanya as well.
You’ve played Jesus, Hamlet and Mahler.
Which of those larger-than-life characters
is closest to King Charles III in this play?
[Laughs] Oh gosh! Hamlet, probably. Hamlet,
prevaricating. An intellectual who is never
quite sure of himself, who’s lacking a certain
confidence. I think Hamlet would be the
closest. But I can’t wait to put this in front of an
Australian audience to see what they think. I
thought that at the end of the play audiences
would be behind William and Catherine, but
it’s exactly the opposite! The audience are with
Charles at the end, almost to a man.
Robert Powell stars in King Charles III for
Sydney Theatre Company at the Roslyn
Packer Theatre from March 31-April 30

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 59

O COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

history

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

Orff
Striving for success in Nazi Germany, Carl Orff led a life of
grim deceit. But, says director Tony Palmer who has documented
that life on film, let’s not sell him short as a composer

Lived 1895 – 1982

MOstly in MUNICH
BEST KNOWN FOR CARMINA
BURANA, HIS SYSTEM OF MUSIC
EDUCATION: ORFF-SCHULWERK
SIMILAR TO STRAVINSKY, PROKOFIEV

C
arl Orff is among the most
misunderstood and thereby
underestimated composers of the
last century – which is odd when you
consider that one work, Carmina Burana,
is among the most popular pieces of
music ever written. There is at least one
performance of it somewhere in the world
every single day of the year, and that has
been going on for the last 30 years. And
with over 300 different recordings extant in
the catalogue today, it easily outranks even
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
So, why misunderstood? Was he really
a member of the Nazi Party as is often
assumed? No, but there is little doubt that
in 1943/4 he was positioning himself to
take over as Reichsminister for Music come
the Final Victory. He was a close friend of
the Gauleiter for Vienna, and previously of
Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach, later a
convicted War Criminal. And when all the
other major composers of the Third Reich,
including Richard Strauss, had refused to
“rewrite” A Midsummer Night’s Dream by
the Jew Mendelssohn, Orff accepted. After
the war, while he maintained that the

60 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


Orff’s music was used in the opening of the 1936 Olympic Games
Nazi Party had “hated” Carmina Burana,
this was untrue. After its premiere at the
Frankfurt Opera in June 1937, Goebbels
declared it to be the standard by which all
German Music should be judged, and it
became the most performed piece of
‘new music’ in Nazi Germany.
Music critics outside Germany were
CARMINA BECAME
THE MOST PERFORMED
PIECE OF ‘NEW MUSIC’
IN NAZI GERMANY
huffy at the time, and remain so. “A
rhythmic simpleton”, “harmonically
retrogressive”, “a primitive celebration of
drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust”
– these are among the more generous of
criticisms. But the music has been used in
countless commercials – Old Spice, Carling
Black Label and Nestlé among the more
famous – used to introduce The X Factor on
TV, and even rearranged by Ray Manzarek
of The Doors and by Philip Glass.
Curiously, Orff’s 70th birthday
celebrations in Munich were led by
Wieland Wagner, grandson of the
composer, who pointed out Orff’s
affiliations with Stravinsky – not just
the emphasis on rhythm but also
the shimmering orchestration – and
Monteverdi. Orff can reasonably claim
to have been among the first in the
20th century to realise Monteverdi’s
importance; his earliest major work in the
early 1920s was a reworking of Orfeo.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Carl Orff at the piano, 1938
Which brings me to ‘underestimated’.
The range of orchestral colours that Orff
conjures up is astonishing, often with
tiny resources, in this sense much like
Britten in his chamber operas. Because of
the gargantuan performances of Carmina
Burana with colossal choirs and orchestras
thumping out the simple rhythms
regardless of the fact that they are far
from four-square, we assume the music is
bombast with a few melodies.
Orff wrote 18 major works for the stage,
many of which employ instruments he had
discovered on his travels such as tuned
wooden xylophones, marimbas, bells of
all descriptions and gongs. And I have
never heard the harp sound so demonic,
so demented, not even in Britten, one of
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH O
HIS STYLE...
O Style
Orff was among the first composers
to ‘discover’ Monteverdi in the 20th
century. His minimalist orchestration
influenced Orff immensely – as did
the rhythmic drive and intensity of
Stravinsky. Never drawn to the Second
Viennese School of Berg and Webern,
of whom he was a near contemporary,
he nonetheless was as subtle in his use
of modality as they were.
O Melody
His music is distinguished by an
endless flow of melody which, although
seemingly based on traditional melodies,
is not. In his Schulwerk (Schoolwork),
he is the perfect exemplar of Britten’s
dictum that the composer should not
just write for posterity but should be
useful to the community today.
O Structure
His works for the theatre owed little
to the traditional view of opera. They
involved puppets, gods, naked women,
ancient myths, metaphor and sex.
Sound familiar? See Wagner and even
Birtwistle. The latter’s operas owe an
enormous amount to Orff, even if
Birtwistle himself would perhaps be
the last to acknowledge it.
O Orchestration
Orff employs every known tuned
bell, gong, wooden xylophone, drum,
celesta, vibraphone, marimba, metal
xylophone, cymbal, harp... as well as
pianos of all shapes and sizes. Strings
and woodwind are used very sparingly,
if at all. In many works, the instruments
are usually employed in small ensembles.
The versions of Carmina Burana using
hundreds of singers plus a massive
orchestra, although sanctioned by him,
sound vulgar by comparison.
the great composers for the harp. Nor the
celesta and piccolo used to such nightmarish
effect, reminiscent here of Shostakovich.
One is not surprised that Glass was drawn
to Orff. Orff was the ultimate minimalist
before anyone thought of inventing it.
None of this would fire the imagination
were it not for another aspect, infinitely
more complex and ultimately tragic, of the
man and his music. Imagine: he is struggling
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 61
O COMPOSER OF THE MONTH
Draft for the set of Die Kluge in Munich, 1948
RECOMMENDED DISCS...
Trionfi
Cologne Radio Symphony
Orchestra & Choir, Tölzer
Children’s Choir/Leitner
ACANTA 233584 (3CD)
The full Orff: a decent Carmina Burana plus
the underrated sequel Catulli Carmina, and
the final part Trionfo di Afrodite, all recorded
with the composer’s seal of approval.
Der Mond · Die Kluge
Schwarzkopf, Hotter,
Philharmonia Orchestra/
Sawallisch
WARNER CLASSICS
5099968763824 (2CD)
Orff’s pair of brilliant, witty one-act
fairy-tale operas in classic readings
with all-star casts.
Antigone
Inge Borkh, Gerhard Stolze,
Bavarian Radio Orchestra/
Ferdinand Leitner
DG 4777096 (3CD)
A searing operatic setting of Sophocles’
original text with Inge Borkh peerless in
the demanding title role.
Orpheus
Munich Rundfunkorchester/
Ulf Schirmer
CPO CPO7776562
Not the full Monteverdi, but grander. Orff’s
inimitable stylistic fingerprints are all over
an arranged masterpiece of the past.
62 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
A 1970s puppet production of Der Mond
to survive in a regime, which he thought
intellectually inferior. Like all his fellow
musicians, he was compelled to complete a
CV to prove that he was of the purest Aryan
stock. This he did, but somehow he ‘forgot’
to mention that his grandparents were
Jewish. So from the start he was living a lie.
To make a living, he devised a system of
teaching music to children called Schulwerk
(Schoolwork), and hoped that through his
friend Baldur von Schirach he would be able
to sell it to the Hitler Youth. Fortunately, as
it turned out, the Hitler Youth didn’t care
for it much, and when it came to the de-
Nazification process at the end of the war,
that probably saved his neck.
Because, come 1945, Orff was arrested
and interrogated. By an extraordinary
chance, he was interviewed by a US
Intelligence Officer who happened to be
a music student and therefore obviously
knew who Orff was. Orff was specifically
asked to provide evidence that, contrary
to all that was known about his apparent
collaboration, including receiving an annual
stipend from the Nazi Party, he had been
‘active’ against the regime. “Ah yes,” said
Orff, he had co-founded the White Rose
Resistance Movement, ‘active’ in Munich in
1942/3 until its ringleaders were arrested,
tortured by the Gestapo and hanged or
publicly beheaded. Satisfied, the Intelligence
Officer gave Orff a clean bill of health.
It was another lie. The White Rose
Resistance Movement largely comprised
students at Munich University, mostly in the
class of Kurt Huber, the professor of music
and psychology and one of Orff’s closest
friends. He was the scholar who had brought
the medieval texts of Carmina Burana to
Orff’s attention and had actually worked on
their translation into contemporary Latin
to tone down the explicit sexual references
in the original. Following Huber’s arrest
by the Gestapo, his wife, knowing of Orff’s
friendship with von Schirach and other Nazi
hierarchy, pleaded with him to intercede.
Not only did he refuse, thus condemning
his best friend to certain execution; not only
did he refuse to help Huber’s widow, now
destitute, thereafter; but later he even wrote
ORFF’S POST-WAR
WORKS ARE
CONSUMED BY THE
FEELING OF GUILT
to Huber asking for forgiveness... except
that Huber was by now dead.
I found Huber’s widow shortly before
she died; for her, these horrors that had
happened 60 years ago were still fresh
in the memory. It’s little wonder that
Orff’s post-war works – Antigone, Oedipus
der Tyrann, Prometheus – are consumed
by feelings of guilt where the various
protagonists protest against ‘punishment’.
Most telling of all is Comedy for the End of
Time in which the Narrator pleads not that
his sins be forgotten, but forgiven.
Yet it is arguable that Orff’s enduring
legacy is the system, the method, he devised
for teaching music to children: Schulwerk. I
saw it at first hand in South Africa, where
it was used to bind the wounds left by
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 COMPOSER OF THE MONTH O

apartheid, in China and Taiwan where it is an
essential educational tool in making children
aware that we must have a care for the planet,
in Japan where it is being used to preserve
ancient traditions of music-making, and most
extraordinary of all at a school in Nottingham
where it is used to help children with cerebral
Photo © N Klinger
palsy. As one of the teachers in Nottingham
says, “without the Orff method these children
would have little hope of becoming fully
realised human beings. With Orff’s help,
they have just a chance.” In view of Orff’s
behaviour and the lies he had told throughout
his life, it is hard to imagine a greater irony.
His only child, Godela, had a terrible story
to tell. “He did not really love people,” she
told me. “If anything, he despised people,
unless they could be useful to him,” – a view
confirmed by at least one of his three (of
four) surviving wives. His third wife, Luise,
meanwhile, described the many nights when
she had been awoken by him screaming and
screaming. After she had calmed him down,
she asked what was it that had so disturbed
him? “I have seen the Devil,” he said. And
this is a woman who herself had faced a
Nazi firing squad and lived to describe it.
But there, in Orff’s first major work for the
stage, is the clue to everything that followed.
Der Mond (The Moon) tells of a group of
ruffians who attempt to rule the world
by stealing the moon and its light, thus
plunging the world into darkness in which
they can pilfer and rape as they please.
The reference to the Nazis and all their
barbarism is unmistakable. I believe that just
as Shostakovich is the most eloquent witness

we have of Stalin’s nightmare, so is Orff a

witness to Hitler’s Germany and the Nazis,
in that they too had ‘stolen the light’... and
Der Mond at the Staatstheater Kassel in 2015 it is a million miles from what we usually
think of when we hear Carmina Burana. O

The Song Company presents

Concert Two

In Tempore Paschali
The sublime sounds of Monteverdi’s Missa In illo tempore
interleaved with ethereal motets by William Byrd, Alice
Chance, Nicolas Gombert, Elliott Gyger, William Mundy,
and The Song Company’s Artistic Director, Antony Pitts.

St Mary’s Crypt, Wollongong Independent Theatre Booking informat

Sydney ART Gallery North Sydney www.songcompan
30 March 3 April 10 April phone (02) 8272 9
Wednesday, 7.30pm Sunday, 3pm Sunday, 3pm mail@songcompan
Blackheath Berry Uniting Melbourne Melbourne Bookin
Uniting Church Church Recital Centre www.melbou
2 April (03) 9699 3333
7 April 5 April
Saturday, 3pm Thursday, 7pm Tuesday 6pm

The Song Company Pty Ltd is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, #songco16
its arts funding and advisory body, and the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
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64 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 SUBSCRIPTIONS O

ALEXANDER BRIGER

WHY I SUBSCRIBE TO

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APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 65

O MUSICAL JOURNEY
Budapest
With a world-class orchestra, luxurious thermal baths and the rich
aromas of spice and coffee, Budapest is not just a musical mecca but
a tantalising stimulant for all the senses. Elizabeth Hayllar explains why
T
here are many reasons to travel to
exotic Budapest with its fusion of
eastern and western cultures and its
grand old-world city divided in two by the
mighty Danube. For me, a visit to this alluring
city is an opportunity for a sumptuous
experience, in which all five senses are
stimulated and satisfied. It is replete with
rich musical possibilities to appeal to the
sense of hearing, and people have been
coming to this area since before Roman
for the luxury of immersion in the famous
thermal baths. Taste and smell are excited
by the spice-laden food and the aromatic
coffee, and the sense of sight is thrilled by
near and far views of this ancient metropolis
with its remarkable architecture and the great
Danube flowing through its heart.
Music first. There are numerous
orchestras to be found in Budapest, such
as the Hungarian National Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Budapest Philharmonic
and the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra
Budapest, but, in my view, the chance to
attend a performance by the exceptional
Budapest Festival Orchestra should be a
top priority for any music lover visiting
this fascinating European city.
The orchestra’s key figure is Music
Director, Iván Fischer, who, with Zoltán
Kocsis, founded the orchestra when Fischer
was only 32. In an interview, Fischer told the
UK’s Ivan Hewett that he wanted to create his
own orchestra with players “who were willing
66 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
travel
to be creative, to listen hard as well as to play,
so they could contribute to the whole, and it
was amazing how quickly I found them.” It is
remarkable that within 30 years the Budapest
Festival Orchestra has come from nowhere to
being ranked by Gramophone as one of the
top 10 orchestras in the world.
As well as its evening concert series there
is a midnight series where tickets are
issued for chairs, pillows and bean
bags and the audience are invited to
sit anywhere – including in the middle of
the orchestra! It also performs in Music
Marathons, which present the works of
a single composer throughout a whole
day during which audience members can
come and go as they please. I once had the
privilege of sitting in an orchestral rehearsal
and seeing Fischer mix up the players’
seating order. And for a performance of
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, he even
decided that a tree should be placed
onstage so that the audience would not forget
the symphony was composed to express the
feeling of being in the countryside. The result
of Fischer’s innovations for me has been
that when I hear the orchestra perform,
even if it is a piece I have heard many times,
I always hear it in a new light.
Any experience of Budapest would not be
complete without delving into the city’s rich
culture, staggering history and, of course,
the thermal baths. The Romans occupied
the Celtic settlement of Aquincum on the
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 MUSICAL JOURNEY O

TRAVEL INFO
Average Temperatures:
Winter: -1°C – Summer: 21°C
Currency: Hungarian Forint (AU$ 1=HF 200)
BUDAPEST Best time to visit: Although the city itself is
beautiful, winters in Hungary can be wet and
cold. If you want to cath the Bridging Europe
HUNGARY
Festival, try a September visit

Tourist Information
budapest.com

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 67

O MUSICAL JOURNEY
Budapest's Széchenyi Baths
banks of the Danube at the beginning of the
Christian era. Defence of the Empire’s border
was obviously an important reason for the
settlement, but one cannot help believing
that the hedonistic, hot water-loving
Romans settled here because of the thermal
baths, over 100 of which still exist within
the city boundaries. Travellers can soak in
baths existing from the Ottoman period,
in the beautiful Art Nouveau Gellért Baths
complex, or at Széchenyi Baths, only opened
at the end of the 19th century and the most
visited and praised attraction in Budapest
with its 18 pools of natural hot springs.
This sensual experience includes enjoying
a medicinal dip, soaking in water of various
temperatures, and participating in other
luxuries, such as steam rooms and massages.
A wonderful stimulant to taste and smell
is Hungarian cuisine with its spicy dishes
and rich stews, soups and sauces. The 150
years of Turkish rule contributed to this
delicious fusion by introducing, among other
foods and flavours, paprika, which replaced
pepper and became a symbol of Hungarian
gastronomy. And the coffee here is some
of the best in the world! From around the
1910s to the 1930s, the thriving Budapest
coffee culture was evident from the 500
coffee houses in the city and in the clusters
of literati and artists who gathered for coffee
and stimulating conversation. The turbulent
years of the two world wars and the
subsequent communist regime destroyed
the coffee houses and the relaxed intellectual
gatherings; however, the beautiful cafés and
the delicious coffee have now been restored
and the lively coffee scene has enjoyed a
renaissance. The title of one Budapest café,
My Little Melbourne, in Madách Tér, suggests
68 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
that Hungarians share Australia's obsession
with the perfect cup of coffee.
If the food and coffee aren’t enough,
Budapest is also a feast for the eyes.
Beautifully situated where the Danube
enters the plain, hilly Buda was established
on the right bank and low-lying Pest on
the left. This attractive setting, combined
with the architectural remnants of many
occupations and civilisations, has created
a rich mélange of sights. Buda Castle
and its palace complex – a fascinating
potpourri of history and architecture from
the Medieval to the Baroque – dominates
the city skyline. From the Palace there are
panoramic views over the meandering
Danube with its many bridges, while
beyond the river impressive buildings,
church cupolas and various steeples
stretch across the Pest plain towards the
line of low, blue hills in the distance.
Iván Fischer
The vast, ornate 100-year-old parliament
building, one of the iconic views in Budapest,
appears to float on the river, but in reality
stretches 268 metres along its embankment.
Not only ornamented with white Neo-
Gothic turrets and arches, it also has
HUNGARIANS SHARE
AUSTRALIA'S OBSESSION
WITH THE PERFECT
CUP OF COFFEE
Renaissance and Baroque flourishes. Stylish
Andrássy Avenue, adorned with elegant
buildings, including the Neo-Renaissance
Hungarian State Opera House, connects
City Park to the city centre. As if there
weren't already enough colour, shape and
style here, portions of the city’s landscape
were designed at the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th century when Art
Nouveau was prominent. Exploration of
the main Art Nouveau quarters, which go
beyond mere architecture to reveal intense
colours and organic design in Art Nouveau
painting, furniture and interior design,
presents even more stimulating sights.
Budapest is a gift for all the senses,
but in my view, for the best experience of
them all, open your ears, eyes and mind
by attending a performance of the superb
Budapest Festival Orchestra with its
extraordinary Music Director, Iván Fischer.
Elizabeth Hayllar, Founder and Director of
Hayllar Music Tours, is a frequent traveller
to Budapest. She has arranged international
tours for the Budapest Festival Orchestra
Bridging Europe
"By pledging to belong to the family of
Europeans, we decided to become members
of a community. This is not a group of selfish
countries bickering and wrangling amongst
one another, but a family of Nations that
love and respect each other. And we need to
make good on our promises." – Iván Fischer
Every September, the Budapest Festival
Orchestra and Müpa Budapest present
Photo © Marco Borggreve
Bridging Europe. The festival is held in
the Hungarian capital and highlights a
different European nation each year by
presenting a sample of its classical, jazz
and popular music, its film and literature,
and a taste of its local cuisine.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 A World of Travel
Australia’s finest collection of cultural and special interest tours

Savonlinna and
St Petersburg
OPERA AND MUSIC UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
with Rosamund Bartlett | 11–21 July 2016 (11 days)
Olavinlinna Castle

During the magical season of northern Europe’s

‘white nights’ enjoy the highlights of Finland’s
Savonlinna Opera Festival, followed by a week at the
Stars of the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg.

OPERA t BALLET t MUSIC t ART t CRUISES t GARDENS

WASO AND THE BEIJING

ISLANDS OF HESPERIA
CORSICA AND SARDINIA
with Christopher Allen
24 September – 08 October 2016 (15 days)
Discover an enchanting but unfamiliar
corner of the Mediterranean, rich in
ancient and modern history, spectacular
scenery, French savoir-faire and
Italian charm.
Image: Ajaccio, Corsica © JeanbaptisteM/Flickr
GARDENS OF SOUTH AFRICA
GARDENS, LANDSCAPES, WILDLIFE
AND WINE
01–17 October 2016 (17 days)
Flanked by the Atlantic Ocean on the
west and the Indian Ocean on the east,
South Africa is rich in indigenous flora,
exceptional gardens, stunning natural
landscapes, amazing wildlife and vibrant,
diverse cultures.
Image: Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden
MUSIC FESTIVAL
PLUS AUTUMN HIGHLIGHTS OF CHINA
with Damien Beaumont
07–14 October 2016 (8 days)
One of the highlights of the Chinese cultural
calendar is the Beijing Music Festival, held
annually in October. Under the baton of
Principal Conductor Asher Fisch, the West
Australian Symphony Orchestra has been
invited to be part of the 2016 festival.
Image: Asher Fisch conducts the West Australian
Symphony Orchestra, photo Emma Van Dordrecht

For detailed information visit renaissancetours.com.au, call 1300 727 095 or contact your travel agent.
 Apr 1-6 Apr 8-13 Apr 2 2-2 7
THE ROYAL BALLET: Tchaikovsky ’s OPÉRA DE PARIS: Verdi’s THE ROYAL OPERA : M us s o rgs ky ’s
T HE NU T R AC K ER IL T ROVATOR E BOR IS GODUNOV
Fra n c e s c a H ay w a rd / L au re n C u t h b e r t s o n Anna Netrebko/Marcelo Álvarez/Ludovic Tézier Bryn Terfel/John Graham-Hall/John Tomlinson
Cond uctor: Boris Gruzin Cond uctor: Daniele Callegari Cond uctor: Antonio Pappano
Captured live from Royal Opera House, London Captured live from Opéra Bastille, Paris Captured live from Royal Opera House, London
 REVIEWS O

Reviews
A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE LATEST RELEASES AND EVENTS

CONTENTS
72 RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Karina Gauvin keeps three balls in the air as
she looks for love in Handel’s Partenope

73 THE LIMELIGHT CHART

Australia’s top 20 classical music albums this
month according to our specialist retailers

74 ORCHESTRAL
Claudio Abbado’s final hurrah in Berlin
shines new light on a couple of old masters

78 CHAMBER
Three elite Wanderers eschew a boofy old
Shiraz to offer a lighter Brahms à la Cab Sav

80 INSTRUMENTAL
A sensitive French virtuoso reveals every
colour in Maurice Ravel’s musical palette
93
82 VOCAL & CHORAL
Adelaide’s premier vocal ensemble produces
a fine vintage for their 30th year pressing

84 OPERA
Nicole Car’s dazzling operatic debut disc
hits all the right buttons and then some

86 REISSUES ROUND-UP
A boxful of the late Sir David Willcocks
presents the sound of King’s, fit for kings

88 LIVE PERFORMANCES
Car wows as Luisa Miller; De la Parra resurrects
the QSO; Sydney gets two Scheherazades

90 DANCE
Rafael Bonachela sheds light on his new Lux
Tenebris; Classical Kathak comes to Perth

94 88 92 THEATRE
Kip Williams visits Miss Julie in Melbourne;
How full of horrors is the new little shop?
LIMELIGHT REVIEWERS USE SENNHEISER PRODUCTS
94 FILM
Tilda makes a bigger splash; New films focus
on Himalayan Sherpas and Icelandic rams

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 71

O REVIEWS
Recording of the month
CLASSICAL QUEEN OF THE JUGGLERS
Riccardo Minasi helps Karina Gauvin keep three balls in the air as she looks for love
Handel
Partenope
Karina Gauvin s, Philippe Jaroussky
ct, Il Pomo d’Oro/Riccardo Minasi
ERATO 25646090075 (3CD)
★★★★
Handel’s Partenope is one of those
inexplicable rarities. A tuneful, light
romance, it has everything that one
could want from a Baroque opera
– love, intrigue, cross-dressing...
Back in Handel’s time, however,
the opera claque had it in for the
piece. “Senesino put me in a sweat
in telling me that Parthenope was
Il Pomo d’Oro
72 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
likely to be on the stage, for it is
the very worst book (excepting
one) that I ever read in my whole
life,” sniped the rival Academy’s
purse-lipped Italian agent Owen
Swiny. Poppycock, said Edward
J Dent who described it in 1959
as “perhaps the best libretto that
Handel had ever set,”likening it to
Shakespeare no less.
As always, the truth lies
somewhere in-between. A tale of
love, jealousy and betrayal, the plot
revolves around the un-historical
titular Queen of what would
become Naples and her three
suitors. Arsace, Prince of Corinth
is the front runner, but when
Rosmira, his former betrothed
arrives disguised as a knight, it
throws the field wide open. Arsace
is forced to dissemble rather
than admit his falsehood, and
Partenope’s affections are diverted
towards Armindo, the timid Prince
of Rhodes. After Arsace forces
Rosmira to reveal her identity by
challenging her to a bare-chested
duel (which she tastefully declines), judging the character arc to
both couples are united. perfection and singing with great
There’s a lot of debate amongst depth of feeling in arias like Ch’
the suitors, and the repetitive Io parta? Si crudele and Ma quai
complexities therein are the note di mesti lamenti. His co-star
opera’s only weak link. is Canadian soprano
Otherwise Partenope Karina Gauvin who
is top-notch Handel Partenope is sings incisively
– unremittingly top-notch Handel with just the right
tuneful with an – unremittingly degree of hauteur,
engaging story, tuneful with an while conveying
plenty of character engaging story the Queen’s
development and essentially giddily
a plum role for the romantic nature
conflicted prince who goes explored in several
from arrogant ne’er-do-well to minuet-inflected arias of which
heartbroken lover across three acts. Qual farfalletta, representing her
Erato has been fortunate that amorous emotions as a butterfly,
the excellent Riccardo Minasi has is a fluttering delight.
filled the gap in its stable left by Italian mezzo-soprano Teresa
the death of the late Alan Curtis. Iervolino is a rich-toned Rosmira,
His crack period ensemble Il Hungarian soprano Emöke
Pomo d’Oro has a real command Baráth sings with appealing
of Handel’s fiery operatic style clarity as Prince Armindo and
and Minasi is an immensely sure- John Mark Ainsley is luxury
footed musical dramatist. casting as the slightly surplus to
French countertenor Philippe requirements third suitor, Emilio.
Jaroussky makes a fine Arsace, An unexpected treat. Clive Paget
RECORDING
OF THE
MONTH
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 REVIEWS O

Q&A THE LIMELIGHT CHART

Riccardo Minasi
applauds Handel’s
lesser-known works
Handel’s Partenope is still a relative rarity. What
attracted you to it?
Partenope is one of Handel’s most interesting
operas. Especially the fact that there are not so
many borrowings like in other compositions; it’s
only new music; this demonstrates how much
care Handel was taking with the composition.
Australia’s top 20 classical music albums
1 THE KISS
Nicole Car
ABC CLASSICS 4812371
The debut album by rising international opera star, Nicole Car, rocketed
to number one the week it was released. An eclectic mix of arias from
operas that have made her name at home, with a healthy dose of rare
repertoire, the programme has caught the imagination in the same way
that her performances have been embraced by overseas opera lovers.
STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS (1)
2 John Williams
WD RECORDS 8732329

ANDRÉ RIEU ROMAN HOLIDAY (2CD) (2)

In its structure it has some curious musical
forms. How innovative a work do you find it?
I don’t think his intention was to be so
innovative. He was using the libretto as an
opportunity not to be a slave to the usual forms.
Instead of an aria with recitative and da capo,
3 André Rieu v, Johann Strauss Orchestra
ABC CLASSICS 4743071
FORD THERE WAS A MAN LIVED IN THE MOON (6)
4 Teddy Tahu Rodes bar, Jane Sheldon s
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5 Compilation
ABC CLASSICS 4823282

he quite often uses arietta and often without MY HERO (4)

the da capo. Or, for example, he is using the 6 Greta Bradman s, English Chamber Soloists/Richard Bonygne
DECCA 4811562

recitativo accompagnato in a strange way –

FROM BROADWAY TO LA SCALA (5)
almost in a comic way – when the pathos does 7 Greta Bradman s, Teddy Tahu Thodes bar, Lisa McCune s, David Hobson t
ABC CLASSICS 4823700

not need a huge recitativo accompagnato.

NEW YEAR’S CONCERT 2016
8 Vienna Philharmonic/Mariss Jansons
SONY 88875174772
On the surface, the opera seems a light-
GRIEG SOLO PIANO MUSIC (2CD) (11)
hearted romance. Is that the case, or are
there darker currents at play?
9 Gerard Willems p
ABC CLASSICS 4811702

VIVALDI THE FOUR SEASONS (10)

Partenope is not totally light. Of course, most
of the librettos from the 18th century are quite
10 Jane Rutter fl
ABC CLASSICS 4811321

simple in the eyes of 20th-century audiences. SCHUBERT • BEETHOVEN PIANO WORKS (2CD)
However, a libretto is an opportunity to show 11 Grigory Sokolov p
DECCA 4795426

the entire range of human feelings. Partenope

SERENE NIGHTS (17)
is full of moments like that: moments of crisis, 12 Guitar Trek
ABC CLASSICS 4812097
moments of evolution for the characters.
LANG LANG IN PARIS (12)
When, for example, Arsace is asking Ch’io 13 Lang Lang p
SONY 88875117582
parta? he is torn apart by doubt between
BRANDENBURG CELEBRATES (7)
14
loving Partenope or Rosmira; it’s quite a
ABC CLASSICS 4811929
touching moment. The battle scenes are Australian Brandenburg Orchestra/Paul Dyer
incredibly dramatic. During the recording
PUCCINI NESSUN DORMA (9)
sessions, what we tried to do was underline 15 Jonas Kaufmann t, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Pappano
SONY 88875092492

every element of the description of the affetti

WATER
in the Italian tradition embraced by Handel. 16 Hélène Grimaud p
DECCA 4795268
This is why leading up to the war scenes I was
VASKS PRESENCE
really trying to feel the blood on the ground,
and in the romantic moments I was trying to
17 Sol Gabetta vc, Amsterdam Sinfonietta/Candida Thompson
SONY 88725423122

search for the sweetest sound possible. HANDEL JULIA LEZHNEVA

18 Julia Lezhneva s, Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini
DECCA 4786766

What are the highlights for you among the

RAVEL COMPLETE PIANO WORKS
arias and in terms of the orchestrations? 19 Bertrand Chamayou p
ERATO 2564602681
The overture is brilliantly written, I have to
BACH SECULAR CANTATAS
say, while the arias for Emilio are the most 20 Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki
BIS BIS2181
complex in terms of orchestration. Then there
are two remarkable arias for Arsace, who is The Limelight chart is compiled using sales figures from Australia’s specialist classical music stores
sung by Philippe Jaroussky in our recording:
the lovely slow Ch’ io parta is one of Handel’s A guide to our REVIEW staR RATINGS...
greatest creations, and then the big aria full ★✩✩✩✩ Don’t bother! ★★✩✩✩ Hugely flawed tread carefully ★★★✩✩ A good disc
of rage, Furibondo spira il vento. with some merit ★★★★✩ An excellent recording ★★★★★ A masterpiece. Buy it now.

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 73

O REVIEWS

Orchestral
Vivaldi
The Four Seasons, Concertos
La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler
AVIE AV2344

Mendelssohn • Berlioz
A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Symphonie Fantastique
Deborah York s, Stella Doufexis
ms, Chors des Bayerischen
Rundfunks, Berlin Philharmonic/
Claudio Abbado
BERLIN PHILHARMONIKER
RECORDINGS BPHR160081 (3CD)
★★★★★
★★★✩✩
Unrecorded Vivaldi impresses
with an uncommon instrument
This recording presents an
unusual juxtaposition. On the
one hand, we have the ubiquitous
Four Seasons, but on the other, two
world premiere concertos. The
Four Seasons recording is certainly
excellent, with effervescent
performances from soloist and
director Adrian Chandler. Also on

ABBADO’S FAREWELL TO BERLIN the disc are two bassoon concerti

(La Notte in B Flat and per Maestro
de Morzin in G Minor), in both
The Maestro’s final thoughts make for compelling listening
of which soloist Peter Whelan
The final years of Herbert von Karajan’s Abbado’s perspective on Berlioz is far removed shines. However, most interesting
tenure as Principal Conductor of the Berlin from Bernstein’s blood and guts cinematic on this disc is the presence of a
Philharmonic had descended into chaos; egos view – but nor is this Boulez’s objectified view couple of first time recordings.
clashed and Karajan was moonlighting with either. Abbado builds this performance through These world premieres
indecent regularity in Vienna. Claudio Abbado exacting detail; the ripple of angel wings on the (Concerto in D, RV221 and
gradually pieced goodwill back together when harp during the Waltz is as exquisitely framed Concerto in G, RV311) are for a
he was appointed as successor in 1989, as the ghoulish cackle of bad-breath brittle strange hybrid instrument a bit
his collegiate approach contrasting strings in the closing movement. like a tromba marina (a one-
noticeably with Karajan’s despotic And as the opening string stringed, box-like instrument
tendencies. Abbado’s valedictory Mendelssohn’s strains of the Berlioz begin, the designed to imitate the sound of
appearance with the orchestra in opening chords give realisation dawns that Abbado’s a trumpet). The violin in tromba
May 2013 thus marked the end notice that here Mendelssohn/Berlioz pairing is marina, then, is designed to
of an era, an occasion wistfully is something very all about entering into worlds of imitate the tromba marina in turn.
celebrated in this latest release from special myth and fantasy. Complicating matters, however,
Berlin Philharmoniker Recordings. You can download the audio is the fact that there are a grand
Two works, which Abbado only via the Berlin Philharmonic total of none in existence.
had recorded previously, were on the website, but the box is definitely worth Chandler details the research
programme: Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer the extra outlay. The booklet is packed with involved in recreating the violin
Night’s Dream and Berlioz’s Symphonie intriguing archive photos – including Abbado in tromba marina, the resulting
Fantastique, which turned out to be a and his successor Simon Rattle in a warm instrument having only three brass
characteristically shrewd piece of programming. embrace – while the concert itself can be strings and a bridge that has a
Abbado’s earlier Midsummer Night’s Dream (also watched on Blu-ray. Watching Abbado, who metal attachment to give a trumpet-
with BPO) might have included more numbers, looks surprisingly well, lead the Berlioz in like rasp. This bright-toned
but the chimerical gleam of those hanging-in- particular is a masterclass in paired back gesture instrument proves a real winner,
the-air opening woodwind chords gives notice that can express everything. When the bell tolls and one that I would have liked to
that here is something very special. The fleeting, during the final movement, Abbado looks up in hear more of. Worth investigating
skipping Scherzo, with its sinuous harmonic wonderment towards the Philharmonie Gods – purely for the rarities, and with a
sleights-of-hand, is as fantastical as the triadic, the message being, “I’m enjoying this collective recording of the Four Seasons as a
muscular brass writing of the Wedding March listening experience as much as anybody else” pleasant extra. Paul Ballam-Cross
is rooted in the earth. Deborah York and – a spirit reflected in orchestra member tributes
Stella Doufexis, and the choir, balance well- that are sincere without ever descending into Reviewed using Sennheiser
enunciated weight against suggestive fancy. doe-eyed maestro worship. Philip Clark HD600 headphones

74 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


Brahms • Bartók
Violin Concertos
Janine Jansen v, Santa Cecilia
Orchestra, LSO/Antonio Pappano
DECCA 4788412
★★★ ✩
Jansen declared the winner in
Brahms’ arm-wrestling contest
The image on the back cover of the
CD depicting Jansen arm-wrestling
with Antonio Pappano feels
noticeably apt. Not since Herbert
von Karajan unleashed the Berlin
Philharmonic, issuing a challenge
to Anne-Sophie Mutter to bite back
in their 1981 recording of Brahms’
Violin Concerto, has a conductor
pumped Brahms’ orchestral
introduction with such dramatic
theatre and pizzazz.
This is an opera that just
happens to be scored for violin and
orchestra, Pappano seems to be
telling us, but the high-intelligence
of Jansen’s musicality, not to
mention her good taste, leads her
to pursue a more expressively and
colouristically nuanced pathway
than this might imply. The
genuinely startling feature of this
new performance is witnessing
Jansen scoop detail out from
Pappano’s broad sonic wash.
Like two swinging pendulums
gradually locking into alignment,
the bump-and-grind rootsy grit
that Jansen brings to the folksy
Finale meets Pappano head on;
but otherwise the gossamer
delicacy of the Adagio, and the
uncountable rhythmic suppleness
with which Jansen navigates
Brahms’ airborne lines during the
opening movement, moves largely
by stealth. Bartók’s First Violin
Concerto, a promising pairing on
paper, proves less adaptable to this
good cop/bad cop approach. The
unwinding chromatics of the first
movement clearly enthral Jansen;
but this performance collapses
towards blandness. PC
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Hindemith
Symphony: Mathis der Maler,
Symphony in E Flat
NDR Sinfonieorchester/Eschenbach
ONDINE ODE12752
★★✩✩✩
Eschenbach initially promises
much, but does he deliver?
It may have seemed politically
naive of Paul Hindemith in
1933 to start planning an opera
asserting the moral duty of an
artist under a repressive regime,
but like many intellectuals of
the day, he didn’t take the Nazis
seriously and hoped they would
soon be out of power. Mathis der
Maler would be his undoing and
force him into exile in 1938.
Hindemith later took themes
from the opera and wove them
into a large-scale symphony
and the harmonic outline of the
work brilliantly portrays the
internal development of the artist.
Christoph Eschenbach’s hyper-
romantic way allied with the superb
Hamburg orchestra would seem
ideal for this reaffirmation of the
Germanic symphonic tradition. The
opening Concert of Angels promised
much with impeccable intonation
from blended wind and strings, but
as the movement proceeded the
conductor’s tendency to underline
phrases with modifications of pulse
allowed momentum to sag. The
Entombment becomes ponderous.
The Temptation of St. Anthony is
grand and mighty but lacks bite.
The Symphony in E Flat was
the first major work Hindemith
wrote after arriving in America so
is an appropriate coupling. With
Stokowski, Bernstein or Tortelier
it is a breezy romp of a score.
Eschenbach trudges, attempting
to give extra significance by broad
tempi and weighty balances. This
marvellous witty composer comes
across here as a pompous, note-
spinning bore. Warwick Arnold
REVIEWS O
Schumann
Piano Concerto et al
Jan Lisiecki p, Santa Cecilia Orchestra/
Sir Antonio Pappano
DG 4795327
★★★★✩
Young man’s Schumann it may be,
but here Jan’s very much the man
Schumann’s Piano Concerto has undergone something of a
recording and live performance eclipse in recent years. It was
once known as a “woman’s” concerto, presumably because of
Clara’s advocacy, however it still runs rings around the vast
majority of other Romantic piano concertos.
The work has never been a vehicle for bravura and one
hurdle has always been the lack of shameless virtuosity in the
soloist’s part. Jan Lisiecki’s rendition of the work is obviously
“young man’s” Schumann (fair enough as he’s all of 20!) but as
impressive as most of it is, much of the first movement lacks
the intimate poetic ruminations (Lisiecki himself refers to
these in the liner notes) that I enjoy in my favourite version
with Annie Fischer (despite Klemperer’s rather bluff, emphatic
accompaniment) making them sound almost perfunctory. Also,
the Gramophone review refers to the Santa Cecilia orchestra’s
oboe as characterful whereas I find it quite the opposite.
Lisiecki handles well what can be the tricky transition from
the charming Intermezzo (which he does beautifully without
sounding either coy or laboured) to the finale.
The other two substantial works are rareties: Allegro
Appassionata, Op. 92 and Introduction and Allegro, Op. 134,
which James Jolly breathlessly informs us is DG’s first recording
of it in its 117-year history (as if anyone cares). In the first,
the orchestra and soloist are truly on fire and the interplay
is impressive, the introductory horn calls gorgeous. Lisiecki
seems to endorse the received wisdom that this a late fruit,
which demonstrates Schumann’s creative decline. I disagree
(to me, the ubiquitous Cello Concerto fills that description) and
loved the work, finding that this reading captures the fragility
rather than feebleness of his mental state. A pity the length
and format of both works inhibits their inclusion in concerts.
Recommended with minor reservations. Greg Keane
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 75
 NICOLE CAR

The stunning debut album from Australia’s

finest voice, featuring opera gems by Puccini,
Verdi,Tchaikovsky and many more.

“Juicy tone, musicality and dramatic flair” – The Times, UK

“The young singer of the moment” – Limelight Magazine
“A voice dripped in rich honey” – Herald Sun
“A luminous soprano” – The Guardian, UK

Out now on ABC Classics

 1000 YEARS OF
CL ASS I C A L M U S I C

A new project from the ABC celebrating the history

of classical music – through radio broadcasts, album
releases and online content.

Start your album collection today – with the 8CD

boxset surveying 1000 Years of Classical Music, and
with the first of the 100 album series showcasing
essential masterpieces.

Out now on ABC Classics

www.1000YearsofClassicalMusic.com
O REVIEWS

Chamber
Lalo
Piano Trios
Leonore Piano Trio
HYPERION CDA68113

★★★★
Lalo offers plenty of Gallic
charm with Germanic heft

Brahms Following their acclaimed album

Piano Quartet Op. 60, Piano
Trio Op. 8 (original version)
Trio Wanderer,
Christophe Gaugué vla
HARMONIA MUNDI HMC902222
★★★★✩
of works by Arensky, British outfit
Leonore Piano Trio moves to
France to take on the three trios
by Germanophile Édouard Lalo.
These attractive works are full of
melody, combining Gallic charm
with a weightier feel. As Roger
Nichols’ liner notes wittily describe

EARLY COMPLEMENTS LATE the Scherzo in No 1: “rather like

fairies dancing in lederhosen.”
Wanderers’ Brahms is an elegant cabernet, not a boofy shiraz The Leonores – Benjamin Nabarro
violin, Gemma Rosefield, cello and
A decade has passed since Trio Wanderer gave listen to this version once or twice as the pianist Tim Horton – play with the
us a superb set of Brahms’ Piano Trios with the younger man’s gaucheries wear thin. assurance of noted soloists in their
first Piano Quartet as filler. That recording set The Piano Quartet, Op. 60 is another own right but also with precision
a benchmark thanks to the ensemble’s ideal matter; a composer at the peak of his powers, a and sensitivity as an ensemble.
balance of elegance and expressive intensity, so masterwork carefully crafted over 20 years with Although Lalo was a violinist,
this sequel is long overdue. extraordinary cogency and thematic unity. This playing in several of Berlioz’s
The rarely heard first version of the Op. 8 is a carefully judged performance of subtlety concerts, it is the solo cello that
Trio is a fascinating adjunct to that set and the and discretion, a slow burn reading that lets the introduces the first and last
Wanderers tackle the work with a different thematic development carry the narrative. movements of the First Trio where
mindset, helping to delineate the The Wanderers’ coolness at the the footprints of his musical hero
self-critical composer’s maturing opening soon thaws out but they Schumann lie deeply embedded.
concision. They don’t linger as The Scherzo has keep a firm grip on the argument; This serves as a reminder that
they did during the lengthy first plenty of drive they don’t overstate the sighing the Frenchman also wrote a
movement, which Brahms initially but the light “Clara” figure in line with their characteristically melodic and
over-egged with five themes, touch avoids the classically poised view of the energetic concerto for cello.
several of which were replaced by overbearing movement. The Scherzo has plenty Schumann is also an influence in
the lovely secondary subject. of drive but the light touch avoids the passionate Second Trio, written
Hanslick thought the fugato the overbearing. For the Andante they a couple of years later in 1852.
passage as inappropriate as a schoolboy take the composer’s marking literally so it For the next 12 years Lalo
Latin quotation in a love poem and the is a flowing interlude rather than a dirge while suffered writer’s block until he
composer took note and cut it. The marvellous the Finale is more pensive than tragic. remarried and his creative spark
Scherzo he left well alone but for a few nips If this implies a Brahms-lite quality rest rekindled. This was the time of
and tucks, however he wisely remodelled assured that the Wanderers’ effortless panache Symphonie Espagnole and eventual
the middle of the slow movement; the mood and rhythmic energy compensates. It’s a valid success. His Third Trio, from 1880,
swings of the original are superfluous with alternative to the Capuçon/Angelich/Caussé is a mature work with demanding
such animated flanking movements. reading on Virgin; an elegant cabernet rather piano passages and greater variety
The last movement meanders through than a big boofy shiraz. Sound is superbly of tonal colour and harmonic
some tortured passages with a good third of present if a little opaque compared to the invention. Superbly played and
the movement later excised and the clunky stunning transparency of the earlier set. produced, this colourful album,
conclusion scrapped. While it’s an interesting generous at 80 minutes, is an
example of a composer’s distillation I suspect Warwick Arnold reviewed Trio Wanderer eloquent advocate for some lesser-
most who love the familiar revision will only using Sennheiser HD800 headphones known gems. Steve Moffatt

78 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 REVIEWS O

the compositional fabric of Mozart, inclusion in the Italian Songbook

Bruckner
String Quintet,
Intermezzo, String Quartet
Fitzwilliam String Quartet,
James Boyd vla
LINN RECORDS CKD402 (SACD)
★★★★★
Bruckner-lite, yet the sound
and motivation is pure Anton
I’ve always had a high regard for
Bruckner’s String Quintet in F
Major, the work he wrote in the
afterglow of his Fifth Symphony,
and every bit as symphonic in
scope and ambition. Alongside
the Quintet, the Fitzwilliam
String Quartet has included the
String Quartet in C Minor, which
Bruckner composed when studying
under Otto Kitzler, and an alternate
view of the chamber music path he
might have followed presents itself.
Young Anton revels in inhabiting
Schubert and Mendelssohn.
The tone is light and playful;
but ultimately Bruckner’s sonic
imagination drove him elsewhere.
Adding guest violist James
Boyd, the Fitzwilliam Quartet
performs with gut strings and
period instruments configured to
exactly the pitch Bruckner himself
would have expected. Vibrato is
expertly controlled throughout,
and although the medium might
cross into unfamiliar terrain, the
sound and motivation behind this
music is pure Bruckner.
Beginning in the midst of an
unfolding harmonic argument,
the fulsome and fine-grained
blend of the Fitzwilliam approach
sings proudly. Phrasing breathes
luxuriously and is never allowed
to tip into the red heat of faux-
Romanticism. The extended Adagio
– where Lucy Russell’s violin
soars towards the heavens – could
well be one of Bruckner’s most
serene creations, while the first
movement trials key relationships
that turn up again in the Ninth
Symphony. To love Bruckner is to
love this CD. Philip Clark
Pleasure Garden
Music by Van Eyck et al
Genevieve Lacey rec
ABC CLASSICS 4812370
★★★★✩
Lacey does far more than just
tiptoe through the tulips
This latest recording from
Genevieve Lacey might seem a
little whimsical, however this is the
closest thing to a classical ‘concept
album’, that I’ve encountered,
and it is worth consideration.
The recording focusses on Lacey
performing the music of 17th-
century Dutch musician Jacob
van Eyck. Encasing these small
monophonic treasures is music
co-composed by Lacey with the
record’s producer Jan Bang.
The centrepiece of the album
seems to be Jacob van Eyck’s
Amarilli, best known for its
for young vocalists. In Lacey’s
hands, it’s a work of haunting
purity. It returns in variation
throughout the album, and
in each rendition its stillness
creates a moment of peace. The
pieces by Bang and Lacey fuse
technology and nature. A range
of captured sounds are used,
including unusual performance
techniques like flutter-tonguing,
pitched bells, layered drones on
various recorders and perhaps
most blatantly, the different songs
of birds. Each work seems to be
Lacey’s mediation on a given
sound. My favourite moment was a
fragment of Bermagui Dawn, where
among the bird calls, a fragment of
Bach’s Toccata and Fugue emerges
only to disappear once more.
Despite comprising shorter
works, this album is best listened
to in its entirety. Give yourself
permission to be transported by the
evocative re-telling of this sound-
garden, and you’ll enjoy it’s calming
effect. It might sound naff, but
these small works dovetail together
to create a magical and enchanting
recorder fantasy. Sascha Kelly

The Clarinotts: three guys, three
clarinets, one musical family tree
The Clarinotts
Arrangements for clarinet trio
Ernst, Daniel and Andreas Ottensamer cl
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4811917
★★★★
Imagine the horror of being born into a family where you’re the
only one among parents, grandparents and siblings who doesn’t
excel at something! No such problems among the Ottensamers,
father Ernst and brothers Daniel and Andreas aka the royal family
of the clarinet, who share the Principal Clarinet positions of the
Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics. Andreas, who was appointed
to his Berlin Philharmonic position at 21 also declined a position
at Harvard (as one does). Their ensemble, The Clarinotts, play an
impressive range of E Flat, B Flat and A clarinets, bass clarinet and
bassett horn and performs traditional classical music as well as
arrangements, jazz and “edgy” contemporary repertoire.
While their breathtaking (pun intended) virtuosity can be
taken for granted, what makes The Clarinotts’ playing even more
miraculous is their impeccable ensemble, as well as their flair
for playing “out” in a soloistic manner, which many orchestral
musicians find difficult. (It was the alleged inability of the
clarinettist Sabine Meyer to blend in with the woodwind “choir”
of the Berlin Philharmonic that caused the final rupture between
the orchestra and Herbert von Karajan in the mid-1980s).
Clearly the Ottensamers don’t have a problem in this
department. This is a lovely CD with some unusual repertoire and
arrangements: the Mendelssohn Concert Piece and the Ponchielli
are gorgeous finds (hard to believe that he also wrote The Dance of
the Hours). The other arrangements are equally inspired and could
never be described as merely jumped up salon music. I also enjoyed
the Bela Koreny take on themes from Basic Instinct. GK

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 79

O REVIEWS

Instrumental
Blackbird
The Beatles Album
Miloš Karadaglić and friends
MERCURY 4812310

★★★★✩
Miloš’s nifty arrangements turn
the fab four into the fab five

In the war against superficiality,

guitarist Miloš Karadaglić had
Ravel two handicaps to overcome:
Complete Piano Music he was too handsome and he
Bertrand Chamayou p made things look too easy. Four
ERATO 2564602681 (2CD) albums later, he continues to
★★★★✩ confound with profound artistry
and a determination to reach
an audience through judicious

RAVEL FINDS A NEW POET choice of repertoire.

For half a century now, the
French virtuoso reveals every colour in the master's palette music of The Beatles has been
a rich resource for classical
Once, recordings of Ravel’s output for solo piano technique is such that he transcends technical composers, the tunes ubiquitous
were rare. Historically, significant “complete” difficulties to concentrate fully on matters of and durable enough to function
recordings were made in the 1950s by Walter interpretation: colour, phrasing and emphasis. almost as secular hymns. Given
Gieseking, Marcelle Meyer, and Robert His competitors are virtuosi too – but Uhlig the broad appeal of the classical
Casadesus, and in the ‘60s by Vlado Perlemuter is unremittingly robust, and although Tharaud guitar, it’s natural that composers
and Monique Haas. Meyer, Casadesus and is sensitive, Chamayou emerges as the true for that instrument such as Leo
Perlemuter were all acquainted with the poet. He takes Scarbo from Gaspard de la Brouwer and Toru Takemitsu
composer; the latter studied with Nuit at an extraordinary lick – the should have taken to this material
him. A 1991 Decca set from Jean- repeated notes have to be heard to with alacrity. Takemitsu’s
Yves Thibaudet has dominated He takes Scarbo at be believed! – but fully conveys the arrangement of Yesterday features
modern recordings for years, but an extraordinary lick menace. The decoration in Ondine on Karadaglić’s Blackbird: The
lately many young pianists have – the repeated notes glitters like sunlight on the Beatles Album. But the majority
joined the fray, most recently have to be heard to water; the tolling church bell in of the guitar arrangements are
Alexandre Tharaud and Florian be believed! Le Gibet fades in and out of focus, by that superb exponent of the
Uhlig. Tharaud added the early, a cinematic pan across the foggy instrument, Sérgio Assad.
uncharacteristic La Parade in the name countryside. Chamayou is especially And what a line-up. Tori
of completeness, and Uhlig included a piano good at limpid legato, so important for Amos and bassist Chris Hill on
transcription of portions of Daphnis et Chloé. the Pavane pour une Infante Défunte, turning the She’s Leaving Home. Sitar player
The latest contender, Bertrand Chamayou, Fugue from Le Tombeau de Couperin into a more Anoushka Shankar on Lucy In The
neglects those extras but adds an effective beautiful piece than it sometimes seems. Sky With Diamonds. Steven Isserlis
transcription of Ravel’s Kaddisch by Alexander Le Tombeau de Couperin is the only place on Michelle. Christopher Austin’s
Siloti, and a piece by Casella, À la Manière de... where I have reservations. Ravel’s pastiche String Ensemble also joins the
Ravel, from the same collection that included of the clavecinistes begs for Thibaudet’s dry, party in classics such as The Fool
Ravel’s pastiches of Borodin and Chabrier. aristocratic detachment. While Chamayou’s On The Hill and Here Comes The
The 34-year-old Chamayou is an up-and- fluency in the rapid movements is marvellous, Sun. Throughout, Karadaglić
coming French pianist who has previously he forgoes the necessary poise by treating proves himself a generous and
recorded Schubert, Liszt and a highly praised the Rigaudon as a heavy-footed rustic dance, sympathetic partner. But it is in
disc of solo and concertante works by César and his Forlane feels perfunctory. Overall, the solos – Blackbird, Yesterday,
Franck. How does his Ravel rate in what is now though, this release is very special. All My Loving – that one can
a competitive field? Extremely well. None of fully savour his rich, warm tone,
Ravel’s piano music is simple to play and most Philip Scott reviewed Bertrand Chamayou flexible, cantabile phrasing and
of it is diabolically challenging. Chamayou’s using Sennheiser HD650 headphones sheer delight in the music. WY

80 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


Mozart
Piano Works Volumes 8 & 9
Kristian Bezuidenhout fp
HMU907532/33 (2CD)
★★★★
Bezuidenhout’s Mozart dazzles
and charms in equal measure
Fortepianist Kristian
Bezuidenhout’s traversal of
Mozart’s complete keyboard music
is fast becoming one of the most
significant recording projects of
the 21st century, combining as
it does the best contemporary
thinking on historical performance
practice with an individual and
refined musical sensibility. No
stranger to Australian audiences,
Bezuidenhout is equally at home in
an orchestral or solo instrumental
context; he is also as much at home
with the improvisatory aspects of
historical performance as other
fortepianists such as Robert Levin
and the great Malcolm Bilson.
These factors combine to enliven
Bezuidenhout’s interpretations in
both a colouristic and decorative
sense. Even non-specialists will be
left utterly convinced of his total
fluency in the musical language
of the 18th century. And how
lovely to open with the deceptively
simple C Major Sonata, K545, so
familiar to generations of piano
students and yet so elegant and
ingenious in its writing.
Here, Bezuidenhout’s delicate
phrasing, subtle balancing
of voices and charming
embellishments prepare the
listener for what is to come, not
only in other familiar works such
as the piano sonatas K280, K279
and K576, but some preludes, a
neo-baroque dance suite, a couple
of allegros completed by Levin and
three dazzling sets of variations.
Perhaps the CD packaging should
come with a warning hinting at the
highly addictive nature of these
wonderful recordings? WY
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Domenico Zipoli
Complete Suites & Partitas
Giovanni Nesi p
HERITAGE HTGCD298
★★★★✩
Baroque keyboard rarities
brought to rollicking life by Nesi
Generally, when you think of
baroque music you think Europe.
Handel's London, perhaps, JS
Bach’s Leipzig, or Vivaldi’s Venice.
For the composer Domenico Zipoli,
his training as a missionary meant
that he wound up further afield.
Instead of hobnobbing at the courts
of Europe, he lived and composed
in Argentina at a time when
getting to South America meant a
difficult and lengthy journey.
The music recorded on this
disc was published as Sonate
d’Intavolatura per Organo e Cimbalo,
before Zipoli’s South American
adventures began. Though still far
from well known, the suites and
partitas in the harpsichord half of
the set are masterful enough to
have impressed fellow composers.
Writing centuries later, Vincent
d’Indy referred to these works as
proving Zipoli “one of the greatest
Italian masters in musicality
and elegance in composing”,
and compared him favourably to
Frescobaldi, Pachelbel and Bach.
For the most part following the
standard baroque dance suite form,
Zipoli’s music is brought to life in
this recording. Giovanni Nesi’s
choice to record these works on
the piano serves the music well,
bringing a wonderful crispness and
clarity to these works. Usually I’d
quibble over historical accuracies,
but that becomes irrelevant with a
performance this exciting. There’s
a fabulous onrush of notes in the
faster movements and a meditative
stillness in the slower ones. If
you’re after baroque music that’s
off the beaten track, I can highly
recommend this disc! PB
REVIEWS O
Schubert • Beethoven
Impromptus, Hammerklavier Sonata et al
Grigory Sokolov p
DG 4795426 (2CD)
★★★★
Another magnificent recital
from an uncompromising artist
Sokolov is a cult favourite, not only because his conception of
any music he plays is unflinchingly personal but also because
of his tremendous concentration. Every note is coloured and
weighted; each phrase meticulously judged. He refuses to record
in the studio, but Deutsche Grammophon has secured a contract
to release his live concert performances. This is the second
release, taken from recitals in Warsaw and Salzburg in 2013; the
previous disc won Limelight’s 2015 Recording of the Year.
Sokolov’s typically uncompromising programme includes
Beethoven’s Sonata No 29, Op. 106, the Hammerklavier. I was
surprised how delicately he plays the first two movements: his
dry, detached staccatos are lightly etched, as if to remind us
that we are still in the Classical period. The Adagio sostenuto is
one of the great inward meditations of late Beethoven, and here
it feels as if time had stopped. Sokolov ruminates for 21'28". By
comparison, Paul Lewis plays it in 18'31", and Gulda in 15'4 4". This
communing over every single note requires deep concentration
from the listener as well as the performer – easier in a concert
hall than at home. While Sokolov’s single-mindedness never
falters, his is not your everyday Hammerklavier.
Late Schubert is as intense as late Beethoven in a more
emotionally specific way. In the four Impromptus, D899 and the
Three Piano Pieces, D946 (the latter dating from the composer’s
final year), Sokolov brings out a tangible sense of isolation, such as
you would expect from a heartfelt rendition of Winterreise. Indeed,
the Impromptus echo the music of that great cycle, with its knife-
edge balance of energetic rage and quiet desperation. The pianist
maps Schubert’s emotional landscape through carefully placed
ritards and subtle gradations of tone. Five encores by Rameau and
Brahms’ Intermezzo, Op. 17 No 2 complete the set. PS
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 81
O REVIEWS

Vocal & Choral

Schoenberg • Potera
Pierrot Lunaire, Red Music
Anna Clementi reciter,
Ensemble Bios/Andrea Vitello
CONTINUO CR114

★★★ ✩
A thrilling pairing of two modern
works, one not so modern

One Voice Ensemble Bios is an Italian group

Music by Palestrina, led by conductor Andrea Vitello,
Sculthorpe et al dedicated to performing works of
Adelaide Chamber Singers/Carl the 20th and 21st centuries. Their
Crossin, Christie Anderson first outing for Italy’s Continuo
ACS ACSCD007 label features "actress of the voice"
★★★★✩ Anna Clementi in Schoenberg’s
1912 song cycle Pierrot Lunaire.
Broken into three lots of

ADELAIDE’S FINEST VINTAGE seven (reflecting the composer's

obsession with numerology), it
famously utilises Sprechstimme, a
A plum 30th year pressing from SA's premier vocal ensemble
semi-spoken technique associated
In a land where scythe-wielding grim reapers From Singing is suitably celebratory whilst at the time with melodrama
are only too happy to cut down artistic tall In the Bleak Mid-Winter Snow by Philip Hall and to some extent Lieder and
poppies, it is marvellous to see groups like effectively captures the tension inherent in cabaret. Clementi’s delivery is
the Adelaide Chamber Singers flourishing, Christina Rossetti’s famous text: the austerity deft, mocking and expressionistic,
and better still celebrating their 30th of a setting that is transformed by the soaring and plunging while
anniversary. Doubtless, this is in presence of the Christ child. detailing Pierrot’s macabre
no small measure due to the Other local works include exploits as the instrumentalists
vision and dedication of the The singers Joseph Twist’s How Shall We sensitively weave around her
group’s Founder and Artistic immediately impress Sing in a Strange Land, which vocalisations. A century on, it still
Director, Carl Crossin. In this with their rhythmic demonstrates his masterful sounds thrillingly modern.
anniversary celebration (and acuity and fine sense handling of vocal textures in It’s paired here with a recent
the group’s seventh disc) we of textural clarity a setting that combines a work by Florentine composer
are treated to a well sung, but biblical text with the poetry of Andrea Portera (b. 1973), whose
eclectic programme that reflects the Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Morning symphonic, theatrical and chamber
singers’ particular expertise in early Song for the Christ Child by Sculthorpe works (over 120) have met with
and contemporary music. is given in all its lyrical beauty. Crossin’s critical acclaim and two silver
Opening with the flamboyant Deus in Sudden Light is the perfect vehicle for medals from the President of the
Adiutorium by Mexican baroque maestro Juan capturing the ensemble’s sonorous blend Italian Republic. Red Music consists
Gutiérrez de Padilla, the singers immediately whilst his arrangements of Bound for South of three quite beautiful pieces for
impress with their rhythmic acuity and their Australia and One Voice reveal a penchant chamber ensemble, all just over
fine sense of vocal and textural clarity. Such for fun on the one hand and a striving for four-minutes long, and dedicated
qualities are also evident in their accounts of effective choral communication on the other. to Prokofiev, Shostakovich and
the other early pieces on offer: Palestrina’s Whether it is Eric Whitacre’s imagining of Rostropovich respectively. Each
classic motet, Sicut Cervus (together with its Leonardo’s flying machine or Ērik Ešenvalds’ work subtly evokes the subject
lesser-known second part, Sitivit Anima Mea) striving for the music of the spheres, there of its dedication – the frenetic
and Monteverdi’s heartfelt lament from his is something in the joyful but nuanced dynamism of Prokofiev’s piano
sixth book of madrigals, Dunque Amate Reliquie. performances of these works that reaffirms the works, Shostakovich’s deeply
Moving into the sphere of contemporary importance of singing and singing together in unsettling strings, or the sound of
compositions, the ACS has commissioned a our culture. May the ACS continue to mature Rostropovich’s rich, expansive
number of Australian works for its anniversary and bring delight, like so many of the good cello. It makes for an interesting
season. Anne Cawrse’s How Can I Keep wines from their home state! Tony Way juxtaposition. Lisa MacKinney

82 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


Caldara
Arias & Serenati
Valer Sabadus ct, Nuovo Aspetto
SONY 88875129732
★★★★✩
Fine young singer dishes up
delicious disc of rarities
Antonio Caldara, born in Venice in
1670, became vice-Kapellmeister
at the Viennese Hofkapelle in
1716 remaining until his death
in 1736. There he had a fine
ensemble of musicians and this
recital showcases some of the more
unusual instruments he had at his
disposal including the salterio – a
large hammered dulcimer.
Valer Sabadus, one of the five star
countertenors on Virgin’s lauded
recording of Vinci’s Artaserse,
performs a brace of arias from
opera and serenati. His bright bell-
like tone and effortless fiorature
is startling from the get-go and
his accompanists play with gusto.
Sample track five Ahi! Come quella
un tempo città, where a plethora
of plucked instruments is a sheer
delight with the state-of-the-art
recording capturing every nuance
from thrumming bass notes to
glittering treble. Ditto the following
Ah se toccasse a me with a pair of
lutes duetting in call and response.
Questo è il prato pairs haunting
flute and chalumeau – a primitive
ancestor of the clarinet with a
peculiar rustic sound of its own.
Lute aficionados will enjoy
this disc as Caldara wrote for the
great Francesco Bartolomeo Conti,
and Michael Dücker (who leads
the ensemble) is a thoughtful
player. Cellist Ulrike Becker and
ensemble offer a Concerto da camera
à Violoncello Solo as an interlude
taking it by the scruff of the neck
and convincing you of its worth. A
delicious disc of rarities. WA
Reviewed using Sennheiser
HD800 headphones
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Monteverdi
Monteverdi in Mantua
Simon Russell Beale,
The Sixteen/Harry Christophers
CORO COR16131 (DVD)
★★★★
Monteverdi and the man who
enslaved him to the court
It was about 400 years ago when
Monteverdi, a slave to his employer
Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, produced
his remarkable sacred Vespers in a
northern Italian town. It’s a story
explored in the documentary
Monteverdi in Mantua, hosted
by Shakespearean actor Simon
Russell Beale and featuring
Harry Christophers’ The Sixteen.
Exquisitely recorded, the cathedral
setting’s familiar depth does not
take away from the vocal definition.
Tearing us away from heavenly
music, the DVD takes us from
museums to the Mantua State
Archives, where Russell Beale reads
Monteverdi’s letters and offers
insight into the man behind the
music. A kind fellow, Monteverdi
was forced by a scandalous master
to craft magnificent music almost
weekly. In one letter, Monteverdi
complains of headaches from
pressure of work and, unable to
feed his family, is desperate for
release. Under these conditions,
he strayed from convention to
produce revolutionary works, some
of which we hear here.
The appropriate balance of music
and history in this documentary
culminates in a visit to the
International Music Museum in
Bologna, from which The Sixteen
sings from original 1610 prints
of the Vespers. The documentary
is educational for lovers of fine
music, but clocking in at a mere 60
minutes I’d have preferred an extra
30 to hear more of Monteverdi’s
magic. Stephanie Eslake
REVIEWS O
Lassus
Missa super Dixit Joseph & Motets
Cinquecento
HYPERION CDA68064
★★★★✩
A polished celebration of the
influential Renaissance master
Arguably better known and more influential in his own
lifetime than either the more celebrated Palestrina or Victoria,
Orlande de Lassus has been eclipsed recently by his more
famous contemporaries. All the more reason then to applaud
the efforts of groups like Cinquecento to revive his musical
fortunes. Drawn from five European countries, the six male
singers of Cinquecento deliver this programme with a full,
burnished tone that makes the listener instantly forget that
they are actually operating one voice to a part.
Featured here is the rather grand six-part Missa super Dixit
Joseph and the motet on which it is based. The motet Dixit
Joseph actually refers to the old-testament Joseph who was
sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up living in Egypt.
It starts off by contrasting upper voices with lower voices,
a favourite Lassus technique, that is echoed in the Kyrie of
the Mass. The other movements are chock full of interesting
detail, well captured by the state of the art recording which
effectively balances resonance and intimacy.
Bookending the attractive programme are two masterly
motets. Confitemini Domino exhibits a joyful freedom in its
treatment of this text of praise. Closing proceedings is the
Holy Week motet, Timor et Tremor, with its dramatic word
painting, which these excellent singers obviously relish.
Expressions of love and death pervade the rest of
the offerings. In the former category, Veni Dilecte Mi, a
setting from the Song of Songs is as rapt as the composer’s
conservative technique allows. Deus, Canticum Novum and
Fallax Gratia also offer some musical sunlight. Death, we know,
was a major preoccupation of the pre-Enlightenment world
and Lassus is most adept at evoking the trepidation of earthly
demise and heavenly judgement. Yet, through his settings of
Job and Ecclesiasticus shines the hope of redemption, a hope
well communicated by these fine singers. TW
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 83
O REVIEWS

Opera
Tori Amos
The Light Princess
National Theatre Company
MERCURY 4811900 (2CD)

★★★ ✩
Pop goes the musical leaving
this Princess on the ceiling

First the soft piano enters, then

the words: “once upon a, once a,
The Kiss once upon a time...” It’s a familiar
Opera Arias introduction to a not-so-familiar
Nicole Car s, Australian story. The Light Princess is an
Opera and Ballet Orchestra/ imaginative new musical adapted
Andrea Molino by Adelaide-born writer Samuel
ABC CLASSICS 4812371 Adamson from a Scottish fairytale
★★★★★ about a princess whose view of
the world is so light, she floats. It’s
a fabulous fable, and it’s got a few

WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT modern twists that’ll definitely

delight contemporary audiences.
Nicole Car’s debut disc hits all the right buttons and then some The music is by singer-
songwriter Tori Amos and her
Lyric soprano Nicole Car has been tipped by international-class singers are often required to score is vibrant, fun and upbeat.
Opera Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon jump through several genre hoops. Lyrics have a sweet, storybook vibe.
Terracini as the next big thing in opera, as The disc starts with a brief orchestral flourish The original cast recording sparkles
confirmed by her recent triumphs at Covent into the Jewel Song from Gounod’s Faust, and we with excellent vocal performances
Garden. “She has the genuine, real potential know straight away this is an exceptional talent that won’t fail to enchant,
to be the most important Australian opera with a voice that is clear and secure across the particularly that of Rosalie Craig,
singer since Joan Sutherland,” he says. range, but with a honeyed tone. who sings the titular role. The two
Terracini may have a vested interest, Its fluidity is amply demonstrated bonus tracks, sung by Amos herself,
but if they haven’t already seen her, in Verdi’s Come in Quest’ora Bruna Highness in the Sky and Darkest
Sydney and Melbourne operagoers Her ability to inhabit from Simon Boccanegra, while Hour, are a dreamy treat.
will get a chance to gauge what all character is nowhere her intelligence combined with Amos’s pedigree as a songwriter
the fuss is about when she stars in more apparent than a fine dramatic sensibility and is the strongest influence on this
two Opera Australia productions in her magnificent the ability to inhabit character musical’s stylistic direction, and
this year: first in the title role of Letter Scene are nowhere more apparent than tellingly the piano is a ubiquitous
Verdi’s Luisa Miller and then as in her magnificent performance of presence throughout. The score
Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte. Tatyana’s Letter Scene. has a strong momentum, and
They can also get an idea from this, her Alongside favourites like Puccini’s Mi while there are moments of repose
first solo studio recording, which is excellently Chiamano Mimì and The Song to the Moon from and introspection, they’re a little
produced by the ABC Classics team. The 30 Dvorˇák’s Rusalka, we get some Massenet and too scarce in this forward-moving
year-old from Essendon, Melbourne, built the title track, Vendulka’s gorgeous Lullaby musical fantasy. The story is
her reputation with roles like Tatyana in from Smetana’s Hubička (The Kiss). Sadly a strange one (not at all a bad
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Donna Elvira there’s no Mozart – perhaps for volume two? thing), and with a hell of a lot of
in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2014. Then last year It’s good as well to hear such fine playing plot background to get through,
she made a triumphant Royal Opera House from the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra some of the music comes off as a
debut in Onegin and as Micäela in Bizet’s Carmen under Andrea Molino, relishing their release bit confused. But the melodic
(arias from both are featured on The Kiss). from the sonic dungeon of the Sydney Opera writing is charming, and the score
Car has a versatile voice – she started studying House pit. Listen out for the beautiful horn has the most endearing innocence
jazz singing before turning to orchestral – and in the closing moments of the Letter Scene. thanks to the subject matter.
this certainly won’t harm her career where, The band also gets a chance to shine in the Spend some time with this one
with the bar set high by Anne-Sofie von Otter, Tchaikovsky, Cilea and Smetana selections. SM – it’ll grow on you. AA

84 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


Celebrating Frank Sinatra
Live from The Proms
The John Wilson Orchestra
WARNERS 25646028443 (DVD)
★★★✩✩
Old blue eyes is back care of
Wilson and his wannabe cast
Frank Sinatra has been hailed
as one of the greatest popular
musicians of the last century
and way ahead of the pack in his
field. It’s a big claim, but given
the man’s remarkable vocal
talents, his unerring good taste
in choice of songs and brilliant
arrangements, the claim is
reasonable; certainly in sharp
contrast to the petulant wailing of
so many current pop singers.
This concert was recorded
during the 2015 BBC Proms in front
of a vast and admiring crowd as
part of the Sinatra centenary. The
recording is excellent and the three
singers account for themselves
reasonably well, if somewhat under
voiced in context. For example,
even allowing for being in the
shadow of Sinatra, Seth Macfarlane
gets off to a very ordinary start.
Thankfully he improves. Amiable
Jamie Parker, better known to
many of us as an actor, sings nicely
but engages in a bit too much
managed ‘cool’. The best thing
on the DVD is the excellent show
band. We can see clearly why it is
regarded as one of the world’s best.
However, the DVD slick is
a disgrace. Nelson Riddle and
Robert Farnon are praised on stage
by Macfarlane for their brilliant
arrangements, but there is not one
word about them on the slick or
in the credits. On the track list,
one would never guess that Three
Preludes was an arrangement of
Gershwin’s piano originals and
not a song. This is just downright
sloppy. James McCarthy
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Mozart
Il Re Pastore
Classical Opera Company/Ian Page
SIGNUM SIGCD433 (2CD)
★★★★✩
Young Wolfgang’s music is fit
to turn shepherds into kings
Mozart’s two-act serenata Il Re
Pastore was written in 1775 in
response to a commission by
the Archbishop of Salzburg.
Metastasio’s libretto, based on a
Torquato Tasso play, tells the story
of Alexander the Great’s attempts
at diplomatic matchmaking after
his defeat of Strato, tyrant of the
Phoenician city of Sidon.
Alessandro (John Mark Ainsley)
finds the true heir to the throne
of Sidon in lowly shepherd
Aminta (Sarah Fox), brought up
in ignorance of his royal lineage.
He and Elisa (Ailish Tynan) are in
love, but Alessandro is unaware
of this and tries to marry Aminta
to Strato’s daughter, Tamiri (Anna
Devin), who in turn is in love with
nobleman Agenore (Benjamin
Hulett). Confusion ensues, after
which Alessandro cuts this
particular Gordian Knot by making
Aminta and Elisa rulers of Sidon
and giving Agenore and Tamiri
another kingdom to rule over.
This fourth volume in Classical
Opera’s planned complete survey
of Mozart’s operas is every bit
as terrific as the first three, with
dramatically fulsome singing from
all five soloists. Aminta’s famous
arias Aer Tranquillo and L’Amerò
are of course particular highlights,
while Ainsley’s Si Spande al Sole in
Faccia shows he’s lost none of the
eloquence and agility for which he
is famous. The playing from period
band Orchestra of Classical Opera
under founding conductor Ian Page
is stylish and gutsy throughout. WY
Reviewed using Sennheiser
HD700 headphones
REVIEWS O
Rossini
La Donna del Lago
Joyce DiDonato ms, Juan Diego Flórez t,
Metropolitan Opera/Riccardo Minasi
ERATO 25646050987 (2DVD)
★★★ ✩
Rossini’s Highland homage to Sir
Walter kept on boil by vocal fireworks
La Donna del Lago (The Lady of the Lake) is Rossini’s romantic
take on a narrative poem written in 1810 by the doyen of
Highland romanticism, Sir Walter Scott. Given that this was the
first Italian opera to be based on Scott, Rossini seems to have
had his finger right on the pulse, and the opera was subsequently
popular until about 1860 after which it disappeared until 1958.
The poem is based on a popular myth that King James V
of Scotland used to wander the kingdom in disguise in order
to find out what his subjects thought of him. Coming across
Elena, daughter of the rebel Douglas, he is smitten with her
loveliness. She is conflicted, being betrothed to the swaggering
rebel leader Rodrigo but in love with Malcolm, another rebel
and the trouser role of the piece. The uprising is duly defeated
by the Royalists and Rodrigo is killed, but the King’s enduring
affection for Elena secures pardons for her father and lover.
In Paul Curran’s minimalist but period production for The Met,
there’s plenty of brooding skies but not much spectacle. Gone, for
example, is Rossini’s opening coup de théâtre where Elena arrives
singing a cavatina as she rows across the lake. Instead poor old
Joyce DiDonato simply has to sing prettily as she hoiks herself
over a hillock. Given that she is who she is, the singing is more
than just pretty, the voice clean and bright, if a little stretched at
the very top. She’s aided and abetted by first-rate performances
from Juan Diego Flórez as the King, Daniela Barcellona as a warmly
contrasted Malcolm, and especially by the thrilling John Osborn in
the stratospheric role of Rodrigo, ensuring that there is plenty of
vocal excellence to make up for dramatic limitations.
Despite some static staging (McVicar would get far more realism
out of this, one suspects) and a gruff Douglas from Oren Gradus,
there is much to enjoy and the camera catches it all very nicely. CP
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 85
O REVIEWS
Reissues round-up
THE SOUND OF KINGS, FIT FOR KINGS
Sir David Willcocks and his heady choir represent a tradition at its very peak
First this month a 29-CD box set
from Decca brings together all the
recordings made for the Argo label
by the Choir of King’s College,
Cambridge under Sir David Willcocks
(who passed away in September of
last year). Recorded between 1957
and 1975, these discs showcase the
choir at the height of their fame.
The breadth and difficulty of the
repertoire is staggering: composers
represented include Orlando Gibbons,
Thomas Tallis, William Byrd,
Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn, and even
Herbert Howells and Britten. The
Choir’s recording of the Bach St. John
Passion features three great English
tenors: Peter Pears, Robert Tear and
Alexander Young, as well as Elizabeth
Harwood and Helen Watts. In
Pergolesi’s Magnificat, soloists include
Ian Partridge and a youthful Janet
Baker. The collection includes several
complete services, including two of
REISSUE OF
THE MONTH
Sir David Willcocks
86 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
the Service of Lessons and Carols.
Two bonus discs are conducted by
Basil Ord, Willcocks’ predecessor who
first put King’s College Choir on the
map. Some listeners find the English
chorister tradition passionless; for
others it represents purity itself.
Either way, this collection
contains some of the finest
examples on record. and difficulty of
The vocalising is the King’s College
gutsier in an Eloquence
reissue of operatic
recitals from the 1950s
featuring two larger than
life divas: Inge Borkh and the
formidable Ljuba Welitsch. Borkh, a
popular Salome and Turandot of her
day, gets the lion’s share. Her voice
is too large for the Dvořák (Rusalka)
and Debussy (L’Enfant Prodigue)
selections, but she is able to let rip in
Salome’s final scene from Strauss’s
opera as well as the aria Ocean,
...with Phillip Scott
thou Mighty Monster! from Weber’s This month’s
Oberon, and Beethoven’s concert aria reissues
Ah Perfido! Welitsch’s smouldering
Salome is not represented, but the
fiery red-headed soprano sings arias
from Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades,
Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera,
and German operettas.
The breadth One of the most Bach • Byrd • et al
engaging reissues The Complete Argo
to come from Decca Recordings
repertoire is Eloquence this year Choir of King’s
staggering is a programme College Cambridge/
of 20th-century Sir David Willcocks
Hungarian chamber DECCA 4788918 (29CD)
music, comprising the
Piano Quintet, Op. 1 and Sextet for
Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet
and Horn by Dohnányi as well as
Kodály’s String Quartet No 2. None
of these works is at all well known,
but they are thoroughly delightful. Various Composers
The piquant Kodály Quartet is from a The Decca Recitals
1979 disc with Vienna’s Musikverein Inge Borkh s, Ljuba
Quartet, while András Schiff (since Welitsch s
knighted) and members of the ELQ4820280
Takács Quartet are responsible for
the Dohnányi items. The syncopated
finale of Dohnányi’s Sextet is so
joyful, and so buoyantly played, you
will want to encore it immediately.
Meanwhile, that prolific French
composer Darius Milhaud (1892- Dohnányi
1974) is well served in a 10-disc Chamber Works
box from Warner Classics, further András Schiff p,
fruit of the company’s acquisition of Kalman Berkes cl,
EMI and Erato. Milhaud’s popular Radovan Vlatkovic hn,
ballet scores are here in oft-reissued Takács Quartet
performances by the French ELQ4807406
National Orchestra under Leonard
Bernstein, but there are also many
rarities: three symphonies (Nos 2,
4 and 8), piano music, chamber
music and vocal works. The
composer is heard as pianist and
conductor, accompanying the Milhaud
coloratura soprano Janine Micheau Une Vie Heureuse
in his stratospheric Ronsard Various performers
settings, while a selection of his ERATO 2564634844
Piano Concertos is conducted by (10CD)
“Sydney’s own” David Robertson.
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 BRODSKY
QUARTET WITH LOVE AND FURY
& KATIE
NOONAN

An unstoppable collision of colossal talent providing a spine-tingling experience as they

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O REVIEWS

Live Performances
NICOLE CAR SHINES AS VERDI’S LUISA MILLER
The rapidly rising soprano leads a vocally stellar cast in a gem that deserves to be better known
Opera Australia
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
FEBRUARY 11, 2016
★★★★★
For aficionados, Verdi’s Luisa Miller represents
the start of his middle period, the fertile five
years that saw hits like Rigoletto and Il Trovatore
culminate in La Traviata. And yet, like its
immediate successor Stiffelio (another fine opera),
productions of Luisa Miller don’t come along that
often. It has its hit tenor aria – the lilting Quando
le sere al placido, popularised by Domingo among
others – and its ought-to-be-a-hit soprano
aria – Lo vidi e’l primo palpito. It has fine roles
for baritone and two basses, romance, villainy,
poison... what more does an opera need?
Based on Schiller’s play Love and Intrigue –
one of his sturm und drang specials – Verdi and
his librettist Cammerano tamed some of the
revolutionary aspects, pushing it safely back
in time and skewing their take towards the
love story. A decade later, and the composer
might have balanced sentiment with a bit more
political jiggery-pokery, but not in 1849. The plot
begins with two young people in love – Luisa,
daughter of a retired soldier and Rodolfo, the
local Count’s son in disguise. When Rodolfo’s
affection is revealed, his father forbids him to see
his low-born sweetheart while she is duped into
declaring love for Wurm, the Count’s weasely
steward. Result: tears, trauma, a poisoned
chalice and a drawn-out double death scene.
What the composer lacks in forward-looking
dramaturgy, he makes up for in imaginatively
constructed aria and scene structure and novel
orchestrations (there’s an organ, bells and a
cimbasso – that’s a now obsolete five-valved
trombone-like thing). He even ditches the
traditional banda in favour of some
atmospheric offstage Tyrolean
Car is remarkable
horns. In short, it’s a beautiful
in her first Verdi
score, imaginative and tuneful.
Giancarlo Del Monaco’s solid role, singing with
staging features a grimly stylised
Greek chorus (you’re never quite
sure if they are at a wedding or a
funeral) who endlessly circle the stage.
In the centre, the principals are treated more
naturally. The production plays out against
Jacopo Pantani’s austere black and white marble
design – a sort of monument to the perfect
bourgeois family, literally turned upside down.
Del Monaco can’t escape the melodramatic
shortcomings of the work – all those reveals,
the poison, the 15-minute death scene, and the
diabolical doings of the duplicitous Wurm (with
that name, could he be anything other than a
dyed-in-the-wool villain?). Indeed, at times he
embraces it. But when musical standards are this
high, the odd snigger at an over-the-top opera
moment hardly matters. This is one of those
evenings where the stellar principals, the sterling eyed Rodolfo, managing to create a believable
supporting cast, the rich singing of the OA
chorus, and Andrea Licata’s sure hand on the
tiller of an excellent orchestra conjoin to elevate
proceedings towards an operatic Nirvana.
Nicole Car is remarkable in her first Verdi
role, singing with impressive amplitude, yet
never sacrificing detail and attention to text
for sheer decibels. That said, when lung
power is called for she soars over the
ensembles. Meanwhile, she’s able
to pull back to pick out an elegant
staccato coloratura line, shape
the descent from a passionate top
impressive note, or ‘die’ gracefully without a
amplitude crack or a gurgle. The duets with
her noble-minded, adoring father
and her passionate, unstable lover are
among the evening’s many highlights. The
opening night crowd deservedly went wild for
what was a genuine succès d’estime.
Slovakian baritone Dalibor Jenis is in glorious
vocal form as her noble paterfamilias. Allowing
just a hint of age to occasionally colour the voice,
his powerful tone and creamy legato singing
make him a dream Verdi baritone. His heroic
upper register rings out straight as a die, never
over-covering at the top. His radiant aria, Sacra
la scelta è d’un consorte (The choice of a husband
is sacred) is the opera’s ethical theme song and
Jenis makes every note count.
Equally exciting is Diego Torre as the wild-
character out of a bit of a histrionic. He uses
his substantial voice with sensitivity, scaling
it back (more often than he managed in Don
Carlos) to powerful effect. He does a nice line in
inflected recitative, and of course those top notes
are golden. The opera sports matching wicked
basses – a Verdi speciality – and the excellent
American Raymond Aceto duly goes head-to-
head with his Australian counterpart Daniel
Sumegi. Mezzo-soprano Sian Pendry is more
than adequate as the ‘other’ woman.
Luisa Miller is surely one of the riskier
numbers in this year’s OA programme and
Photo © Prudence Upton

Lyndon Terracini deserves a pat on the back

Dalibor Jenis, Raymond Aceto
and Nicole Car in Luisa Miller
for taking a chance on a rarity that pays off so
spectacularly. No fan of 19th-century Italian
opera – or good singing in general – can afford
to miss such a golden opportunity. Clive Paget
Luisa Miller is in Melbourne from May 16-27

88 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


ALONDRA’S BIG NIGHT
De la Parra’s Mahler Two soars to the heavens
Queensland Symphony
Orchestra
Concert Hall, QPAC
FEBRUARY 27, 2016
★★★★★
When Mahler’s Symphony No
2 was first performed in full,
reception was tepid at best. It wasn’t
until Mahler himself stepped up
to conduct that the Resurrection
Symphony began to gain both
popular and critical traction. In
Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s
first Maestro programme of the
year, the piece is in hands Mahler
himself would surely have been
happy with. After months of
breathless anticipation and a
fiercely possessive advertising
campaign that took over Brisbane’s
Southbank, Alondra de la Parra
finally stepped onto the stage in the
role of Music Director designate.
She did not disappoint. Under her
hand, QSO were in fine fettle, and
delivered a Resurrection that was
both crystal clear in execution and
rich in emotional colour.
The first movement, Mahler’s
symphonic poem, Totenfeier,
opened the evening with dynamic
grandeur. The piece, depicting a
hero’s funeral, oscillated between
the stately tones of a dirge and
Photo © Chris Lee
a violent, raw response to the
disaster of death – here superbly
worked by a union of frenetic
strings and strident brass.
Immediately, de la Parra proved
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Alondra de la Parra
the worth of her appointment,
deftly negotiating the opposing
moods of the movement, and
finely balancing Mahler’s
bombardment with his delicacy.
Retreating from solemnity, the
second movement slipped into
the warm nostalgia of a Ländler.
St. Anthony of Padua’s Sermon to
the Fishes provided the material
for the Scherzo, an ironic account
of an ultimately fruitless sermon
to the aquatic life of Italy. Once
again, fleeting joviality soon
gave way to chaos and despair,
as the Symphony bunked down
for its apocalyptic finale.
While the tremendous final
movement afforded QSO a
chance to flaunt their skills as an
ensemble, it was the brass that
shone at the end of the evening.
The dim, unseen chorus were
both technically well managed
and narratively enriching.
Joining proceedings late in the
day, the chorus – Ensemble-in-
Residence, The Australian Voices
– were irreproachable as the
voice of saintly salvation.
With de la Parra at the helm,
the Resurrection Symphony was
played very well indeed and
Mahler’s span of emotional
and technical virtuosity was
realised to its fullest extent.
A fine opener for QSO’s 2016
season, and a good sign for the
future of the orchestra under
the command of Alondra de la
Parra. Madeleine Dale
SCHEHERAZADE TIMES 2
Robertson delivers a pair of musical tales well told
Sydney Symphony
Orchestra
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
MARCH 2, 2016
★★★★
“It was said that [Scheherazade]
had perused the works of the
poets and knew them by heart;
she had studied philosophy
and the sciences, arts and
accomplishments; and she was
pleasant and polite, wise and witty,
well read and well bred.” So said
Sir Richard Burton translating the
1001 Nights. Rimsky-Korsakov
took some of that and ran with it in
his four-movement Scheherazade.
John Adams, on the other hand,
sees her as more of a legendary
feminist icon; a woman for all
times confronting, challenging
and ultimately escaping male
prejudices through the medium of
a four-movement violin concerto,
aptly named Scheherazade.2.
Programming them back-to-back
is a great way, then, to reflect
on musical thoughts and gender
politics over 100 years or so.
Opening with a mighty series
of corpulent chords on trombones
and tuba, Robertson’s reading of
the Rimsky was grand and weighty
when required, pulling back to a
chamber-like dynamic to allow for
dainty solos from viola, cello, flute,
oboe and clarinet, each of whom
were on terrific form. In complete
contrast was concertmaster
Andrew Haveron’s sinuous,
REVIEWS O
sexy Scheherazade, weaving a
spell with beautifully measured
phrasing and delicate touches
involving tiny, subtle slides and
suspensions. Taking his time like
the best storytellers, Robertson’s
tale was full of dramatic twists
and turns. The final crashing
shipwreck when it came was timed
to a heart-stopping tee, before
Haveron played the piece out with
ineffable sweetness.
The Adams, weighing in at
around 50 minutes, is certainly no
makeweight. A big, serious work,
it was written for Leila Josefowicz.
A diminutive figure dressed in
shalwar pants and sandals, she
looked every inch the object of a
Sultan’s affection, and conveyed
every emotion in the work, not
just though her playing, but
frequently through intense facial
expressions helping her act out
her tale. Her fine, silvery tone was
a good counterpart to Haveron’s
more copper-tinted take on the
Rimsky, and especially interesting
to contrast as Adams samples and
flirts with many of the intervals in
the solo part of the older work.
It would be impossible to find
a finer exponent of Scheherazade.2
than Leila Josefowicz, and
Robertson’s experienced way with
Adams ensured the SSO were
sensitive, accomplished partners
throughout. It’s to be hoped that
a recording will emerge to allow
a second and third hearing of this
intriguing and challenging (in a
good way) major work. Clive Paget
Leila Josefowicz
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 89
O PANORAMA
Panorama
THEATRE · DANCE
[ DANCE ]
Dance diptych
dazzles in
Kathak style
Indian dance delivers
narrative intelligence
and virtuosity
Within
Aditi Mangaldas, PIAF
Heath Ledger Theatre, Perth
FEBRUARY 11, 2016
★★★★
REVIEW Despite its ancient origins,
dating as far back as the 4th century BC, the
traditional Indian dance form of Kathak has
emerged in recent years as a surprisingly
fertile foundation for contemporary dance
makers. International choreographer Akram
Khan has been a major pioneer in folding the
distinctive language of Kathak into a more
modern vernacular of dance theatre, and
Khan’s protégé, Aakash Odedra, has begun to
earn an increasingly global reputation as the
natural successor to Khan’s bold reimagining
of this classical Indian choreography.
By contrast, Aditi Mangaldas, one of the
world’s most highly regarded Kathak danseuses,
is more of a purist. The vocabulary of her dance
works is derived almost exclusively from the
characteristic breakneck swirls, percussive
foot stamps and sharply carved, outstretched
gestures found in the classical iteration of
90 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
· VISUAL ART
Kathak, but that’s not to say that this dance
doesn’t communicate with a contemporary
audience with the same immediacy as its more
progressive practitioners. Fundamentally,
Kathak is rooted in storytelling, transcribing the
emotionally vibrant narratives of Indian folklore
into movement, so even when this highly
structured dance technique is used to explore a
more abstracted model of expression, the result
is saturated with a powerful narrative intention.
Mangaldas’ Within is a diptych of contrasting
works, offering a showcase of Kathak’s generous
versatility. Beginning with Knotted, we are
brought into a dark, turbulent realm of frenetic
conflict. Figures dart across the stage, appearing
from the shadows just long enough to offer a
desperate burst of gestures before immediately
disappearing back into the inky blackness.
Inspired by the horrific 2012 gang rape and
murder of a 23-year-old woman in South Delhi,
this piece stares down some deeply unsettling
narrative undercurrents, but it also celebrates
the resilience and strength of the female spirit.
The Indian legal system does not allow the
names of rape victims to be published by the
press, so the name “Nirbhaya” – meaning
“fearless” in Hindi – was adopted by the media
and the public. Within is this brave defiance
· BOOKS · FILM
Photograph © Toni Wilkinson
Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company
made flesh; the various episodic sections
of the work orbit around a central female
protagonist who is seemingly pulled through
an onslaught of physical struggles, emerging
changed yet dauntless from this trauma.
From this darkness, Unwrapped brings us
back into the light. Exploring a less specific
theatrical impetus, this gloriously uplifting piece
is classical Kathak – albeit with a contemporary
hue – at its most virtuosic. Dressed in golden
silk, their ankles clad in bells and faces covered
in a shroud, six dancers are accompanied by
a traditional ensemble of Indian musicians
performing live. This piece is almost boastful
in its unrestrained agility, propelled by a
scattershot of thrilling asymmetrical rhythms
that defy the ear’s anticipation.
Unquestionably, the most exhilarating
element of Unwrapped is Mangaldas herself.
Appearing on stage as a silhouette against the
amber glow of the backdrop, she is a dancer
as expressively astute as any ballet étoile.
Her artistry and poise, dramatic gifts and
unshakable technique are astounding; dance
as effortlessly compelling as this is a joy to watch
in itself, but underpinned by the questioning
intelligence of Mangaldas, it becomes
something transformative. Maxim Boon
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 PANORAMA O

Searching for light at the end of the tunnel

SDC’s Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela illuminates the pressures of success
PREVIEW Rafael Bonachela suffers from scary because once you’ve committed to an notes. “That can be a memory, or a desire, an
an embarrassment of riches. With multiple idea you can begin to question if there’s a emotion or something we still haven’t felt yet,
Helpmann-awards on his mantlepiece, as well better one just around the corner. But you perhaps a yearning. It’s not very scientific, but
as a stack of rave reviews from across Australia have to trust in your abilities.” it does come from a human place and that’s
and abroad, the past 12 months have been Crucially, in spite of the pressure that has how a work of abstract expression can still
flawless for Sydney Dance Company’s Artistic been a necessity of Lux Tenebris’ creation, communicate something powerful.”
Director. But now he faces a new challenge. Bonchela has two major advantages: a deep The strength of these statements are
Following this season, expectations are high understanding of his dancer’s capabilities already evident in the studio: lunging
for the Spanish choreographer’s latest work, and an intimate rapport that has yielded extensions and sharply coiled duets offer a
Lux Tenebris. Exploring the relationship and an abundantly fruitful collaboration. “With more severe language than previous works
innate conflict between darkness and light, some of these dancers, we have been working by this choreographer, but this is, in part,
this pure dance work will be his eleventh together for seven years, and yet they still due to the rich exchange of ideas between
full ensemble work for SDC since he took surprise me and take me to places I hadn’t him and his dancers. For Bonchela, the
the reins of the company in 2008. But success thought of,” he says. “It’s so vital that the primary concern is the honesty of the dance.
sometimes comes with drawbacks. Demand space we work in is one where people are “I could go in front of them and make a very
for the company has never been higher and allowed to feel safe and to give as much nice dance piece, but if you want to create
with foreign tours, regional performances and of themselves as they want.” something that moves beyond just ‘nice’
a full-to-bursting calendar last year, Bonachela There is a wonderful sense of generosity then you’ve got to be open to using all your
has spent a restless eight months just thinking and, perhaps most importantly, an absence of resources. That’s where you find something
his way through the conceptual foundation ego about this approach, as well as sense of unique and truthful.” Maxim Boon
of this new choreography. emotional authenticity. It’s this connection to
Working with composer and long-term universal human experiences that Bonachela Sydney Dance Company’s CounterMove is
collaborator Nick Wales on the score, it tries to channel through his dance. “There must touring to Canberra, Melbourne, NSW, QLD,
wasn’t until his dancers returned from their always be a reason behind the movement,” he NT and WA until August 27 this year
Christmas break that work could begin in
earnest. “Even before I knew anything about
this work I had a real sense of this music, and
this gave me a real instinct for this space and
the kind of movement that should inhabit it,”
Bonchela tells me. There’s a sense of intensity
about the choreographer, cut through with a
subtle hint of anxiety. “We’re not quite done
yet. It’s been a big challenge: at times we’ve
found some walls and we’ve had to climb
them, but we’re getting to a place now where
I’m really happy,” he confides.
While this new piece has been made in
an intense burst of creativity, Bonchela has
learned to trust his instincts, particularly
since the award-winning success of his last
major work, Frame of Mind. “You can drive
Photograph © Peter Greig

yourself crazy when you’re trying to decide

what the right approach should be, but I’ve
become more trusting of myself. When I
have an idea I go for it, and if it turns out to
be wrong I can always change it later,” he Lux Tenebris’ dancers Nelson Earl,
explains. “I’ve trained myself to be as efficient Holly Doyle, Fiona Jopp, David Mack
with my thinking as possible. It can be quite

Swan Lake Stephen Baynes’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Complete Works Freighted
DANCE traditional production, Shakespeare’s whimsical with paradox, this performance

ALSO ON commissioned in 2012 for TAB’s

50th anniversary, combines grand
masterpiece is given new life by
acclaimed choreographer Liam
takes on the knottiness of
mediation. Sydney Biennale,
THIS MONTH… scale and psychological intimacy.
Australian Ballet, Sydney, April 1-20
Scarlett. Queensland Ballet,
Brisbane, April 1-16
Museum of Contemporary Art
Australia, April 10

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 91

O PANORAMA

[ THEATRE ] Q&A
Peter Evans
Driving Miss Julie (director)

Kip Williams explains the attractions of transgressing

pREVIEW Director Kip
Williams is drawn to dramas of
transgression. “I think it’s one of
the major threads of the work I’ve
done so far,” says Williams as he
prepares his new production of
August Strindberg’s Miss Julie for
the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Williams, 30, is one of the most
prominent of Australia’s rising
young directors, having presented
a series of visually striking and
emotionally provoking productions
for the Sydney Theatre Company
during his tenure as an Associate
Director. He has built a reputation
as a thoughtful framer of canon texts such
as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth,
and Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer,
the latter earning him a 2015 Helpmann Award
for Best Direction of a Play.
In Miss Julie, Strindberg examines a disastrous
upstairs-downstairs relationship between Julie,
the daughter of an aristocratic family (played in
this production by Emma Hamilton), and her
father’s trusted manservant, Jean (Mark Leonard
Winter). “I’ve been thinking a lot about the ways
Miss Julie has similar resonances to Romeo and
Juliet,” says Williams. “Romeo and Juliet have
this magnetic compulsion toward each other
born of encountering a mind that challenges
their own in an unprecedented way. It’s the same
for Miss Julie and Jean. The compulsion results in
each person completely redefining their sense of
self and in both instances there is a naivety about
what that redefinition will mean.”
Written in 1888 at a time when Strindberg was
powerfully swayed by French author Émile Zola’s
Naturalism in the Theatre manifesto, Miss Julie is
a play marked with a “misogynistic viewpoint”,
Williams believes. “That is what makes it so ripe
for re-examination. I’m always attracted to the
idea of looking at a canon play in the light of our
contemporary sexual and gender politics.”
Miss Julie
Williams’ production is strongly anchored
to Strindberg’s original text and the era it
describes. “I don’t feel the story really works
unless that very 19th-century class tension
is there,” says Williams. “And I also think
a text set in the past can make it easier to
see ourselves in the present. It’s slightly
different to looking in the mirror. In a period
production, the image reflected lulls us into
thinking we’re not being shown ourselves,
and that is very disarming. My aim is that
by the end of the play the audience has
completely forgotten about that distance and
will be seeing a full and present reality.”
Williams has translated Miss Julie himself,
“cleaning up” a new word-for-word translation
from the original Swedish. “I’m quite
influenced by Andrew Upton’s versions of
classic plays. I’ve directed one of them myself
(Upton’s Children of the Sun) and I really like
the contemporary voice he’s able to bring to
those stories. I want the audience to come to the
world of the play and find enough familiarity in
it to allow them to be transported to a particular
time and place. Theatre can deal with the past
and make it a very present thing.” Jason Blake
Melbourne Theatre Company’s Miss Julie is at
Southbank Centre, Melbourne, April 21-May 21
Are you enjoying the challenge of doing a
period production of Romeo and Juliet?
Most of my work tends to be abstracted
but this time the costumes are based on
period costumes and we’re unashamedly
delighting in beautiful fabrics. By putting it
in period you get to think about something
like night. Unless you live in the country, or
in the desert, you don’t really know what
night is like. But night’s very important to
Shakespeare and he sets a lot of important
scenes at night. That sense of absolute
darkness and danger comes out when you
work in period. The plague is something
that’s very prevalent in the play, and
throughout Shakespeare’s career, so we get
to think about things like that and about
the feud, which sits behind it all.
Have you discovered things about the play
you might have forgotten?
I’m pleasantly surprised by how superbly
structured it is. The way the colours of the
scenes keep changing. He takes you into one
world and then he slams down something
completely different next to it. The greatest
example is the way that we go from love to
violence. It’s like directing comedy for the
first half, but really the whole thing is about
love. Even the violence in the first half has
a sense of play about it. The people are so
vibrant and full of free will. Think about the
nurse and the friar, and obviously Juliet, who
is the most supremely drawn young woman.
What would you like people to take away
from this new staging?
A lot of people probably haven’t seen a
production for years, or the last time they
saw it was the Baz Luhrmann or something.
This will be quite different – a more
romantic experience, I hope.
Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is touring
to Canberra and Melbourne until May 1

Hay Fever A classic full of secret The Great Fire A comedy, a family, Good People David Lindsay
theatre seductions, misjudged meetings ten actors, a landscape, a great deal Abaire’s wonderfully whip smart

ALSO ON and wicked revelations with an

exceptional cast led by Heather
of conversation about politics and
life, Christmas, large hopes, five
comedy of manners shakes up a
delicious cocktail of secrets, lies,
THIS MONTH… Mitchell as Judith Bliss. Sydney
Theatre Company, April 11-May 21
tons of love: middle Australia in
2016. Belvoir, Sydney, April 2-May 8
class and race. Ensemble Theatre,
Sydney, April 7-May 21

92 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 PANORAMA O

Putting the horror back into the little shop

Razor-sharp revival of this schlock B-movie musical is about as good as it gets
Little Shop of Horrors
Luckiest & Tinderbox Productions
Hayes Theatre, Sydney
FEBRUARY 23, 2016
★★★★
REVIEW Alan Menken and the late
Howard Ashman’s 1982 cult classic, Little Shop of
Horrors, is one of those indestructible musicals,
seemingly destined to triumph time and again
and winning a new generation of fans with
every incarnation. That’s not to say that it can’t
flop, or at least wilt, if the creative juices aren’t
flowing properly. No fear of that though in
Dean Bryant’s lovingly-husbanded, razor-sharp
staging, whose carefully-fertilised tendrils fill
the tiny Hayes Theatre to the gunwales.
The unprepossessing source material is a
low-budget 1960 schlock-horror movie telling
the tale of a put-upon florist’s assistant, living in
a wretched suburb by the name Skid Row, whose
life and fortunes are transformed when an alien
plant spore lands in his back room. Bit by bit it
grows into a national sensation. The only catch
is the creature feeds on blood, posing a dilemma
for nice-guy Seymour who has to increasingly
compromise his moral decency in order to keep
his floral meal ticket alive. Sondheim it ain’t, but
it has tunes, it has guts (in some productions,
literally) and it has bags and bags of heart.
For his simple tale, simply told, Bryant is
blessed by Owen Phillips’ pitch-perfect, off-
kilter, retro shop design. He also has a fabulous
series of plants (the final one with tentacles
to die for), courtesy of Australian puppetry
wizards Erth Visual and Physical Inc. The
production hardly puts a foot wrong, with a
heightened playing style pitched at just the
right level to raise maximum laughter. Andrew
Hallsworth’s whip-smart choreography could
Photograph © Jeff Busby
arc suggests he’s a schizophrenic psychopath.
It’s a big choice that should change the colour
of the whole show. Oddly it doesn’t.
Casting is a dream. Brent Hill is perfect as
Seymour, the orphan looking for love; societal,
parental and otherwise. He’s warm, charming
and you root for him instantly. His clean, light
baritone is perfect, and he’s not bad as the Deep
South rhythm and blues voice of Audrey II,
though perhaps his requirement to voice both is
to blame for us occasionally missing some of the
plant’s wittier lyrics. Esther Hannaford is even
better, putting in a remarkable turn as the ditzy
Audrey, Seymour’s work colleague, love interest
and the victimised girlfriend of a sadistic dentist.
With a convincingly winning Eastern European
immigrant twang to her NY accent, she’s at once
smart and vulnerable, and with peerless comic
timing she’s very, very funny. “He found me in
the gutter,” she confesses sadly, before slaying
us with the throw away: “it’s a night spot”. This
must be a sure-fire Helpmann-nomination!
Tyler Coppin makes a subtly scheming
Yiddisher grouch out of Mr Mushnik, his
character managing a delicate balancing act
between duplicitous weasel and wannabe father
figure. “I used to think you left a stench, but now
I see you are a Mensch,” he sings in Mushnik
and Son, his showstopper terpsichorean duet,
as he tries to woo the gullible Seymour. He’s
well contrasted with Scott Johnson as the goofy,
guffawing, gas-guzzling dentist who fascinates
and repels despite the obvious lack of charm
inherent in a woman-bashing professional sadist.
Topping off the supporting cast are knockout
performances by Josie Lane, Chloe Zuel and
Angelique Cassimatis as the Motown-inspired
girl group Chiffon, Ronnette and Crystal. Played
as Latin ladies from the Barrio rather than the
usual African-American vocal trio, they sing up
a storm and their high-voltage moves mean they
command the stage on every entrance.
Andrew Worboys’ musical direction and
Jeremy Silver’s effective sound design ensure
that every number as put across by the hidden
five-piece band feels and sounds just right.
For cast, design, direction – and not least that
fabulous piece of flailing flora – this pungently
manured Little Shop is well worth breaking open
your piggybank to see. Clive Paget
Little Shop of Horrors tours to Adelaide,
Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth
with extra Sydney dates in July

hardly be bettered and the cast seize and relish

every sassy strut and snap of the head. Bryant’s
only misfire is having the actor playing
Seymour also voice the plant. Are we to infer
the monstrous plant is merely a figment of the
imagination of a murderous man? Seymour Brent Hill in Little Shop of Horrors
Krelborn is a loser, but nothing in his character

Peddling A terse versed one person
play told in jagged jolting freeform
snap rap, about the kids who get
knocked down early and never
get a hand up. Melbourne Theatre
Company, April 21-May 6
Machu Pichu A funny and moving
new play about a couple learning
to love again in the face of
adversity, starring the sparkling
Lisa McCune. State Theatre
Company, Adelaide, April 13-May 1
Motherland Three intertwined,
sweeping stories of very different
women from different times,
united in the heartache of exile
from their homelands. Queensland
Theatre Company, April 20-30
Picnic at Hanging Rock Tom
Wright’s adaptation of the classic
novel is sure to excite and
perplex a whole new generation.
Black Swan State Theatre
Company, Perth, April 1-17

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 93

O PANORAMA

[ VISUAL ART ]
Putting the bang back in the Biennale
The embassies await as Sydney prepares to celebrate its 20th annual art fest
PREVIEW This April, the 20th Biennale
of Sydney returns with more than 73 artists
from 37 different countries. The theme for this
year’s festival is “The future is already here –
it’s just not evenly distributed”, and among the
themes being explored will be Indigenous land
rights, racism, global warming and the effects
of rapid technological progress.
Featuring visual arts, craft, performance,
dance and music, the Asia Pacific’s largest
contemporary visual arts event will be
presented at seven main venues across the
city: Cockatoo Island (Embassy of the Real),
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Embassy
of Spirits), Carriageworks (Embassy of
Disappearance), Artspace (Embassy of Non-
Participation), Museum of Contemporary
Art Australia (Embassy of Translation), a
bookshop (Embassy of Stanislaw Lem) and
Mortuary Station (Embassy of Transition).
Charwei Tsai
Curating the festival this year is German- Spiral Incense Mantra (2014)
born Stephanie Rosenthal. Having held the
the position of Chief Curator at the Hayward
Gallery in London since 2007, a key focus of
her curatorial practice is the exploration of the
relationship between visual art and free thought.
“I call the venues ‘embassies’ because an
embassy is a metaphor for a free space for
thinking, for beliefs,” she says. “So even if
I’m thinking about something in one way,
someone else should have the space to think
about it in another. It’s quite political.”
Festival highlights will include a 30-metre
sand recreation of Picasso’s Guernica at
Carriageworks (Embassy of Disappearance)
from American-Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei
and a live bird installation at Mortuary
Station (Embassy of Transition).
At Cockatoo Island (Embassy of the
Real), naval memorabilia sits alongside sets
from Angelina Jolie’s 2014 film, Unbroken.
Choreographic Objects will also be on display,
an installation from American choreographer Lee Mingwei
William Forsythe where visitors are invited to Guernica in Sand (2006 & 2015)
interact with swinging pendulums.

Tang Archaeological findings Whistler’s Mother A chance to Wrong Way Time Fiona Hall
VISUAL ARTS of gold, silver, glass, ceramics, see the historic portrait of the brings together hundreds of

ALSO ON sculptures and mural paintings

from the Golden Age of China over
artist’s mother from 1871, painted
by master artist James McNeill
disparate elements which find
alignments and create tensions.
THIS MONTH… a millennium ago. Art Gallery of
New South Wales, April 9-July 10
Whistler. National Gallery of
Victoria, March 26-June 16
National Gallery of Australia,
April 22-July 10

94 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


At the Art Gallery of New South Wales
(Embassy of Spirits), Aboriginal traditions are
explored by Japanese artist Taro Shinoda, who
ponders the place of Indigenous culture in
the modern world after his trip to the remote
community of Yirrkala in Arnhem Land. A
clay-covered room will deteriorate over time
and reveal red ochre underneath, a pigment
symbolic to Aboriginal peoples. In a light-
hearted installation, Paris-based American
artist Sheila Hicks will envelope the building’s
stone columns in brightly-coloured wool.
In addition to artworks presented across
the seven embassies, another prominent focus
of the festival is “in-between”, with smaller
exhibition sites including the cemetery in
Camperdown and a space between two
COLLECTOR’S CORNER TERRY MATASSONI
At Australian Galleries comes
an exhibition and art sale
from Australian painter Terry
Matassoni. Completing a
Diploma of Fine Art in 1980 and
a postgraduate diploma in art
in 1982 at the Victorian College
of the Arts, Matassoni has held
solo exhibitions in Melbourne,
Sydney, Adelaide and
Fremantle, Italy and Auckland,
New Zealand, and in group
shows in Toronto, Denmark,
Berlin and Chicago.
Exploring the physical and
psychological boundaries
between places and people,
Matassoni’s works capture a
sense of voyeurism implicit
in the observations of
streets, buildings and their
inhabitants. Informed by
urban environments, his
works capture the atmosphere
and feeling of a place in his
paintings developed from
thumbnail sketches, while solo
figures, couples and groups
illustrate subtle narratives.
In his practice Matassoni
experiments with varied oil techniques: painting
opaquely, alla prima or putting down multiple
layers to achieve a greater depth of colour.
In this exhibition, the artist presents a
juxtaposition between public and private
worlds. The large-scale The Place to Be (2012-
2013), depicts café-goers, heads bowed in
apparent sadness. In Love Gone Wrong (2013),
a sombre discussion between a couple is
captured through a bedroom window.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
houses in Redfern. These spaces are intended
to surprise passers-by with unexpected
experiences of contemporary art.
Around 70 per cent of artists participating
in the festival are presenting site-specific
commissions, with a series of interactive and
live art locations throughout inner Sydney.
In addition to numerous installations, there
will be performances from boychild, Boris
Charmatz, Neha Choksi, Mette Edvardsen,
Agatha Gothe-Snape, Mella Jaarsma, Lee
Mingwei, Adam Linder and Justene Williams
in collaboration with Sydney Chamber Opera.
The 20th Biennale of Sydney runs until
June 5. Entry is free. For more information
visit biennaleofsydney.com.au
For a careful examination of the relationship
between people and place, don’t miss this
opportunity to own a thoughtfully-measured
piece of Australia’s artistic landscape.
Terry Matassoni’s exhibition runs at
Australian Galleries, 35 Derby Street,
Collingwood, Victoria until April 10. For more
information phone (03) 9417 4303 or visit
australiangalleries.com.au
PANORAMA O
NEWS IN BRIEF
LONDON CALLS, FORSOOTH
theatre Melissa Madden-Gray,
better known as “Queen of Cabaret” Meow
Meow, has been cast as Titania in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream in London. The
Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe
Emma Rice described her as “the theatrical
equivalent of every woman,” adding that
she was “super glamorous, super
empathetic to the world and one of the
funniest creatures you will ever meet.”
STRONG ARM TACTICS
theatre Queensland Theatre
Company’s dynamic new Artistic Director
Sam Strong has announced a new National
Artistic Team in an initiative that will see 10
leading artists working to dissolve creative
borders within Australia. “I think it is fair to
say that Australian theatre has occasionally
been too preoccupied with State borders,
inter- and intra-city rivalries, and owning
talent rather than collaborating to develop
it,” said Strong. “I want to change that.” The
10 chosen artists come from a broad and
eclectic mix of disciplines, including actors,
writers, directors, designers, dramaturgs,
devisors, programmers and provocateurs.
NO ART FOR MELBOURNE
visual art The Melbourne Art Fair
has been cancelled for this year after a
number of galleries no longer felt able to
make the required commitment to the
2016 Fair and withdrew their applications
for exhibition spaces. The shock
cancellation comes after a management
reshuffle in recent years. The biennial event
has been running for 28 years, and as a
not-for-profit organisation relies strongly
on the funding and support of artists,
galleries and the public. With the
withdrawal of several high-profile galleries,
the financial burden was untenable,
although it is unclear if any alternative
revenue options had been explored.
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 95
O PANORAMA
[ FILM ]
A Bigger Splash
Opens: March 24
Genre: Drama
Duration: 120 minutes
★★★★✩
Schoenaerts and Swinton sizzle
in poolside rock-and-roll romp
With a title referencing a well-
known David Hockney painting,
there had to be a swimming
pool in this alluring new film
from Italian writer-director
Luca Guadagnino. This pool is
not in Hockney’s Los Angeles,
however, but attached to a villa on
a rocky island off the coast
of Sicily where four beautiful
adults soak up the sun’s rays while
the sexual and interpersonal
tensions rise to a sizzle.
Hiring the villa are English
rock star Marrianne, played by
a perfectly cast Tilda Swinton as
a kind of androgynous female
equivalent to David Bowie, resting
96 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
her voice after a throat operation,
and her new beau Paul (hunk-du-
jour Matthias Schoenaerts).
Suddenly dropping into their
idyll with an almighty splash is an
uninvited guest: Marrianne’s ex-
lover Harry (a sublimely annoying
Ralph Fiennes), a boisterous
record producer who gabbles as
if permanently on speed without
ever seeming to snort the stuff,
and quietly planning to win back
his former lover. Along for the
ride is bikinied teenage sex bomb
Penelope (Dakota Johnson), who
Harry introduces as his daughter
– though the exact nature of their
relationship is murky. And why
is she so outrageously angling for
Marrianne’s boyfriend?
Guadagnino previously
extracted a widely admired
performance from Swinton in
the elegant Italian melodrama
I Am Love. In this very different
film (loosely adapted from
1969’s La Piscine, starring Alain
...with Lynden Barber
Delon and Romy Schneider) she
is mostly voiceless, bar a few
rasps at moments of anger or
frustration, yet no less expressive
for that. Much of the first two-
thirds is spent building towards
the moment when all will come
undone. The cast is excellent,
the tension enticing, the outcome
unexpected. See it on the big
screen if you can.
Rams
Opens: April 7
Genre: Drama-comedy
Duration: 92 minutes
★★★★✩
Iceland – where the sheep really
do have reason to be nervous
If you will forgive the crushing
understatement, we don’t get
the chance to see many films
from Iceland, so when one
appears in our cinemas it’s a fair
supposition that it must have
Ralph Fiennes and
Tilda Swinton in A Bigger Splash
some individual qualities that
jump out. Indeed this one does,
even if they tend to amble out
of the gate to gently engage the
viewer rather than athletically
leaping over the fence.
The story concerns two sheep
farming brothers living adjacent
to one another in a secluded
valley. For years the siblings
have declined to get along.
Spectacularly so. Director Grímur
Hákonarson extracts much dry
and gentle humour from this odd-
couple relationship, though when
one of the brothers discovers
some of the herd are suffering
from scrapie, a fatal medical
condition, the mood darkens,
leading to a moving climax .
It’s nice to see that a film this
unassuming won a prize at last
year’s Cannes. In its careful
construction and attention to
detail it’s not far off perfection,
and while it may not be as widely
appealing as the 1985 Swedish hit,
www.limelightmagazine.com.au

My Life as a Dog, it has something
of its warmth and charm –
something of an occasional
Scandinavian speciality.
Sherpa
Opens: March 24
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 96 minutes
★★★★✩
A fascinating documentary that
gets way further than basecamp
Director Jen Peedom and her
team arrived at Everest base
camp in 2014 intending to make
a documentary about the role
of the Sherpas, the ethnic
group that has long helped
international mountaineers
Amsterdam to Zurich
A musical journey along the river Rhine with Len Amadio AO: 17 SEPT – 3 OCT 2016
Travel from Amsterdam, through Germany,
with a cruise on the picturesque middle
Rhine River to Heidelberg, Mainz,
Strasbourg and Zurich. Performances
include “le Nozze di Figaro” at the
Muziktheatre and a Concertgebouw
concert in Amsterdam, three concerts
at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, and
opera and other performances in Mainz,
Strasbourg and Zurich. Spectacular
scenery, great cities and glorious music.
For detailed itineraries or to receive our newsletter, go to www.alumnitravel.com.au or call 1300 799 887 or (02) 9290 3856
Rams
scale the world’s highest peak.
While the team was
filming, an avalanche killed 16
Sherpas. Instead of capitalising
voyeuristically on that human
disaster, Peedom homes in on
the Sherpas’ increasing sense of
militancy, letting them tell their
story and put their point of view,
in which they feel they’re
exploited by foreign climbers,
taking the greatest risks to give
the westerners the experience
they require, yet being frequently
treated with neo-colonial
arrogance. This is not a TV
documentary but a visually
impressive widescreen film that
demands to be seen at the cinema,
its impact heightened by an
excellent score from Antony Partos.
PANORAMA O
Victoria immediacy as a Spanish traveler
Opens: Limited release Sydney (impressive newcomer Laia
March 31-April. Melbourne already Costa), seen dancing by herself
open. Home entertainment later in a Berlin nightclub in the
in the year. opening scene, meets a team of
Genre: Drama-thriller friendly young local men and
Duration: 138 minutes wanders through the streets in
★★★★ the early hours getting to know
them. Gradually she finds these
German thriller explores the new pals have a dark side, and
dark side of Berlin by night as for the criminals to whom
they owe a debt...
This extraordinary drama- The film’s one-take approach
cum-thriller from new German means no editing of a few
director Sebastian Schipper mildly baggy scenes, and a key
displays a comparable seat- decision by the protagonist
of-the-pants energy to Tom is hard to swallow, but such
Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, which flaws are sidelined by the film’s
burst into view nearly 20 years strengths, including terrific
ago. It’s a dark-night-of-the- ensemble performances and a
soul tale filmed in an unbroken wonderful sequence involving a
two-and-a-quarter hour take. performance of Liszt’s Mephisto
This transmits a you-are-there Waltz you will not see coming.
Sherpa
Wagner’s Ring Cycle
With Len Amadio AO: 9 –17 DEC 2016
Alumni Travel is delighted to offer a tour
to Melbourne to revisit Opera Australia’s
acclaimed 2013 production of Wagner’s
four opera epic The Ring Cycle. Join us for
this major cultural event. This tour package
offers full day visits: one to the Mornington
Peninsula, and the other to Bendigo and
Castlemaine, time to explore Melbourne city
and its busy Arts scene, and best available
tickets to the four opera performances in
the last of the three cycles of performances.
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 WHAT'S ON O

What’s on
THE MUST-SEE MUSICAL EVENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA THIS MONTH

Susie Park Stephen Hough

Selby & Friends: Just ‘C’

ONATIONAL
Song Company: In Tempore Paschali
If ever someone set out to demonstrate the joy of
singing in polyphony, Monteverdi would be a natural
choice. With incredible six-part detail and the
contrapuntal skill the composer was so keen to show
off to Rome, the composer’s Missa In illo tempore’s
gloriously harmonious part-writing glows from
beginning to end.
WHEN: March 30-April 10
WHERE: Blackheath, Wollongong, Sydney, Berry
TICKETS: $20-$55
BOOK: (02) 8272 9500
[ songcompany.com.au ]
Australian Chamber Orchestra: Cinemusica
Despite over 80 years of combined music-making,
Cinemusica marks the first exciting collaboration
between Synergy Percussion and the Australian
Chamber Orchestra, showcasing the thrilling sonic
possibilities of strings and percussion and a shared
love of film through the music of Xenakis, Thomas
Newman, Herrmann, Bartók and a world premiere by
Timothy Constable.
WHEN: April 2-12
WHERE: Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne,
Adelaide
TICKETS: $47-$117
BOOK: 1800 444 444
[ aco.com.au ]
Built around the play on the letter ‘C’, this programme
opens with Copland’s Jewish-inspired music to trios
by Brahms, Shostakovich and the always popular
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No 2 – all composed in the
key of C or C Minor. Kathryn Selby has engaged her old
friends violinist Susie Park and cellist Clancy Newman
to perform with her in this all-trio concert.
WHEN: April 9-17
WHERE: Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide
TICKETS: $43-$75
BOOK: 1300 511 099
[ selbyandfriends.com.au ]
HOT
Musica Viva: Stephen Hough PICK
Stephen Hough is acclaimed
throughout the world as a superb
pianist, with a wide-ranging intellect and
thoughtful spirituality. He is also a noted
connoisseur of fine tea, perfume and hats. This
recital programme lightly references some of
these extra-musical things, offering a listening
experience of great emotion and brilliance in
works by Franck, Liszt, Schubert and Hough.
WHEN: April 14-May 2
WHERE: Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne,
Newcastle, Hobart, Brsiaben, Canberra, Perth
TICKETS: $30-$140
BOOK: 1800 688 482
[ musicaviva.com.au ]
OAUSTRALIAN CAPTIAL TERRITORY
Canberra Symphony Orchestra: Mozart
This concert opens with Mozart’s sublime Paris
Symphony and includes a fabulous and surprising
work, Out of the Blue, by featured composer
Nigel Westlake. To conclude this Mozart-inspired
programme, the CSO will perform Tchaikovsky’s
extravagant suite for full orchestra, Mozartiana.
WHEN: April 6-7
WHERE: Llewellyn Hall
TICKETS: $55-$88
BOOK: (02) 6262 6772
[ cso.org.au ]
ONEW SOUTH WALES
Sydney Symphony Orchestra:
Dohnányi conducts Brahms
Dohnányi begins his second SSO programme with
haunting and sombre music for strings, composed in
memory of the great Béla Bartók. Berg’s songs burst
with rich musical influences: his teacher Schoenberg,
of course, but also Wagner, the orchestral opulence of
Richard Strauss, and even the harmonies of Debussy.
WHEN: April 14-16
WHERE: Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: $39-$99
BOOK: (02) 8215 4600
[ sydneysymphony.com ]

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 99

O WHAT'S ON
Carolin Widmann
Gioconda’s Smile
A concert of works by two of Greece’s most popular
and distinguished modern composers: Manos
Hadjidakis’ famous orchestral suite Gioconda’s Smile
will be performed, together with songs by Stavros
Xarhakos, by a professional symphony orchestra and
local Greek-Australian musicians. The concert will be
conducted by George Ellis, who has made his own
orchestral arrangements.
WHEN: April 15
WHERE: City Recital Hall
TICKETS: $49-$110
BOOK: (02) 8256 2222
[ cityrecitalhall.com ]
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Sally Whitwell
The explosive talents of Aria award-winning
composer and pianist Sally Whitwell and virtuosic
young adult choir VOX will be showcased in this
eclectic programme. In this concert, Sally has
tapped into the “ jukebox of her mind” to compile a
programme that spans classic choral repertoire to
pop music, reworking compositions by Philip Glass
and Michael Nyman along with songs from Björk,
Ben Folds and Massive Attack.
WHEN: April 15-16
WHERE: Independent Theatre
TICKETS: $69
BOOK: (02) 9251 3115
[ sydneyphilharmonia.com.au ]
The Metropolitan Orchestra: The Russian
Streeton Trio’s pianist Benjamin Kopp will expose
the Russian within as he performs Tchaikovsky’s
popular and potent piano concerto. This all-Russian
evening concludes with Shostakovich’s enormous
Tenth Symphony evoking emotions of tragedy,
despair, terror and violence with a final fleeting
moment of triumph.
WHEN: April 16
WHERE: Eugene Goossens Hall
TICKETS: $22-$55
BOOK: (02) 8004 3472
[ metorchestra.com.au ]
100 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
Christoph von Dohnányi
Australian Youth Orchestra:
Young Symphonists
Australia’s youngest classical musicians from across
the country will perform under the guidance of
violist-conductor Roger Benedict. Their programme
includes Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy
Overture, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music,
Mendelssohn’s A Midsummers Night’s Dream and
Dvořák’s Othello Overture.
WHEN: April 16
WHERE: Parramatta
TICKETS: Free concert
BOOK: 1300 668 500
[ ayo.com.au ]
Australia Ensemble: Dreams and Prayers
A movement from Argentinian-born composer
Osvaldo Golijov’s Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
is at the thematic heart of this programme, which
explores a number of threads including the inflections
of music from South America, Hebraic themes
and ideas of contemplation and intimacy. Other
composers featured include Villa-Lobos and Kerry.
WHEN: April 16
WHERE: Sir John Clancy Auditorium UNSW
TICKETS: $15-$50
BOOK: (02) 9385 4874
[ music.unsw.edu.au ]
HOT
Sydney Symphony Orchestra: PICK
Romantic Memories
Christoph von Dohnányi makes his
long-awaited Australian debut and he’ll be
arriving with the music of a late-Romantic giant
in his luggage. Dohnányi pairs Bruckner’s Fourth
Symphony with Berg’s profoundly moving violin
concerto, performed here by Carolin Widmann.
WHEN: April 6-9
WHERE: Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: $39-$99
BOOK: (02) 8215 4600
[ sydneysymphony.com ]
Willoughby Symphony Orchestra: Inspired
Alexander Briger leads the Willoughby Symphony in
a performance of Schubert’s C Major Symphony and
the overture from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s
Dream. This concert also introduces Matthew Hindson
as 2016 Composer-in-Residence. The Caro String
Quartet joins the WSO for his work for String Quartet
and Orchestra, The Rave and the Nightingale.
WHEN: April 16-17
WHERE: Chatswood
TICKETS: $11-$47
BOOK: (02) 8075 9111
[ willoughby.nsw.gov.au ]
Utzon Music Series: Michael Barenboim
In his Sydney debut, Michael Barenboim performs
Bach’s D Minor Partita, culminating in that immense
chaconne, while Bach’s G Minor Sonata is a blend of
solemnity and dancing grace. A pair of 20th-century
masterpieces showcase Barenboim’s virtuosity:
Boulez’s Anthèmes is a gripping soliloquy, gritty and
lyrical, while Bartók’s Sonata consciously evokes
Bach’s examples.
WHEN: April 17
WHERE: Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: $35-$95
BOOK: (02) 9250 7777
[ sydneyoperahouse.com ]
Omega Ensemble: Four Last Songs
Lee Abrahmsen joins Omega Ensemble to perform
heart-rending songs of farewell. The essence of
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is perfectly captured in
excerpts arranged by Australian composer James
Ledger. Strauss’s Four Last Songs, written as the
composer meditated on his inevitable and imminent
death, are more wistful but no less hauntingly
beautiful. Plus, a new work by Australian composer
Andrew Ford, and a rare gem from Mahler’s early years.
WHEN: April 20
WHERE: City Recital Hall
TICKETS: $29-$94
BOOK: (02) 8256 2222
[ omegaensemble.com.au ]
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
 Michael Barenboim
The Concourse, Chatswood
HOT A delicious lunch time escape
OVICTORIA BBC Proms Australia PICK
Held over four days at Arts Centre Six concert series
Lyric Opera: Pygmalion Melbourne, BBC Proms Australia will bring the
Rameau brings this story to life with music of great magic of the Proms to Australian audiences,
originality and excitement in a work that is equal providing a taster of this iconic festival. This is
parts opera and ballet. Lyric brings the opera to the first time the Proms has been held outside
the stage with an exceptional creative team: with of the UK, and it will also mark the first time
direction by James Cutler, choreography by Georgia that orchestras from three Australian cities play
Taylor, design by Rob Sowinski, and with music together in one programme.
direction by Pat Miller. WHEN: April 13-16
WHEN: April 3-9 WHERE: Arts Centre Melbourne
WHERE: Chapel off Chapel TICKETS: $20-$199
TICKETS: $35-$50 BOOK: 1300 182 183
BOOK: (03) 8290 7000 [ bbcpromsaustralia.com ]
[ lyricopera.com.au ]

Melbourne Recital Centre: Camilla Tilling Melbourne Symphony Orchestra:

The warmth of Camilla Tilling’s personality
complements her purity of tone. It makes her ideal
for Schumann’s great song cycle, Frauenliebe und –
Leben, a woman’s journey from the first flush of love
through marriage and finally the death of her beloved.
The piano is a true partner in these songs, providing
essential musical scenery; Melbourne-based pianist
Leigh Harrold is the associate artist.
WHEN: April 8
WHERE: Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
TICKETS: $50-$115
BOOK: (03) 9699 3333
[ melbournerecital.com.au ]
Melbourne Chamber Orchestra:
The Gypsy Palace
In this ensemble project, MCO Virtuosi director
Rebecca Chan weaves a colourful and entrancing
musical tapestry, tracing the spirit and energy of
gypsy music from the Baroque to the present day.
With music of Vivaldi, Haydn, Telemann and more.
WHEN: April 15-17
WHERE: Melbourne Recital Centre
TICKETS: $30-$99
BOOK: (03) 9699 3333
[ mco.org.au ]
Unfinished Symphony
The uplifting spirit of Fauré’s Requiem has caught
the imagination of millions of concertgoers. Its
musical centrepiece is the gloriously intimate Pie Jesu
movement, sung in this concert by Australian soprano
Jacqueline Porter. Benjamin Northey also conducts
in this concert two works by Schubert: the Eighth
Symphony and Gesang ger Geister über den Wassern.
WHEN: April 22
WHERE: Melbourne Town Hall
TICKETS: $50-$125
BOOK: (03) 9919 9600
[ mso.com.au ] With Artistic Director
Ensemble Liaison: Noir Jane Rutter and guest artists.
Bloch’s hauntingly beautiful Nocturnes introduce an
epic programme that contains two masterful essays
in exotic, boisterous, haunting and ethereal sonorities.
The unusual combination of instruments in Dohnányi’s LUNCH & SUBSCRIPTION
Sextet provides the quasi orchestral palette to express
his sly wit, turbulent drama and fun.
PACKAGES AVAILABLE
WHEN: April 27
WHERE: Melbourne Recital Centre Tickets on sale now
TICKETS: $102-$129
BOOK: (03) 9699 3333
[ ensembleliaison.com ]

www.limelightmagazine.com.au theconcourse.com.au
O WHAT'S ON

Rebecca Chan Mahan Esfahani

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra: HOT

Bach Suites
Two of the most popular suites of the Baroque
period, featuring the famous Badinerie and Air
in D Major, are paired with two of Haydn’s finest
symphonies: La Passione, so-called because of
the fierce intensity of the music, and the Oxford,
considered one of the pinnacles of Haydn’s
symphonic output.
WHEN: April 28-30
WHERE: Melbourne, Geelong
TICKETS: $65-$149
BOOK: (03) 9919 9600
[ mso.com.au ]
O QUEENSLAND
Brisbane Baroque: Agrippina
After Faramondo swept the awards’ board, the
prospect of another production from the Göttingen
Festival is mouth-watering. Agrippina is a superbly
tuneful early Handel opera and great fun. Stellar
voices, especially among the countertenors.
WHEN: April 8-16
WHERE: Conservatorium Theatre
TICKETS: $94-$149
BOOK: 136 246
[ brisbanebaroque.com.au ]
Camerata of St. John’s: Red
This concert showcases Camerata’s players as
they perform selections of orchestral and solo
music by Vivaldi and some of his lesser known
but equally fine contemporaries, in the historic
St. Brigid’s Catholic Church – an outstanding,
100-year-old example of Robin Dods’ architecture
that stands proud and imposing, high on Red Hill,
overlooking the city of Brisbane.
WHEN: April 13-22
WHERE: Red Hill, Toowoomba
TICKETS: $65-75
BOOK: (07) 3846 3613
[ camerata.net.au ]
Brisbane Baroque: PICK
Mahan Esfahani
The American-Iranian harpsichordist is one of
the most dynamic artists around today and is
a fascinating thinker to boot. His CPE Bach is
sublime, his Rameau, remarkable. His Aussie
debut is not to be missed. For Brisbane Baroque
he plays Frescobaldi, Pachelbel, Benda and
Bach’s of the JC, JS and CPE variety.
WHEN: April 14
WHERE: QPAC Concert Hall
TICKETS: $49-$89
BOOK: 136 246
[ brisbanebaroque.com.au ]
Brisbane Baroque: King Arthur
Purcell’s patriotic semi-opera is packed with great
songs (Fairest Isle, Ye Blustering Brethren etc) and
scenes both magical and comical. Brett Weymark
conducts a cast that includes Limelight Artist of the
Year Greta Bradman.
WHEN: April 14
WHERE: QPAC Concert Hall
TICKETS: $49-$89
BOOK: 136 246
[ brisbanebaroque.com.au ]
Queensland Symphony Orchestra:
QSO Plays Ravel
QSO brings the gifted Louis Schwizgebel to Brisbane
with Ravel’s jazz-inspired rhythms, colourful palette
and one of the most meltingly beautiful slow
movements in all concerto repertoire. In a majestic
finale to a sublime evening, Stravinsky’s great early
masterpiece Firebird will mesmerise and enchant
with its exotic tale of magic and fairytales, perfumed
textures and extraordinary harmonies.
WHEN: April 21
WHERE: QPAC Concert Hall
TICKETS: $49-$85
BOOK: (07) 3833 5044
[ qso.com.au ]
O SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Chamber Singers: Immortal Fire
Inspired by the poetry of WH Auden, this is music in
praise of music – a programme of pure ‘heartland’
ACS repertoire. Works by Benjamin Britten, Paul
Stanhope, Eric Whitacre, James Macmillan, William
Byrd, Michael McGlynn and Daniel Brinsmead.
WHEN: April 9-10
WHERE: Adelaide, Aldgate
TICKETS: $35-$43
BOOK: (08) 8313 5008
[ adelaidechambersingers.com ]
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky
Young Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, visiting
Australia for the first time, opens up Tchaikovsky’s
Rococo Variations. A simple, square melody is unfolded
into a series of surprising and enchanting characters.
This is the sunny glade reached after a trek through
the woods of Sibelius’s last great orchestral work,
Tapiola. Finally, be carried away by the powerful
current of Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony.
WHEN: April 29-30
WHERE: Adelaide Town Hall
TICKETS: $35-$113
BOOK: (08) 8233 6200
[ aso.com.au ]
HOT
Adelaide Symphony PICK
Orchestra: Noble Elgar
Mark Wigglesworth returns to conduct Elgar’s
First Symphony. This music has all the curves of
a Late Romantic masterpiece, mellowed by the
beautifully textured orchestration that Elgar
wraps around it like a soft, woolly blanket.
WHEN: April 1-2
WHERE: Adelaide Town Hall
TICKETS: $35-$113
BOOK: (08) 8233 6200
[ aso.com.au ]

102 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au

 Narek Hakhnazaryan

OWESTERN AUSTRALIA
West Australian Symphony Orchestra:
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is an eloquent
work with heart-melting melodies that concludes
with a brilliant display of joyful virtuosity. New
Concertmaster Laurence Jackson performs this much-
loved concerto. The Sixth was the first of Dvořák’s
symphonies to be heard outside his home country and
immediately established his international reputation.
Noble themes, richly-coloured landscapes and the
HOT
West Australian Symphony PICK
Orchestra: Asher Fisch
Conducts Resurrections
To hear Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony
performed live is quite simply an overwhelming
experience. From an opening of brutal tragedy,
Mahler sweeps through tender love song, rustic
simplicity, storms and shadowy half-lights to an
overwhelming, transcendent choral finale that
is both apocalyptic and life-affirming.
WHEN: April 1-2
WHERE: Perth Concert Hall

Helping
lusty cross-rhythms of Czech folk music unfold in a TICKETS: $20-$91
never-ending stream of inventiveness, testament to a BOOK: (08) 9326 0000
composer at the height of his creativity. [ waso.com.au ]
WHEN: April 22-23
WHERE: Perth Concert Hall
TICKETS: $18-$91
BOOK: (08) 9326 0000
[ waso.com.au ]
Cello. She shares the spotlight with brilliant German
cellist Leonard Elschenbroich. Brahms was in awe of
Beethoven, so it is fitting that the Concerto for Violin
and Cello should share a programme with Beethoven’s
music pros
in crisis
West Australian Opera: The Riders Symphony No 5 and Leonore Overture No 3.
Award-winning composer Iain Grandage and WHEN: April 1-2
librettist Alison Croggon breathe new life into WHERE: Hobart, Launceston
Tim Winton’s gripping portrait about the panic TICKETS: $36-$103
and terror of someone suddenly bereft of love. BOOK: 1800 001 190
When the unthinkable happens, Scully, a decent [ tso.com.au ]
hearted Australian embarks on a race across Europe
desperately trying to locate his missing wife, with his Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra:
young daughter Billie in tow. Bohemian Rhapsody
WHEN: April 13-16 Composed during a summer retreat in the Bohemian
WHERE: His Majesty’s Theatre countryside, the Eighth Symphony is a charming and
TICKETS: $40-$170 carefree work has rightfully been called Dvořák’s WITHOUT JUDGEMENT
BOOK: 1300 795 012 Pastoral Symphony. Like Dvořák, Vaughan Williams had
[ waopera.asn.au ] a profound interest in folk music, and in the Norfolk WITH UNDERSTANDING
Rhapsody No 1, he borrowed melodies originally sung
by Norfolk fishermen. The Rhapsody offers a poignant IN CONFIDENCE
OTASMANIA and idyllic glimpse of an England of yesteryear.
WHEN: April 29-30
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra: WHERE: Hobart, Launceston
The Beauty of Brahms TICKETS: $31-$93
In this, her TSO debut, Nicola Benedetti appears BOOK: 1800 001 190
as co-soloist in Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and [ tso.com.au ]

www.limelightmagazine.com.au
supportact.org.au 1300 731 303
O BROADCAST GUIDE

Broadcast Guide
ABC CLASSIC FM & AUSTRALIA'S INDEPENDENT RADIO STATIONS

BELL’S FINAL ONE-MAN SHOW

Having stepped down from his company, the ABC
examines one of the great theatre-maker’s final works
Much loved Australian Shakespearean actor for the next 25 years. He has also
John Bell left the Bell Shakespeare Company directed productions for Opera
at the end of 2015, on the eve of his 75th Australia and Opera Victoria.
birthday and after 25 years at the helm. Bell is an Officer of the Order of
One of Australia’s most illustrious theatre Australia and the Order of the
personalities, Bell has been a key figure in British Empire, he has received
shaping the nation’s theatrical identity over Honorary Doctorates from the
the past 50 years, initiating an Australian Universities of Sydney, New
Shakespeare style. John Bell: One Man Show, South Wales and Newcastle, and
a documentary tribute to this award- in 1997 was named by
winning icon of Australian theatre the National Trust of
will air on ABC TV at 10pm on Australia as one of
Tuesday, April 5, as part of Bell has been a key Australia’s Living
ABC’s Arts programming. This figure in shaping the Treasures.
programme recording Bell’s nation’s theatrical John Bell: One
life and work will also be identity Man Show observes John Bell
available on ABC iView. Bell preparing his
John Bell graduated from the final show as Artistic
University of Sydney in 1962 and Director for Bell Shakespeare, Bell will still be keeping busy, directing a
went on to work for the Old Tote Theatre last year’s production of The Tempest, new production of Bizet’s Carmen for Opera
Company and all of Australia’s state theatre and includes interviews with friends, Australia’s 2016 season. Don’t miss this
companies. He was an Associate Artist with family and colleagues. Archival footage chance to celebrate the life and work of one
the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK tells the story of the young Shakespeare of Australia’s most extraordinary actors,
and co-founded Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre obsessive, who once entertained his directors and producers.
Company, a bastion of new Australian drama. parents with a one-man puppet show
He founded the Bell Shakespeare Company version of Macbeth. Despite stepping aside Tune into ABC TV on Tuesday April 5 at 10pm
in 1990, performing and directing with them as Artistic Director for Bell Shakespeare, to watch, or catch up on ABC iView

ABC CLASSIC FM WEST AUSTRALIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Anyone who has had the pleasure of
chatting to Asher Fisch over the past years
of his tenure as Principal Conductor of the
West Australian Symphony Orchestra will
know that he is a man with a plan. There’s no
‘Festival’ as such in the 2016 programme, but
festivals for festival’s sake was never part of
the deal. The idea was to establish a musical
style and that process continues apace with
came out of nowhere. “I think it came from
Beethoven Nine,” explains Fisch “They were
all obsessed with Beethoven’s Ninth. I find it
exciting to compare how Brahms reacted to
the shadow of Beethoven, and how Bruckner
reacted to the shadow of Beethoven, and of
course how Mahler reacted to the shadow of
Beethoven. This will be my first Mahler Two,
but that’s not a problem. When you work at
Photo © Chris Gonz

the twin big guns of Mahler and Bruckner.
Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony is the
big-ticket item this year, a mighty work
Asher Fisch for orchestra, chorus and soloists. Started
when its composer was only 28, it seemingly
opera, Mahler Two is not a big deal. Mahler Two
doesn’t scare me. Mahler Eight scares me!”
Hear WASO and Asher Fisch perform Mahler 2
on ABC Classic FM, 8pm, April 7

104 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


MONDAY - FRIDAY
6am Classic Breakfast
There is no better way to start
your day. Music from Scarlatti
to Sculthorpe and everything
in-between
9am Mornings
New releases, classic
performances plus the latest
news and stories from the
world of music
12pm Midday
Interview guests share their
stories and choice of music
1pm Afternoons
Featuring major classical
performers and highlights
from our exclusive collection
of Australian concerts
4pm Classic Drive
A journey through classical
sounds to relax your mind
and soothe your soul
7pm Evenings
Concerts from Australian and
international ensembles
12am Overnight
Featuring Australia’s finest
musicians, all night long
Colin Fox presents Weekend
Breakfast, 6am every weekend
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
SATURDAY
6am Weekend Breakfast
The relaxing way to wake up
to your weekend
9am Saturday Morning
Three hours of wonderful
music to accompany your
Saturday morning
12pm Music Makers
Exploring the lives and careers
of people who make music
1pm Afternoons
Featuring a recent major
Australian concert
4pm The Opera Show
Devoted to the art of singing
5pm Screen Sounds
Great music from the screen
7pm Evenings
Concerts from Australian and
international ensembles
12am Overnight
Featuring Australia's finest
musicians, all night long
Mairi Nicolson presents The Opera
Show, 4pm Sundays
SUNDAY
6am Weekend Breakfast
The relaxing way to wake up
to your weekend
9am Sunday Morning
The great classical works and
performances
12pm Keys to Music
Your weekly exploration of
classical music
1pm Afternoons
Featuring a major Australian
concert
5pm Sunday Recital
The finest in chamber music
and recital performance from
Australia and beyond
7pm Sunday Opera
Full length operas recorded
in the great opera houses of
the world
10pm For the God Who Sings
Music for the spirit, from
centuries of tradition
12am Overnight
Featuring Australia's finest
musicians, all night long
Christopher Lawrence hosts Classic
Drive, weekdays at 4pm
BROADCAST GUIDE O
FOR THE DIARY…
Sydney University Graduate Choir
FINE MUSIC 102.5
LIVE AND LOCAL
April 7, 8pm
Sydney University Graduate
Choir sings Fanny Mendelssohn’s
cantata Job and Brahms’
Hyperion’s song of destiny.
April 14, 8pm
Violinist Ronald Thomas and
pianist Jennifer Wakeling perform
a pair of Brahms sonatas – Opus
100 and Opus 108.
April 21, 8pm
Steven Hillinger conducts the
Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic in
a wide-ranging programme
including Holst’s Mars and Venus
from The Planets, Sculthorpe’s
Small Town, Sibelius’ Finlandia
and Tchaikovsky’s March Slave.
April 28, 8pm
Canberra School of Music
Chamber Orchestra under the
direction of John Painter performs
Vivaldi’s Concerto in D, RV549 and
Haydn’s Symphony D, Hob.I:31.
Limelight loves your feedback.
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APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 105
O RADIO GUIDE
APRIL CONCERT PROGRAM ON ABC CLASSIC FM
SATURDAY
30
1PM MELBOURNE
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Ray Chen, violin
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Strauss An Alpine Symphony
2 3
8PM SYDNEY SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Carolin Widman, violin
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Berg Violin Concerto
Bruckner Symphony No 4
9 10
7.30PM BBC PROMS
AUSTRALIA
Liane Keegan, contralto
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven Egmont Overture
Elgar Sea Pictures
Grainger In a Nutshell
Elgar Pomp and Circumstance
Wood Fantasia on British Sea-Songs
Arne Rule, Britannia!
16
23
106 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY
5PM PLEXUS COLLECTIVE 8PM ADELAIDE SYMPHONY
World premieres by featured ORCHESTRA
composers Joe Chindamo, Mary Adrian Uren, horn
Finsterer, Phillip Garbé, Kevin March Nicholas Carter, conductor
and Ian Munro Mozart Horn Concerto No 4
Shostakovich Symphony No 4
7PM SUNDAY OPERA
The Metropolitan Opera
Donizetti Elixir of Love
4 5
7PM SUNDAY OPERA
The Metropolitan Opera
Mozart Marriage of Figaro
11 12
7PM SUNDAY OPERA
The Metropolitan Opera
Puccini Madama Butterfly
17 18 19
7PM SUNDAY OPERA
The Metropolitan Opera
Verdi Simon Boccanegra
24 25 26
www.limelightmagazine.com.au

WEDNESDAY
10PM MELBOURNE
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Rossini La gazza ladra Overture
Mozart Piano Concerto No 17
Messiaen Oiseaux Exotiques
Brahms Symphony No 3
7.30PM BBC PROMS
AUSTRALIA
Laura van der Heijden, cello
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Westlake Dream of Flying
Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No 1
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
7PM ADELAIDE SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Konstantin Shamray, piano
Guy Noble, conductor
Barber Adagio
Westlake Wooden Ships
Elgar Enigma Variations
Rachmaninov Adagio sostenuto from
Piano Concerto No 2
Albinoni Adagio in G Minor
Tchaikovsky Pas de deux from
Nutcracker
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
THURSDAY
8PM WEST AUSTRALIAN
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Asher Fisch, conductor
Kiandra Howarth, soprano
Fiona Campbell, mezzo-soprano
WASO Chorus
UWA Symphonic Chorus
Mahler Symphony No 2
6 7
7.30PM BBC PROMS
AUSTRALIA
Sergio Tiempo, piano
Tom Thum, beatboxer
Alondra de la Parra, conductor
Gordon Hamilton, conductor
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Hamilton/Thum Thum Prints
Ginastera Piano Concerto No 1
Gershwin Cuban Overture
Bernstein West Side Story
13 Symphonic Dances 14
20 21
8PM QUEENSLAND
PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
Inspired by the evocative poetry of
Judith Wright, Katie Noonan and the
Brodsky Quartet perform specially
commissioned works by Australian
composers including Iain Grandage,
Richard Tognetti, Katie Noonan, Carl
Vine, David Hirschfelder, Andrew Ford,
Elena Kats-Chernin, Paul Grabowsky,
Paul Dean and John Rodgers
27 28
RADIO GUIDE O
FOR THE DIARY…
FRIDAY
Plexus Collective
1
9.30PM AUSTRALIAN ABC CLASSIC FM
STRING QUARTET PLEXUS SQUARED –
With guest artists, violinists Adam
Chalabi and soprano Greta Bradman
REVELATIONS
Fanny Mendelssohn String Quartet in April 3, 5pm
E Flat Major “Plexus is a force to be reckoned
Stanhope Sea Chronicles with. While most ensembles
Sculthorpe Island Dreaming take years to establish, Plexus
Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet in
has charged into Australia’s
A Minor
new music scene with a blazing
8 passion, so far commissioning
70 new works since the group’s
launch in 2014. The ensemble is
a meeting of powerful musical
forces: Monica Curro and
Philip Arkinstall are long-time
MSO favourites, and Stefan
Cassomenos is an internationally
regarded recitalist and soloist.
As a testament to the group’s
collaborative vision, this concert
sees Plexus team up with a host
15 of fine musicians in a truly epic
programme. Expanding beyond
8PM HANDA OPERA ON
the purely instrumental, the
THE HARBOUR
Daria Masiero as Turandot ensemble was joined by vocalists
Arnold Rawls as Calàf Deborah Cheetham, Liane Keegan
Eva Kong as Liù and Daniel Carison, plus the Royal
Conal Coad as Timur Melbourne Philhamonic Choir
John Longmuir as Pong conducted by Andrew Wailes.”
Graeme Macfarlane as Pang
Brian Castles-Onion, conductor
Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
Andrew Aronowicz’s full review
Puccini Turandot of Plexus Squared is available at
22 limelightmagazine.com.au
SIMPLY CLASSICAL
Classic 2 broadcasts
Australia’s finest
musicians 24/7.
Listen online
and mobile at
abc.net.au/classic2
29
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 107
O RADIO GUIDE
APRIL HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR INDEPENDENT STATIONS
SATURDAY
5.30PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
CELLO GEMS
Tchaikovsky Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62
Casals Song of the birds
Schumann Three Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73
Rimsky-Korsakov Serenade, Op. 37
Sibelius Malinconia, Op. 20
30
6PM 4MBS: INVITATION TO
THE DANCE
Komzak Little Waltz, Op. 173
Strauss Carmen Quadrille, Op. 134
Lanner Fleeting Pleasure, Op. 46
2 3
2PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
BOHEMIAN CHAMBER
WORKS
Dvořák Slavonic Fantasie in B Minor
Myslivecek Octet No 3
Martinů Variations on a Slovak theme
4PM 5MBS: FROM THE
MOVIES
Korngold The Sea Hawk
9 10
2PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
EBONY AND IVORY
Handel Harpsichord Concerto in A,
Op. 6 No 11
Chopin Prelude in B Minor, Op. 28
No 6
Saint-Saëns Symphony No 3, Op. 78
16
8PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
INFLUENCES AND
CONNECTIONS
Boulanger Fantasy
Copland Two Pieces
Piston Symphony No 2
Françaix Concertino
Glanville-Hicks Gymnopédie No 1
Stravinsky Concerto in E Flat
23
108 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
SUNDAY MONDAY
6PM FINE MUSIC 102.5: 8PM 5MBS: CHAMBER MUSIC
CHAMBER INTERLUDE Mendelssohn String Quintet No 2,
Boccherini String Quintet, G268 Op. 87
CPE Bach Trio Sonata in F, Wq163 Hummel Piano Trio, Op. 83
Beethoven Serenade, Op. 8 Shostakovich Cello Sonata, Op. 40
8PM ARTSOUND FM:
CONCERT HALL
Selby & Friends play Beethoven,
Schubert, Busoni and Arensky
4 5
2PM FINE MUSIC 102.5: 3PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
ANNE BOYD, CELEBRATING EUROPEAN MUSICAL
70 YEARS ROUNDABOUT
Boyd Goldfish through summer rain; Marais La sonnerie de Sainte Geneviève
String Quartet No 2; Market gardens du Mont de Paris
and musicians; Red sun, chill wind; Uluru Gluck Alessandro Ballet
mourns Telemann Suite No 3
Heinichen Concerto in F
11
8PM ARTSOUND FM: 2.30PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
CONCERT HALL THE ART OF THE BASSOON
The Röhn family, five German musicians Hertel Bassoon Concerto in A Minor
on their first Australian tour Pleyel Trio concertant in E Flat
Danzi Bassoon Quartet, Op. 40 No 3
Rossini Bassoon Concerto
Mozart Bassoon Concerto, K191
17 18
9AM 5MBS: SOUNDS 10.30AM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
CLASSICAL MORNING CONCERT
Chopin Twelve etudes, Op. 10 Handel Overture to Alessandro Severo
Haydn Symphony No 92 Mozart Piano Concerto No 25, K503
Beethoven String Quartet No 9, Op. Tippett Fantasia concertante on a
59 theme of Corellli
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6, Op. 74 Haydn Symphony in G, Hob.I:92
24 25
TUESDAY
9AM 4MBS: BAROQUE
Telemann Tafelmusik III
Vivaldi Le quattro stagione, Op. 8
8PM 5MBS: DISCOVERY
Steffani Stabat Mater
Falvetti Il Diluvio Universale
9AM 5MBS: SOUNDS
CLASSICAL
Myaskowsky Cello Concerto in C
Minor, Op. 66
Elgar Symphony No 2, Op. 63
Cale Valleys and mountains Suite,
Op. 64
10AM 4MBS: MORNING
MUSIC
Grieg Piano Concerto
Beethoven Symphony No 12
8PM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
CHAMBER SOIRÉE
Telemann Tuesday from Scherzi
melodichi
Mahler Piano Quartet in A Minor
Farrenc Trio, Op. 45
Enescu Quintet in A Minor, Op. 29
Onslow Piano Trio, Op. 27
19
9.30AM FINE MUSIC 102.5:
DIVERSIONS IN FINE MUSIC
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 5
Chopin Variation in E on a theme by
Rossini
Saint-Saëns Romance, Op. 37
Schoenberg Chamber Symphony No
1, Op. 9
Goossens Suite for flute, violin and
harp, Op. 6
Weber Trio in G Minor
26
www.limelightmagazine.com.au

WEDNESDAY
8PM FINE MUSIC 102.5: AT
THE OPERA
Sophie Karthäuser, soprano
Jeremy Ovenden, tenor
Alex Penda, soprano
Freiburg Baroque Opera
René Jacobs, conductor
Mozart La finta giardiniera, K196
8PM FINE MUSIC 102.5: AT
THE OPERA
Plácido Domingo, tenor
Julia Varady, soprano
Albert Dohmen, baritone
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Georg Solti, conductor
Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten
8PM 5MBS: OPERA
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra
Sir Edward Downes, conductor
Wagner Das Liebesverbot
8PM 4MBS: MIDWEEK
MASTERPIECES
Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Concert
Suite
Weber Clarinet Concerto No 2
Dvořák Slavonic Dances,
Op. 72
8PM FINE MUSIC 102.5: AT
THE OPERA
Roberto Alagna, tenor
Renato Bruson, baritone
Andrea Rost, soprano
Simitri Kacrakos, bass
La Scala Chorus and Opera
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Verdi Rigoletto
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
RADIO GUIDE O
HOW TO
THURSDAY FRIDAY TUNE IN TO
THE STATIONS...
9AM 5MBS: SOUNDS
CLASSICAL FINE MUSIC 102.5
Schubert String Quartet No 15, D887 Fine Music 102.5 (previously
Hill Symphony No 7 2MBS) is Australia’s first FM
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances for radio station, broadcasting
2 Pianos, Op. 45
a mix of classical, jazz and
1PM 4MBS: UNDER contemporary music. To listen,
SOUTHERN SIES tune in to 102.5FM or stream
Zemlinsky Piano Trio, Op. 3 online at finemusicfm.com
Mozart Excerpts from
Don Giovanni 1 3MBS
3MBS is a fine music
6PM 4MBS: DINNER 2PM 4MBS: FRIDAY community radio station in
CLASSICS CONCERT HALL Melbourne. 3MBS passionately
Spohr Sonata in E Flat/D, Op. 113 Haydn Symphony No 103
Rheinberger Organ Concerto No 1, Op. Schumann Piano Concerto In A Minor
supports fine music, especially
137 Beethoven Symphony No 1 Melbourne musicians and
composers, and is the only
8PM 5MBS: 20/21 POST locally-based classical music
ROMANTIC radio station in Victoria. To
Tveitt Piano Concerto No 1
listen, tune in to 103.5FM or
Françaix Les demoiselles de la nuit
stream online at 3mbs.org.au
Schnittke Piano Trio
6 7 8
4MBS
8PM 4MBS: THURSDAY 1.30PM FINE MUSIC 102.5: One of Australia’s premier
NIGHT OPERA DIAGHILEV AND THE classical radio stations, 4MBS
Rossini Zelmira BALLETS RUSSES has received many awards for
Debussy Jeux the promotion of young and
Respighi Nocturne from La boutique
emerging artists in Australia.
fantasque
Poulenc Les biches
Based in Brisbane. To listen, tune
Ravel Daphnis et Chloë Suite No 2 in to 103.7FM to listen or stream
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite No 1 online at 4mbs.com.au
5MBS
13 14 15 While mainly a classical station,
Adelaide’s 5MBS also broadcasts a
9AM 5MBS: SOUNDS 2PM 4MBS: FRIDAY
wide selection of jazz programs.
CLASSICAL CONCERT HALL
Mahler Symphony No 9 Schumann Manfred Overture To listen, tune in to 99.9FM or
Beethoven Serenade for violin, viola Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 stream online at 5mbs.com
and cello, Op. 8 Brahms Hungarian Dance No 1
Ravel Gaspard de la nuit Mozart A Musical Joke ARTSOUND
ArtSound FM is Canberra’s
music and arts radio station.
It broadcasts to the Canberra
and Queanbeyan regions 24
20 21 22 hours a day. With a great mix
of jazz, blues, folk, world and
8PM 5MBS: 20/21 POST 10AM 4MBS: MORNING classical music, ArtSound FM
ROMANTIC MUSIC has something for all discerning
Szymanowski Symphony No 2 Vaughan Williams Five Variants of
music lovers. To listen, tune
Martin Erasmi momentum Dives and Lazarus
in to 92.7 or 90.3FM or stream
Sibelius Symphony No 7, Op. 105 Wagner Die Meistersinger von
Nurnberg Quintet online at artsound.fm
Finzi arr. Ashmore Five Bagatelles,
Op. 23
Mahler Symphony No 5 All broadcast information is
correct as of publish date and is
subject to change.
27 28 29
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 109
O DIGITAL & CINEMA GUIDE

Digital & Cinema

THE BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC ONLINE AND IN CINEMAS THIS MONTH

TAKING AUSSIE THEATRE FROM STAGE TO SCREEN

New venture will mirror offerings from UK and Europe
Offering cinema screenings of stage works
has become an increasingly popular tool
for opera and theatre companies all over
the world, eager to engage with a broader
public. Australians have had the pleasure of
enjoying some superb presentations from
overseas, but now a brand new initiative is
aiming to champion home-grown theatre
successes on the silver screen.
Australian National Theatre Live will
produce filmed versions of popular
Australian productions from a range of
companies across the country. Launching in
April with a presentation of Sydney-based
Griffin Theatre Company’s staging of David
Williamson’s Emerald City, the specially filmed
production will have its on-screen premiere
in Melbourne and Sydney, before being rolled
out across Australia. Later this year, Sydney
Theatre Company’s famous Wharf Revue,
Griffin Theatre’s production of Mary Rachel
Brown’s The Dapto Chaser and Geoffrey
Atherton’s Liberty Equality Fraternity will also
be screened as part of the new venture.
Australian National Theatre Live is the
brainchild of Grant Dodwell, Raj Sidhu and
Peter Hiscock, who between them boast
an impressive track-record
for presenting theatre in
Australia. Best known for
his Logie Award-winning
role in A Country Practice,
Dodwell has also appeared
with some of the country’s
most respected theatre
companies, including
Belvoir, Queensland
Theatre Company, State
Theatre Company of South
Australia and Sydney Griffin Theatre Company’s Emerald City
Theatre Company. Sidhu
is a founding member
of the Riverland Youth Theatre, one of to experience some of the best productions
Australia’s longest running regional theatre available – good theatre will no longer just
companies, and has had a significant be for metropolitan audiences,” Dodwell
presence in the independent theatre scene said of the new initiative. “Our ultimate
in Australia for many years. As one of the aim is to stimulate a greater interest in
nation’s foremost television producers, live theatre, to encourage and promote
Hiscock has brought his considerable writers, performers and practitioners, and
experience working with film to the process create a resource for students and theatre
of capturing live theatre for the screen. lovers across the country.”
“Australia produces world-class theatre,
and Australian National Theatre Live will give Australian National Theatre Live launches in
audiences across Australia the opportunity Melbourne on April 22 and Sydney April 27

PALACE OPERA & BALLET VERDI • MUSSORGSKY • ROSSINI

Il Trovatore
With the exception, perhaps, of
Azucena the Gypsy (Ekaterina
Semenchuk), who guards the
secret that will destroy them all,
Verdi’s music portrays almost
abstract figures consumed
by passion rather than true
characters. As the sacrificial
heroine Leonora, Anna Netrebko
Boris Godunov
Based on a play by Pushkin, the
opera is set in Russia after the
death of Ivan the Terrible, and
follows Tsar Boris Godunov and
his struggles with power, greed
and guilt. Keenly awaited will
be Bryn Terfel’s assumption
of the title role – one of the
greatest bass-baritone roles in
Il Barbiere di Siviglia
In 18th-century Seville, the
young Rosina (Chiara Amarù) is
cloistered away by her tutor, the
old doctor Bartolo (Marco Filippo
Romano), who has got it into his
head to marry her. But Rosina
is in love with the young Count
Almaviva (Antonino Siragusa)
who, with the help of jovial
Photo © Sheila Rock

Ekaterina Semenchuk
carries this enraptured music to
new heights, accompanied by
Marcelo Àlvarez as Manrico and
Ludovic Tézier as Il Conte di Luna.
April 8-13
the canon – while John Graham-
Hall appears as the crafty Prince
Shuisky and John Tomlinson as
the vagabond monk Varlaam.
April 22-27
Figaro (Roberto de Candia), will
try anything to get close to his
beloved. Without a doubt, the
most famous comic opera.
April 29-May 4

110 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016 www.limelightmagazine.com.au


CONCERTS AND OPERA ONLINE
Live broadcasts from Vienna, Latvia, Berlin and New York
Apr 3, 12pm on staatsoperlive.com
Legris Le Corsaire
Apr 4, 1am on digitalconcerthall.com
Eva-Maria Westbroek, Isolde
Stuart Skelton, Tristan
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor
Wagner Tristan und Isolde
Apr 5, 1am on chambermusicsociety.org
The art of interpretation and details of
technique are explained as master artists
share their wisdom with the next generation
of chamber musicians. This masterclass is led
by Chinese pianist Wu Han.
Apr 5, 12.30pm on staatsoperlive.com
Mozart La Clemenza di Tito
Apr 6, 4am on digitalconcerthall.com
National Youth Orchestra of Germany
Sebastian Weigle, conductor
de Falla El Sombrero de Tres Picos
Schumann Concert Piece for for horns and
orchestra in F Major
Strauss Don Quixote
Apr 8, 9.30am on chambermusicsociety.org
Kiera Duffy, soprano
Miró Quartet
Ginastera Quartets Nos 1-3
Apr 10, 12.30pm on staatsoperlive.com
Puccini Tosca
Apr 11, 4am on digitalconcerthall.com
Peter Serkin, piano
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
Seiji Ozawa conducts the
Berlin Philharmonic on April 11
Seiji Ozawa, conductor
Mozart Serenade for Winds, K361
Beethoven Egmont Overture; Choral Fantasy
Apr 12, 1pm on staatsoperlive.com
Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen
Apr 16, 4am on theoperaplatform.eu
Latvian National Opera & Ballet
Asmik Grigorian, Manon Lescaut
Sergey Polyakov, Chevalier des Grieux
Janis Apeinis, Lescaut
Krisjanis Norvelis, Geronte de Ravoir
Raimonds Bramanis, Edmondo
Martins Ozolins, conductor
Puccini Manon Lescaut
Apr 17, 3am on digitalconcerthall.com
Kirill Gerstein, piano
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 3
Apr 18, 11am on staatsoperlive.com
Janáček Jenufa
Apr 24, 3am on digitalconcerthall.com
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Tugan Sokhiev, conductor
Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande Suite
Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major
Franck Symphony in D Minor
Apr 30, 4am on digitalconcerthall.com
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Wagner Parsifal excerpts
Bruckner Symphony No 3
DIGITAL & CINEMA GUIDE O
ARTS SITE OF
THE MONTH...
DIGITAL THEATRE
As more and more arts
organisations embrace
streaming as a way of
reaching larger, more
diverse audiences, it
is worth taking a look
at one o the plat orms that’s been in the
game for a while. Launched in 2009, British
service Digital Theatre offers an extensive
library of theatre, opera, dance and classical
music with the goal of bringing the drama
and emotion of each production to a global
audience, using multiple camera angles and
high-definition technology.
Their library is extensive and features
a wide array of performances from
Britain’s leading theatres and concert
halls. Operas include Digital Theatre
originals (including the 2012 Opera North
production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni),
as well as productions by Glyndebourne
and the Royal Opera House. The Classical
Music section features performances by
the London Symphony Orchestra, including
many performances conducted by Valery
Gergiev as well as guest conductors from
around the world. The theatre catalogue
includes productions by Shakespeare’s
Globe, Perfect Pitch, Ellen M Krass and the
National Jewish Theater. Currently featured
is the 2014 Tricycle Theatre production
of Sam Shepherd’s True West. For every
production there is a free trailer available,
so you can get a taste before you buy.
The News section allows you to find
out more about the productions, and
includes Digital Theatre’s documentary
series, Director’s Cut, launched in 2015, as
well as listening guides and news about
new additions to the libraries. Digital
Theatre Plus offers a range of educational
content and resources for teachers and
students, including unique productions
of leading British theatre productions for
schools, colleges and universities, as well
as behind the scenes footage.
Productions can be streamed in your
browser, downloaded for later viewing
using the Digital Theatre Desktop
Player, streamed on iPhones and iPads,
or streamed direct to your living room
through the Samsung Smart TV app.
For more information and to begin
streaming visit digitaltheatre.com
APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 111
Next AUSTR AL
I A’ S C L A

month... SSICAL MUSIC A

ND ARTS
MAGA ZIN
E

OF MEHTA

Zubin Mehta has never been your average Maestro.

Over a distinguished career he has used his music
to right wrongs as often as he’s cut a disc. Limelight
caught up with him in the back of a New Delhi limo
PLUS...
· Shakespeare and his women
· Symphony cycles: where next?
CLOUDSTREET THE OPERA · Being Greta Bradman
How do you go about turning Australia’s favourite novel into an and much more...
opera? George Palmer and Tim Winton shed light on an epic project

MENUHIN IN HIS OWN WORDS

A look at the life and the eduring legacy of the legendary O N SALE
violinist on the occasion of his 100th anniversary

CREATING THE CREATION

MAY 2
An in-depth look at how the ageing Haydn pulled off his greatest 2 01 6
AND M U
CH
masterwork and why it’s still a favourite with choirs to this day FO R S U B S O O N ER
S C R IB
(S E E P 6 4 E R S !
)
 CODA O

Classical
Caption No 19
The bloodthirsty doings of those
terrible Tudors have been a fertile
breeding ground for composers, but
the headsman seldom appears so
near the throne. What musical advice
might Her Majesty be receiving? Or
what might be the Royal command?

Enter TO WIN...
Great Chopin Pianists

Chopin
From Oborin to
Argerich, here are
18 winners of the
International
Competition from
1927 until 2010 in an 11CD box.

Send YOUR CAPTION to:

Caption Competition, PO Box R147, Royal Exchange, NSW 1225, or email caption@limelightmagazine.com.au.
For full terms and conditions, go to www.limelightmagazine.com.au. Authorised under NSW Permit Number: LTPM/14/00315 and ACT TP 14/01198.1.

THE LIMELIGHT QUIZ

1. Which composer did Heinrich Heine lament
when he lost“that monstrous head of hair
that reared above his brows like a primeval
forest above a precipitous escarpment”?

2. Which teacher and his pupil wrote

respectively a mass and a piano sonata for
different women named Theresa?

3. What links composers Jeremiah Clarke,

Robert Schumann and Peter Warlock?

4. Who was “The Master of Lübeck”?

6. In which Cavalli opera is the heroine first courted by a god in drag and then turned into a bear?

7. Benjamin Britten’s Winter Words and 9. What classical favourite was ripped-off
Gerald Finzi’s By Footpath and Style have in the pop song Hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom:
which great poet in common? What you do to me?

5. Who wrote The Garden of Fand,
The Happy Forest and November Woods?
8. Which musical toper once said:“Music 10. The French soprano Denise Duval who
is the wine which inspires us to new acts of died earlier this year was the muse of which
generation, and I am the Bacchus who makes famous composer?
mankind spiritually drunk”? Answers over the page

www.limelightmagazine.com.au APRIL 2016 LIMELIGHT 113

O CODA
My Music
SIMON BURKE
‘Don’t sing like a bloody girl’ was the best advice this actor ever had – that and being told for a piano
player he had a good voice. Now, from Sondheim to The Sound of Music, he’s an old musical hand
I
didn’t come from a musical household at all,
but I found myself drawn to music very early.
When I was in primary school I wanted to
be Burt Bacharach. My mum was completely
in love with him and had all his albums.
Meanwhile, our Greek next-door neighbours
had a piano and I used to just wander in, I was
fascinated by it. I worked out how to play when
I was about five or six, I think. Playing and
singing, I thought that’d be cool.
Somehow we scraped some money together
to get me lessons and I studied piano in high
school. I remember going for my Grade 5 exam.
You did an aural thing where you had to sing
the intervals and the examiner said to me,
“Well, for a piano player you’ve got a fantastic
voice!” I said, “Yeah, but what was my piano
playing like?” and she said, “Well, it’s a really
good voice...” Nowadays I’m timidly coming
back to piano – I’d love to learn to play again.
On the other hand, I came to singing quite
late, considering I started as an actor when
I’d go to him once
a week and he’d say:
Come on, don’t sing
like a bloody girl!
I was 10 or 11. I didn’t really burst onto the
musical theatre scene for 15 years after that.
Les Misérables was the first commercial
theatre production I did. Trevor Nunn was
very much my mentor during the rehearsal
process. There was a big scandal when I got
the role, because there were all these musical
theatre boys that were sure they were going to
be Marius – they basically thought that they
were already signing the contract – and then
this actor comes along and gets it!
I didn’t sing at all beautifully at the time, let
me tell you. I was heading for some very big
vocal problems, understandably, because I was
doing eight shows a week – it’s a huge sing.
After about three months I went to see this
guy called John Fulford, who was a principal
114 LIMELIGHT APRIL 2016
at Opera Australia. He was this
great big guy and I’d go to him
once or twice a week and he’d say,
“Come on, don’t sing like a bloody
girl!” About two months before I
finished in Les Mis, I got the lead
in Anything Goes and we had to
record the cast album during the
rehearsal period. So I had to be
show fit for that as well as doing
eight shows a week of Les Mis.
Fulford really helped me with that.
There was a time when I think I
was hard on myself as a singer, but
over the last few years I’ve gone:
“You know what? No. I’ve earned
just as much – probably more –
singing than I have acting”. So
now I think I’m very musical. I’m
QUIZ ANSWERS: 1. Berlioz 2. Haydn and Beethoven 3. They all committed suicide 4. Dieterich Buxtehude
always astonished when you go
into rehearsals for musical theatre
and most actors can’t read music.
There’s nothing wrong with that,
but I find I actually can’t sing something if I the whole time! Six weeks later on a Friday
don’t have the dots in front of me. night at midnight, I got a call from my London
5. Bax 6. La Calisto 7. Thomas Hardy 8. Beethoven 9. Chabrier’s Espana 10. Poulenc
A few years ago I got a call from the agent about the role of the Captain in The
Adelaide Cabaret Festival to go down for three Sound of Music. He said, “Can you get on a
days to work with this director called Jeremy plane on Sunday? Jeremy Sams wants you to
Sams. I walked into rehearsal and Jeremy sing for Andrew Lloyd-Webber on Monday.” I
said, “I remember you – you played opposite auditioned and got offered it – supposedly for
Judi Dench in A Little Night Music. You were a year – and it ended up being five.
fantastic!” We had this whirlwind friendship.
He’s incredibly inspiring and musically he’s Simon Burke is in Hairspray at Brisbane
so literate. I was sitting there open-mouthed Convention Centre, April 8-10
THE MUSIC I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT…
strauss: Four Last Songs
Jessye Norman s, Leipzig Gewandhaus/Kurt Masur PHILIPS 4758507
During my nine months of The Sound of Music I went on a
holiday for four days. I said to the director, Jeremy Sams, “I know
nothing about classical music. I want you to make me a list of
your favourite bits.” The playlist is about four days long, but I just
listen to it all the time. I think my favourite is Strauss’s Four Last
Songs. The autumn one, September, just kills me.
www.limelightmagazine.com.au
W I N N E R O F O V E R 3 0 M A J O R I N T E R N A T I O N A L A W A R D S

2016 ACADEMY
AWARDS ®
OFFICIAL SELECTION
ICELAND

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A G R Í M U R H Á K O N A R S O N F I L M

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