A bit of Bach and a lot of Liszt…a music review by Fraser Beath Mc Ewing

Russian pianist, Kirill Gerstein climbed a pianistic Mount Everest at Sydney’s Recital Hall last night by tackling Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes, but not before warming up on Bartok and Bach. Read more

Molto Russian, meno Italian…a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Rachmaninov and Shostakovich had their big guns blazing while Verdi pinged away with his pea-rifle in an Opera House concert last night that many in the audience rated as the best in the APT Master Series so far this year. Read more

New acts for Shir Madness

Melbourne will host Jewish music festival Shir Madness on September 6. New acts have just been announced. Read more

Rattling the bars

A full house, plenty of celebrities and Sir Simon Rattle conducting a uniquely superb orchestra could hardly miss being the standout event of the Sydney (and probably Australian) classical music calendar…writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

The girl in green plus other music

I’m pretty sure that the full house for last night’s Opera House SSO Master Series concert was all about one diminutive Chinese girl pianist….writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

For once, I’m lost for words…a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang, whipped a sold-out Sydney Recital Hall audience into a standing, bravoing frenzy last night with a program of Chopin and Scriabin. Read more

Shir Madness: The Shtick’s Henry Greener talks to Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier

The Shir Madness Music Festival comes to Melbourne in September. Henry Greener talks to organisers Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier. Read more

A howling success – kind of…a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Chris Botti, one of the world’s finest jazz trumpeters, surrounded himself on the stage of the Sydney Opera House with the SSO and seven soloists to present a concert that I both loathed and loved. Read more

Two bouncing Czechs and a spot of fiddling…a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

One of the finest of Dvorak’s symphonies, along with two pieces from Smetana’s popular set of tone poems provided safe and enjoyable bookends to an ear-challenging contemporary violin concerto at the Sydney Opera House Master Series last night. Read more

Bringing them home to make music…writes Fraser Beath McEwing

On Tuesday 23^rd of July, at five o’clock in the afternoon, ninety-five of the finest Australian orchestral musicians in the world will file in through the side doors of the Sydney Opera House concert hall stage. Read more

Avan Yu fulfilling his promise…a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

While winning piano competitions can seem like an end in itself, it is more often the beginning of a career as a professional soloist. Read more

A Byrd in the hand

A Byrd in the hand…and much more, as pianist Peter Serkin ranged over five centuries to source music for his concert in Sydney’s City Recital Hall last night, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

Music for two wives and a hero…a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Wagner wrote a piece for his wife, Cosima. Bartok also wrote a piece for his wife, Ditta. Schoenberg, on the other hand, orchestrated a quartet already written by his hero, Brahms. Read more

A whole night of foreplay

The first of this year’s International Pianists in Recital series held in Sydney’s City Recital Hall last night presented French Canadian pianist Louis Lortie playing no less than 57 preludes spread over three composers, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

Granite blocks with strange lace in between

Two heavyweights from the popular international composes list plus a rarely heard offering from Australia’s Nigel Butterley made for a hearty musical feast at the second of this year’s Sydney Symphony APT Master Series concerts last night, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

Mendelssohn’s violin concerto sent them wild

Explosive violinist, Christian Tetzlaff, ran away with the show in the first of this year’s Sydney Symphony APT Master Series concerts last night, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

A night to please

Take a British beginning and end, put Sibelius in the middle, and everybody goes home feeling good – but only if the musicians can deliver, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

Bronfman returns and brings Mahler with him

He saw him rehearse the Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra…now Fraser Beath McEwing reviews the concert itself. Read more

Yefim Bronfman, pianistic force, in two acts

J-Wire took its music reviewer Fraser Beath McEwing to watch one of the world’s top pianists Yefim Bronfman rehearse Brahms powerful Piano Concerto No1 with the Sydney Symphony orchestra followed by a private interview with the maestro…read his report. Read more

Don Pasquale…an opera review by Michelle Coleman

Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, in the tradition of opera buffa, is a comic masterpiece that is brought to life with wit and charm in Opera Australia’s 2014 Spring season. Read more

Favourite bookends and a bone-shaking middle

The grandeur and familiarity of Beethoven and Brahms sat either side of a pyrotechnic exhibition in sound at the SSO APT Master Series in the Sydney Opera House last night, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

Very much a live performance from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

The difference between a careful, note-perfect recording and a caution-to-the-winds live performance was graphically demonstrated by French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet last night, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

Sculthorpe remembered

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra paid its respects to the distinguished Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe who recently passed away by including an unscheduled performance of his Memento Mori in its ATP series concert thus week. Read more

The Whole Megillah

A well stocked orchestra plus two choirs and four vocal soloists hardly left room for conductor, David Robertson, to thread his way to the podium to launch Verdi’s Requiem…writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

A night of percussive passion…writes Fraser Beath McEwing

For concertgoers who like an adrenalin hit, the second concert in the SSO Master Series filled the bill. Four romantic composers poured on syrup, explosions and tail wind flying that delighted many, but left the classicists harrumphing into their post-concert coffee. Unashamedly, I fell into the delighted class – without being totally convinced by all the offerings, however. Read more

The return of the LKQ

The London Klezmer Quartet (LKQ) returns to Australia for a five-week national tour of the festival circuit and major venues from 28 February.  And they have a hot new album with them! Read more

Passion, but not all Russian – an SSO review

While we’re suffering nervous breakdowns over our electricity bills, it is softened a little by the knowledge that power distributor, Ausgrid, is putting some of our money into sponsoring classical music, writes Fraser Beath McEwing. Read more

London Klezmer group for Shir Madness

The London Klezmer Quartet will appear at Jewish music festival Shir Madness in Sydney next month as part of an Australian tour. Read more

Shir Madness Lineup

Shir Madness has announced the artists who will appear at its second Jewish music festival to be held in Sydney in March. Read more

The SSO @ The Opera House

Dates for your diary from the Sydney Symphony… Read more

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