Our latest reviews
The Engagement by Chloe Hooper
[[chloe-hooper3]]To follow up an acclaimed debut must be one of literature’s fraughtest feats. When a proof copy of The Engagement landed on my desk, my first response was simply joy – for it’s a good 10 years now since the…
Women of Note by Rosalind Appleby
With over 16 composers featured, this book looks at female composers in Australia. This slim but important volume is beautifully presented and unlike anything else available. From the trail blazers Margaret Sutherland right up until composers still in their music…
Music is the Language of the Heart of Soul DVD
Conductors are odd beasts, they stand out the front of the orchestra and wave their arms and in the audience, you’re never quite sure what they’re doing. Mariss Jansons is one of the highest qualified, and highest respected conductors in…
Jorge Luis Prats, Live in Zaragoza
There is something dramatic about a single musician in the centre of the stage. There is also something intensely emotional at the core of Spanish and Latin music. In this recording, you’ve got both those elements intertwined. There is an…
Verdi: Macbeth DVD
Macbeth can be one of the darkest operas found on stage. With the blood, witchcraft and more moody lighting than any film director could dream of it can sometimes be either overly dramatic or too underdone and kept in perpetual…
Charpentier: David et Jonathas
William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have been spending a lot of time in the recording studio of late it feels. This new recording seems particularly apt, what with the ensemble being named after a Charpentier opera. This is a…
1612, Italian Vespers
At first look the depth of detail gone into the research and presentation of this recording feels like it should be for vocal enthusiasts only. However I found that, although the liner notes were extremely interesting, you didn’t need to…
Borodin: String Quartets 1 & 2
This recording, which I believe was done 1979 and 1980, is a perfect example of what happens when great music is performed by great musicians. From theopening bars, the Borodin Quartet play so brilliantly that the listener is swept away…
Stradella: La Susanna
Oratorio is a genre of composition sometimes left by the wayside beside the larger spectacle of opera. Alessandro Stradella was composing during theheight of its popularity and La Susanna is considered something of a swan song for this flamboyant composer…
Gaysia by Benjamin Law
[[benjamin-law1]]Benjamin Law is making a name for himself. I was reading Gaysia on my tram ride home, learning about Homolasians, Bi-Mese, Laosbians and Shandykes when a fellow passenger spotted the cover and interrupted my reading with a small mostly one-sided…
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