Alexandra Mathew
Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton.
Reviews
Schmelzer: The Emperor’s Fiddler
Relatively little is known about Austrian composer Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623–1680), despite being described during his lifetime as ‘the famous and just about foremost violinist of all Europe’. …
Into the Fire: Live at Wigmore Hall
For me, the drawcard of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato’s latest album, recorded live in Wigmore Hall, is not Jake Heggie’s song cycle Into the Fire, but DiDonato’s moving Richard Strauss interpretation…
Calling the Muse: Old & New Pieces for Theorbo
Bruno Helstroffer is a master theorbist. In Calling the Muse he draws on his experience as blues guitarist and early music specialist, depicting a broad landscape for the repertoire of his instrument…
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 & Pieces for Solo Piano
Eight years ago, on a trip to Paris, I visited Saint-Saëns’s tomb at Montparnasse Cemetery. Not out of some kind of morbid curiosity, but instead to commune with a composer whose music I love but fee…
Handel: Acis and Galatea
No sooner have Acis and Galatea declared their love than the evil giant (read: sexual predator) Polyphemus tears their union asunder. After doggedly but unsuccessfully pursuing Galatea, a jilted Poly…
Debussy: Songs Volume 4
Lucy Crowe, it would seem, is the soprano of the hour. I admit, I am biased in her favour after witnessing her glorious 2017 performance in the title role of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen with the B…
Bach & Telemann: Cantatas for Baritone
Despite his mature sixty-two years, Christoph Prégardien possesses a voice of youthful agility. I first heard Prégardien singing Schubert’s ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’ in his delectable tenor register, but…
John Adams: Violin Concerto by Leila Josefowicz
Sometimes, when listening to John Adams’s violin concerto, I expected the soaring violin line to continue to rise. It was not so: Adams’s music is full of the unexpected. Although (a decade ago now) …
Vocalise by Nuria Rial
Heitor Villa-Lobos dreamt up the imaginative combination of eight cellos and soprano soloist. His famous composition for such an ensemble is Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 – part vocalise and part lamen…
Wayfaring by Umberto Clerici & Karin Schaupp
Wayfaring, a collaboration between Italian-Australian cellist Umberto Clerici and German-Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp, traces a path ‘from birth to death, with everything in between’. Consideri…
The Verdi Album by Sonya Yoncheva
Sonya Yoncheva’s voice is big and bold and soars above the orchestra like a gloriously voluptuous bird of prey. This young Bulgarian soprano is a principal artist at the Metropolitan Opera in New Yor…
After Bach by Brad Mehldau
I come to Brad Mehldau’s latest album After Bach with classical rather than jazz ears. The album is structured around excerpts from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II, and each alternate tr…
Richard Strauss by Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton
Recently, while perusing the shelves at Readings, I was thrilled to discover young British soprano Louise Alder’s debut Strauss recording. My excitement was twofold: I recognised her as an acquaintan…
Sous l'empire d'Amour by Marie-Claude Chappuis and Luca Pianca
French musicologist Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) declared the French air de cour to be lacking the passion of Italian vocal music. ‘Our French musicians,’ he wrote, ‘are content to flatter the ear and …
Falla: El Amor Brujo by Euskal Barrokensemble, María José Pérez and Enrike Solinís
Manuel de Falla’s legacy is a study in contradictions. Although Spanish-born, Falla spent seven years in Paris, where he greedily consumed the music of Ravel and Debussy, and marvelled at colourful s…
J.S. Bach: Cantatas for Soprano by Carolyn Sampson
J.S. Bach composed for the voice like he did for a string instrument: highly chromatic, with irregular intervallic leaps, not necessarily taking the human limitations of singing into account. Bach as…
Suite Cubed: Bach and Beyond by Umberto Clerici
Cellist Umberto Clerici wondered how eighteenth-century audiences listened to J.S. Bach’s cello suites, and what they heard and recognised in the music. Although Bach’s solo cello suites are variatio…
Bel Canto: The Voice of the Viola by Antoine Tamestit & Cedric Tiberghien
The butt of musicians’ jokes, the viola is often overlooked as a solo instrument. Not quite as high as a violin, and nowhere near as low as the cello, the viola’s most common function is to pad out h…
À Madame: Divertissement pour Adélaïde by Olivier Baumont & Julien Chauvin
2017 is the year for music from the court of Versailles. First there was La Harpe Reine, then Henriette: The Princess of the Viol, and now À Madame: Divertissement Pour Adélaïde. I’m not complaining …
Preghiera, Rachmaninov: Piano Trios by Gidon Kremer, Daniil Trifonov, Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė
Twenty-year-old Sergei Rachmaninov was shocked to hear of the death of his friend and mentor Tchaikovsky. He immediately set about composing ‘Trio Elegiaque No. 2’, dedicated ‘to the memory of a grea…
Mahler: Das Lied Von Der Erde by Jonas Kaufmann, Wiener Philharmoniker & Jonathan Nott
When Gustav Mahler composed Das Lied von der Erde (‘The Song of the Earth’), he envisaged two singers – a tenor and an alto – performing the cycle. In the absence of an alto, Mahler specified that th…
Henriette: The Princess of the Viol by Maddelena Del Gobbo
Princess Anne Henriette of France (1727–1752), daughter of King Louis XV, was a passionate musician and skilled gambist. Her life was short (she died of smallpox aged only 24), but her legacy was gre…
The Spirit And The Maiden by Muses Trio
Australia’s Muses Trio is unique among chamber music ensembles. Consisting of a fabulous all-female line-up – Therese Milanovic (piano), Christa Powell (violin), and Louise King (cello) – the trio’s …
Elena Kats-Chernin: Unsent Love Letters – Meditations On Erik Satie by Tamara-Anna Cislowska
Many years after Erik Satie’s death in 1925, friends gained access to his small and cluttered apartment where they found two grand pianos stacked on top of each other, a chair, a table, seven velvet …
Aida by Aida Garifullina
Aged only 29, Russian soprano Aida Garifullina has it all. She is stunningly beautiful, and possesses the voice to match. If that weren’t enough, she is named after one of the greatest operatic heroi…
Rachmaninov & Prokofiev: Cello sonatas by Nina Kotova and Fabio Bidini
Russian cellist Nina Kotova’s 2014 recording of Bach cello suites became a favourite amongst Readings staff and customers. Eschewing the usual constraints of historically informed performance, Kotova…
La Harpe Reine by Xavier De Maistre
In late eighteenth century Paris, a person in want of a harp could search for the perfect instrument in over two hundred speciality shops, such was the harp’s popularity. While today we think of it a…
For the Love of Brahms
Friendship is the theme of Joshua Bell’s latest album, For the Love of Brahms. Long-term friends Stephen Isserlis (cello) and Jeremy Denk (piano) join Bell to perform Brahms’ Double Concerto for Viol…
Mozart by Richard Galliano
Have you ever wondered what might’ve happened if Mozart had been born a Parisian busker rather than an Austrian composer? Neither had I until I heard virtuoso French accordionist Richard Galliano’s M…
Verismo by Anna Netrebko
In 2001, aged only 30, Anna Netrebko made a cameo appearance as ‘opera’s new rising star’ in the film The Princess Diaries, singing Verdi’s ‘Sempre Libera’. She is now among the top flight of opera s…
News
The best classical CDs of 2018
In re:member, Ólafur Arnalds blends ambient and contemporary classical music…
The best classical CDs of 2016
South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza is one to watch. Her first album Voic…
The best classical CDs of 2015
Here are our top ten classical CDs of the year, voted for by Readings' staff. Displayed in no particular order.
Max Richter: The Blue Notebooks by Max RichterThe Blue Notebooks, a tenth anniversary rerelease of Max Richter’s second album, is breathtaking. Richter cites Sigur Rós as an influence, evident in the meditative ‘Horizon Variations’. This, along with tracks such as ‘Written on the…
Meet the bookseller with Alexandra Mathew
Why do you work in books and music?
My primary area of interest and knowledge is in classical music, but I also happen to love reading, so the two go together nicely. It’s a privilege to share my love of books and music with like-minded people.
What book or music would you happily spend a weekend indoors…
