Kate Rockstrom
Kate Rockstrom regularly reviews classical music for Readings. She also performs as a flautist, as well as writing about music and books.
Reviews
Agnus Dei by The Sixteen & Harry Christophers
Religion is at the heart of many an artists’ inspiration. Composers throughout the ages, such as Bach, Handel and many others, held deeply spiritual connections to their God and used that in the crea…
Four Visions of France: French Cello Concertos by Daniel Müller-Schott, DSO Berlin & Alexandre Bloch
Colours are where it’s at in this album. Tonal colours, historical colours and all the colours of France. Although these works range from 1872 all the way through to 1929, each is decidedly French in…
12 Stradivari by Janine Jansen & Antonio Pappano
Most people have heard of Stradivari, a violin maker from the late 17th century and early 18th century. His house produced almost a thousand high-quality violins, around 650 of which have survived in…
Homage to Bach: The Solo Violin Sonatas by Brodsky Quartet & Paul Cassidy
Some people just like making life difficult for themselves. Paul Cassidy, the violist of the Brodsky Quartet must be one of those people. He’s taken three solo violin sonatas by Bach and, using just …
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 by Bayerisches Staatsorchester & Kirill Petrenko
The opening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 always sends shivers down my spine. That opening tenor horn solo, when done right, seems to be a herald of grand adventures to come. The adventure in this case …
Hope by Daniel Hope and Zürcher Kammerorchester
There is something truly breathtaking in hearing a choir sing in our current moment; hearing all those voices coming together after so long apart almost brings tears to my eyes. In this latest album,…
Echoes of Life by Alice Sara Ott
The past will always echo through the years, affecting the future in ways that are surprising and often far reaching. Would Chopin have guessed that in the year 2021 we would still be playing and rev…
First Light: Muhly & Glass by Pekka Kuusisto & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
This recording felt like a musical representation of the last 18 months. From a world premiere recording to a piece that was recorded on separate continents, it’s a miracle that this album ever came …
The British Project by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
I always like being honest in my reviews and to be frank, this is an odd duck of a recording: the glories of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, paired with the almost unknown arr…
Ravel & Saint-Saëns: Piano Trios by Sitkovetsky Trio
Ravel was a sophisticated composer who was exacting and worked towards compositional perfection, which is beautifully evident in this Piano Trio in A minor. However, he was also described as childlik…
One Movement Symphonies: Barber, Sibelius & Scriabin by Kansas City Symphony & Michael Stern
A symphony is classified by most musical dictionaries as an extended work written in the Western Art Music tradition, most often in four movements. So what happens when a composer throws out a part o…
Baroque by Nicola Benedetti & Benedetti Baroque Orchestra
What is it about Baroque music that endears itself to the modern 21st-century audience? Is it the unabashed complexity or soulful slow movements? Or does the passion of the musicians themselves infus…
French Works for Flute Adam Walker, Timothy Ridout & James Baillieu
In listening to Chandos’ latest flute offering, I was delighted by the gentleness of Adam Walker’s musical phrases. I never thought the first movement of Franck’s Violin Sonata could be so gentle, th…
Brahms: Piano Concertos András Schiff & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Those brawny first notes. Strings sawing, with strength and strident trills they announce Brahms’s Piano Concerto No 1. Then out of the storm emerges András Schiff at the piano – a breath of sunshine…
Beethoven: Works for Flute by Emmanuel Pahud & Daniel Barenboim
Why is Beethoven so delightfully cute on the flute? Beethoven might be rolling in his grave as I say this, but as I listened to this album, I just kept finding myself smiling at the cheeky phrases ef…
Liszt: Works for Solo Piano by Benjamin Grosvenor
British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has been a regular in these pages for many years now. Electrifying the classical music community in 2011 with his first foray into Liszt’s repertoire, we now now ha…
Romance: Music for Violin and Orchestra by Danish Composers, performed by Christina Åstrand, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra & Jukka Iisakkila
A lustrous pearl adorns the cover of this album and it is a perfect representation of this repertoire. Warmth permeates every note of these Danish masterworks thanks to the beauty of violinist Christ…
Silver Age: Scriabin, Stravinsky & Prokofiev by Daniil Trifonov
From 1890 through to the revolution and the first two decades of the 20th century, Russia was gripped with creative fever. The poets, musicians and artists of the era were all producing great works a…
Carl Maria von Weber: The Clarinet Concertos
Beautiful, lush romantic strings set this recording off. Then the clarinet enters, with a wailing sound – not at all what I was expecting. There is an edge to the clarinet tone, with a brightness tha…
Antonio Vivaldi: Lost Concertos for Anna Maria
There was a time in Venice when baby girls could be dropped through a slot, similar to a libraryreturns chute, and so be abandoned to be raised in a convent. If a young girl was (relatively speaking)…
Brahms: Symphonies 3 & 4 Richard Tognetti & Australian Chamber Orchestra
There is nothing in the world quite like an electrifying live performance. I know we have all been missing that feeling of sitting in the middle of the music, hearing the orchestra breathe together a…
Vivaldi: Works for Clarinet and Orchestra Martin Frost & Concerto Koln
Historians believe that the clarinet was first invented around 1700. At the time, composers were demanding more from their musicians, and trumpeters were not able to cope with the fast passages in th…
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 & Finzi: Clarinet Concerto by Michael Collins
He hath given me rest by His sorrow and life by His death. – Bunyan
Written above the third movement of Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony, Romanza, these words are deceptively multilayered. Not just…
Mozart y Mambo by Sarah Willis
Sometimes grand adventures start with a throwaway comment. Sarah Willis, French Horn in the Berlin Philharmonic, was amazed in 2017 to discover there is a statue of Mozart in Havana, Cuba. Nonplussed…
Death and the Maiden by 12 Ensemble
Fans of the Australian Chamber Orchestra will instantly recognise the oeuvre of 12 Ensemble. They are a string orchestra that performs as a chamber ensemble, with no conductor. This brings a heighten…
Aspects of America: Pulitzer Edition by Oregon Symphony & Carlos Kalmar
As many people would be aware, classical repertoire can take a long time to work its way into the hearts of listeners (J.S. Bach being an obvious one, only becoming popular eighty years after his dea…
Vasks: Works for Piano Trio by Trio Palladio
We listen to, we look for, and we learn about classical music all the time. And yet, somehow, sometimes we miss a gem. This is what discovering Peteris Vasks has been for me. Considered one of the mo…
Beethoven: The Piano Concertos by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Happy 250th Birthday Beethoven! The classical music world is going mad for all new Beethoven recordings and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is jumping on that bandwagon. Teaming up with fellow Austra…
14 Histoires de guitares by David Jacques
You know someone is a music nerd when they discuss the fact that they collect guitars from a period spanning four hundred years and have more than ten guitars in their collection. David Jacques is de…
Stuart Greenbaum by John Stanton, Ron Baglind & Luke Howard
What would you do in your final hour? If you had but one hour left, how would you express yourself? Through words, music, art? Stuart Greenbaum posits this question with his latest album, a musing on…
News
Classical Music for Winter
The weather is closing over and it’s getting darker earlier each day putting me in the mood for blankets, books and tea – and warming music. Here are my favourite picks to help chase away the winter blues.
Orchestral: Stravinsky: Le sacre du printempsIt’s been 100 years since there was a near-riot in Paris at the opening of Diaghilev’s ‘Ballets Russes Rite of Spring’. With a groundbreaking…
Classical Composers You Might Not Have Heard Of
There are more composers out in the world aside from the usual Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. The only problem is where to start with the plethora of music available.
I have a number of my favourite less-known composers I’d love to introduce you to today.
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) was a Czech composer.
While his style was deeply entrenched in the Romantic style of composition (think big sym…
Classical Musicians Visiting in 2013
The year has well and truly started back with the usual grind and it’s about this time that we start seeing if there’s anything to look forward to in the year. We’re always really lucky in Melbourne to get a lot of visitors from overseas; some of the best performers currently in the world land on our doorstep on a regular basis.
(Meanwhile, as we wait for them to arrive their extensive recording…
Classical Music Anniversaries 2013
For the past couple of years I’ve looked forward to the new year and anniversaries of famous classical composers. This year is no different. I look forward to seeing box sets and celebrations of each of their music.
Looking back 450 years we have the celebration of the birth of English bard, John Dowland. Particularly known for his works for lute and voice, there are so many recordings already a…
Gift Ideas for Classical Music Lovers
Christmas is upon us again!
While an integral part of Christmas are the carols, Handel’s Messiah and many other classical works, there are many classical music lovers out there and you don’t have to be stuck on carols to appreciate the world of classical music at this time of year.
Here are 12 titles that caught my eye.
Jordi Savall, Hesperion XXI and Alia Vox bring out a beautiful box for e…
Listening to Sacred Classical Music
Kate Rockstrom talks about the pleasures of listening to sacred music, presenting a sample of some wonderful recordings.
Music written for the use in church services can be some of the most powerful music ever written. While most of the music written in the Western Art Music tradition is for different types of Christian services, you don’t have be a church goer to appreciate the majesty of t…