The past may be a foreign country, but in terms of war, they do not do things differently there; death is death at any time and in any language. No other work in the Classical repertoire could be more…
Peter Sculthorpe passed away at the age of 85 on Friday. As Australia’s best known composer of classical contemporary music, this gives us pause to reflect on the legacy of his music and also upon the…
The Royal Opera House’s restaging of La Bohème will get the same responses as any other production of the Puccini opera. The savvy enthusiast hedges cautiously, perhaps going with the sceptic’s play-it-safe…
Classical music means more than one thing and explanation is in order. Sometimes I make the distinction between big “C” and little “c”, but even that doesn’t fully solve it. The starting point is this…
Dr David Glowacki is a highly-respected research fellow of the Royal Society, and expert in non-equilibrium molecular reaction dynamics – no, me neither – but is also our newest, and arguably most unlikely…
Richard Strauss saw – and heard – it all. Born before German unification, he lived through two world wars and the division of Germany into East and West, dying that same year, in 1949. Musically he also…
An episode of the ABC TV comedy series Upper Middle Bogan, recently re-aired, explores the perceived class divide between high and low art forms. Edwina Bright, the daughter of a well-to-do family, who…
The recent exposure of deaf Japanese composer Mamoru Samuragochi as a fraud prompts interesting questions about the attribution of authors to works, the importance of back-story and the reliance we have…
Conducting is essentially a phenomenon associated with Western classical music. As a rule, rock and jazz bands do not employ a conductor unless they are teaming up with a symphony orchestra. Conductors…
Innovation is much sought after in music – by musicians, often, by the federal government, increasingly. But could the pursuit of the slightly nebulous-sounding “innovation” be driving music in the wrong…
Women make up 25% of the Australian composing population but still get a raw deal when it comes to having their music performed. Emma Ayres, presenter of the breakfast show on Classic FM, recently wrote…
The headlines The Los Angeles Times: People trust eyes - not ears - when judging musicians Classic FM: Classical singers judged by actions not voice Nature: Musicians’ appearances matter more than their…