Music – Reviews Archive

It is very rare to see a classical music audience lose its traditional polite composure overcome with the spectacle of a remarkable performance. But that is exactly what has been happening during the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra season of French Baroque with Circa …

The twin pillars of 1970s jazz-fusion keyboards were Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. They had both been through the fire of Miles Davis’s greatest bands – Hancock most notably in the envelope-pushing Quintet of the 1960s and Corea in Miles’ envelope-puncturing electric …

When an unknown neighbour knocks on your door asking the name of the band that played at your party on Saturday night, you know you’re on to a good thing. It’s even better that the neighbour is himself a musician, a bass …

In the early 1980s Carmen Bradford walked right up to legendary band leader Count Basie and said, “if you hire me I’ll make you a million dollars”. The young jazz vocalist had been booked to open a show in Texas for the …

I have seen recently departed blues grandmaster BB King live in concert twice in my life. The experiences were separated by almost 40 years in time and by an unmeasurable distance in spirit. The first time was at Sydney’s ‘70s concert-box-du-jour, the …

It was the perfect image for what we were hearing. An Apple laptop, all sleek silver skin and, a few feet back on the same stage, Tommie Andersson’s theorbo, that intriguing steam-punk lute-like instrument from the Baroque. Almost 300 years separate these …

  When it comes to new music, most times I have to go looking for the good stuff. But sometimes the good stuff comes looking for me. Lunching with my wife at Hobart’s MONA on the last day of a holiday in …

To kick off its 2015 season, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra presents an all-Handel program with its centerpiece the famous “Cantata Ode for St Cecilia’s Day”, first performed in the middle of a freezing London winter in 1749. Handel was hugely popular in …

  They say life begins at 40. Well if that’s the case, I can’t wait to see what the next 40 years will hold for the nation’s youth radio broadcaster, Triple J! Multiple generations of Australians have had the good fortune to grow up …

  Forget gliding gracefully down an elaborate staircase to make a stunning entrance at the ball. That’s old hat. To really catch everyone’s attention there’s no better way than to fly in and come careering down the wall. Audiences will have the …