Category: The Diary

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday August 7 at 7:30 pm

Oh well, it had to happen: a rather orthodox program, even if it holds one surprise. Clearly, the evening’s focus falls on the great concerto of 1878, the most exhilarating of them all, thanks to the composer’s inimitable capacity for drama and colour. As soloist, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is initiating Dutch musician Simone Lamsma who has proved highly successful in North America and Europe. I believe she has played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra but, like so many of her ilk, has not made it to anywhere more southern – until now. The concert’s conductor, Korean-born Shiyeon Sung, has been principal guest conductor of the Auckland Philharmonia and has worked with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Her big task is finding even more reserves of warmth in the benign Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D: the happiest of the composer’s four and blessed with a welcome underpinning gleam across its length. It’s also almost an exact contemporary of the night’s concerto, being written in 1877. But up-to-the-moment joy comes in a premiere from Greek-Australian writer Klearhos Murphy, the MSO’s Cybec Young Composer in Residence; his The Ascent, commissioned by the orchestra, is to be revealed – a triptych of (not too exhaustive, one hopes) meditations on the teachings of St. Nikitas Stethatos and that holy man’s proposals for a successful spiritual life. Normal rickets range from $75 to $139; concession holders are charged $5 less (big deal); if you’re under 18, the charge is $20., But everybody has to stump up $7 transaction fee per order; one day we’ll find out where that money goes.

This program will be repeated on Saturday August 9 at 7:30 pm

DANIELLE DE NIESE

Australian Contemporary Opera Company

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Friday August 8 at 7:30 pm

A singer with a large profile, Danielle de Niese is going to work through a wide-ranging program that stretches from Marcello and Handel to Weill and Gershwin with not much in the middle. I’ve not heard her (I think) so have no comment about her talent but she has an excellent group of well-known musicians supporting her: violins Curt Thompson and Sophie Rowell, viola Lisa Grosman, cello Richard Narroway, oboe Rachel Curkpatrick, harp Marshall McGuire, piano Coady Green. As well, she is being assisted by a vocal septet from the Australian Contemporary Opera Company: Sophie Bissett, Uma Dobia, Saskia Mascitti, Callum Warrender, William Grant, James Billson and Daniel Felton. The recital’s first half is specific with definite numbers and arias from Jimmy Lopez, Kurt Weill, James Macmillan, Christopher Tin and Patrick Cassidy, as well as the afore-mentioned Marcello and Handel numbers. After interval, it’s just names – Dan Bryer, Mike Needle and Tom Grennan, Kenneth Macmillan (really? The choreographer??), John Denver, Jerome Kern as well as Gershwin. In other words, you’re getting a potpourri of songs that I suppose de Niese likes to present. If you’re attracted, a standard ticket comes in between $75 and $149; concessionaires get in for $10 or $20 less, depending on where you sit; students can get mediocre seating for $35, and Under 40s get the same for $40. In this case, the transaction fee is a moveable feast, somewhere between $4 and $8.50; no idea how they apply this although I suspect the more affluent get stung most.

GERSHWIN & SHOSTAKOVICH

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Sunday August 10 at 2:30 pm

My favourite Ukrainian-born Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk is appearing for the first time with the Australian Chamber Orchestra; it’s taken a while for the organization to perceive those talents that, to many of us, have been obvious for years. Still, here he is at last, front man for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (written in 1924 and here arranged for strings and solitary trumpet backing, God knows how) and the 1933 Piano Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich for which the ACO and David Elton comprise the proper environment. We also will hear the Chamber Symphony arranged for string orchestra in 1967 by Rudolf Barshai from Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8, a work we’ve heard from the ACO on previous tours and which was released on a CD by the current players (you’d think) in February of this year. The event starts with Claude Vivier’s taxing Zipangu, the Canadian composer’s 1980 vision of Old Japan, with the help of some other Asian countries. As well, the ACO presents a newly commissioned work: A Moment of Memory by senior Ukrainian writer Valentin Silvestrov, who fled from Kyiv three years ago to find refuge in Germany after the Russian invasion. This is a remembrance for the victims of fascism and oppression, although it sits somewhat oddly beside Gershwin’s buoyant tour de force. Tickets range from $30 to $167 for full adult cost – now there’s a spectrum of choice for you. Pensioners and Healthcare cardholders get a lower rate (but not much), as do students and those under 35 (why them?).

This program will be repeated on Monday August 11 at 7:30 pm

MUSICAL FRIENDS

Flinders Quartet

Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre

Tuesday August 12 at 7 pm

This ensemble has kept its shape for a while now – violins Elizabeth Sellars and Wilma Smith, viola Helen Ireland, cello Zoe Knighton. This particular program offers several surprises and two staples of the repertoire that you now hear all too rarely. Of more than usual interest is the presence of two commissions. The first is by Natalie Nicolas, a Sydney writer and a favourite of the Flinders Quartet. This is By the Tide of the Moon and celebrates Aida Tuciute, a former Lithuanian Olympic swimmer who has an affinity with the ocean. As for the second, it’s a joint work by Melody Eotvos from the University of Melbourne and Rishin Singh – Malaysian-born, formerly resident in Sydney, now living in Berlin. Called The Letter Writing Project, this is a joint composition where the composers constructed this work turn and turn-about by sending each other completed portions. In between and following these fresh compositions, we hear Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor from the ominous (for Mozart, as well as for our First Peoples) year of 1788. And the Flinders end with Borodin in D Major, his second string quartet of 1881 which proved such a fruitful source for Robert Wright and George Frost when they were assembling the score for their 1953 musical Kismet. Tickets are a very reasonable $53 full adult, and $42 for concession card holders and students; never forgetting that oddly varied transaction fee between $4 and $8.50 if you phone or email your request for tickets. Is that range in operation because of a client’s suburb? Bank? Credit rating?

TAKACS QUARTET WITH ANGIE MILLIKEN

Musica Viva Australia

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Wednesday August 13 at 7 pm

One of the world’s great string quartets returns under the Musica Viva banner to perform Haydn, Beethoven and a once-local composer’s work commissioned by the organization. This last is Cathy Milliken, born in Brisbane and now based in Berlin. Her new Sonnet in Emigration is a setting of Brecht (probably not the On the Term Emigrants poem of 1937; more likely Sonett in der Emigration of 1941 commemorating when the poor fellow and his family wound up in America). As I understand it, the interpreter of this, with the Takacs Quartet, will be Australian actress Angie Milliken – could be a sister, or a cousin, or completely unrelated. Anyway, before this comes Haydn’s Op. 74 No 3 in G minor, called for no good reason ‘The Rider’, and one of the least performed of the set written for Count Apponyi in 1793. The Takacs recorded this work in 2011 but with different players (now retired) on the two inner voices. The group ends with Beethoven’s Razumovsky No. 3 in C of 1808: the only one of the three which doesn’t have an identifiable Russian tune in its melodic content. But it is a powerful exercise in stamina for any executants, not least for its rapid fugue-finale. Standard tickets range from $65 to $153; concession holders and students pay the same – between $56 and $135. Under 40s get in for $49 and there are special rates for groups of ten-plus. Never forgetting that you have to deal with the swinging-freely transaction fee of anything between $4 and $8.50 if you try to get your tickets any old how except in person at the door.

ELEVATOR MUSIC

Omega Ensemble

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Saturday August 16 at 7 pm

Only three works in this program that runs for ninety minutes without interval; shades of a Mahler symphony or two. No need for an interval? No convenient spacing? The Sydney-based Omega Ensemble begins with British composer Anna Clyne‘s Stride of 2020 for string orchestra, premiered in that year by the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Wollongong. It presents as a three-part essay in fusing Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata with contemporary sound, basing her exploration on the ‘striding’ octaves in the Beethoven work’s first movement left hand (at the start of the Allegro di molto). I suppose the Omegas can rustle up enough strings to deal with this piece, even if it’s hard to tell who will actually be playing on the night. The night’s principal guest is the UK clarinettist Michael Collins who I assume will take the centre spot in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto of 1947/8 which calls for strings, harp and piano. Both these works come in together at less than thirty minutes. Which puts huge emphasis on the last element of this program: a new double clarinet concerto by Graeme Koehne, commissioned by the Omegas and featuring Collins and David Rowden, the group’s artistic director. Will this last an hour? Or will patrons get to enjoy verbal explications of some length? I suppose the night’s title is some sort of tribute to Koehne as he wrote a piece with that title in 1997. Standard tickets range from $49 to $119; concession tickets are $10 cheaper in all categories but the top Premium bracket, which isn’t available; Under 30s get in for $39 in all areas except Premium. I won’t go into the season package deals but wherever you go and whatever you select, you’ll be faced with that transaction fee swinging like an arbitrary pendulum between $4 and $8.50.

MUSETTE

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Thursday August 21 at 7:30 pm

In this concert, we enjoy the pleasure of hearing once again cellist Li-Wei Qin who is giving a run-through to a work most of us will have heard from him in his previous appearances here: Haydn’s C Major Concerto No. 1 from somewhere between 1761 and 1765. It’s a jewel among Classic era concertos for its melodic felicity and good-humoured vigour, especially in a lightning-fast finale, Moreover, this player is a dab hand at its sweeps and swerves. He’s also playing Jean Francaix’s 1950 Variations de concert – ten in all, with a short interlude before the last one; a nice match for the Haydn in light-filled bonhomie. Sophie Rowell and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra begin operations with a work written for the artistic director herself during her time with the Australian String Quartet: Elena Kats-Chernin‘s From Anna Magdalena’s Notebook. Written in 2007, the composer uses two polonaises, two menuets, an aria and a musette from the 1725 collection. To end, the MCO plays Boccherini’s Symphony No 4, named La casa del diavolo. Written in 1771, the work is in three movements, both first and third having the same opening (economical old Luigi). It calls for a flute, and pairs of oboes, bassoons, and horns; but then, the Haydn concerto asks for pairs of oboes and horns, which may stretch the organization’s budget. Ticket prices are of the usual complexity: standard adult ones range from $72 to $144; concession and senior card holders pay between $52 and $129; Under 40s can get mediocre tickets for $40; children and students are admitted for $20; groups of 10+ pay less than the standard price on a sliding scale where the deduction decreases in proportion to your seat price. And you have that $4 to $8.50 variable transaction fee that probably operates on a Boolean intersection grid.

This program will be repeated on Sunday August 24 at 2:30 pm.

Diary July 2025

June 30, 2025 cliveoconnell

MOZART AND THE MENDELSSOHNS

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Melbourne Town Hall

Thursday July 3 at 7:30 pm

What used to be simply called the Town Hall series has apparently been amplified in its geographical scope but the essentials remain the same. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is playing under its chief conductor, Jaime Martin, but the program isn’t as barnstormingly popular as you’d expect., Yes, the forces wind up this evening’s entertainment with Felix Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony in A Major (well, half of it is) of 1833 which can never wear out its welcome from the first frothing wind chords to the emphatic saltarello‘s last belt. But, we begin with a true rarity, even in these anti-misogynist times: Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C, written in 1832 and an intriguing chronological partner for her brother’s brilliant symphony. As for the essential concerto, the MSO offers four of its principals – oboe Johannes Grosso, clarinet David Thomas, bassoon Jack Schiller, horn Nicolas Fleury – as soloists in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante of 1778 . . . or is it really his? A lot of water has passed under the musicological bridge and the absence of an original score is only the start of questions about this quadruple concerto’s provenance. Standard tickets run from $45 to $105, concessions are a princely $5 lower, and anyone under 18 gets in for $20, but let these last beware of the $7 transaction fee that costs a third of your admission cost – that’s the way to get the young interested.

This program will be repeated in the Frankston Arts Centre on Friday July 4 at 7:30 pm, and at the Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo on Saturday July 5 at 7:30 pm.

JESS HITCHCOCK & PENNY QUARTET

Melbourne Recital Centre and Musica Viva Australia

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Monday July 7 at 7:30 pm

I wrote about this event (see March Diary 2025) while still living on the Gold Coast (ah, those halcyon years of heat and humidity) when the program was played at the Queensland Conservatorium on March 4 It seems a long time to be still on the road four months later for Jess Hitchcock and the Penny Quartet but here they are, fleshing out the Melbourne Recital Centre‘s monthly program and still (co-)sponsored by Musica Viva Australia. I have a feeling that the original program was altered before the March recital, but in its present format, nine composers offer arrangements of Hitchcock songs, including three by the singer herself as May Lyon, Matt Laing and Nicole Murphy have disappeared from the original list. It’s to be hoped that the Penny personnel stay the same – violins Amy Brookman and Madeleine Jevons, viola Anthony Chataway, cello Jack Ward – especially for the program’s final offering: a string quartet from American writer Caroline Shaw called Plan and Elevation: The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks, written in 2015. Admission for your regular patron moves between $65 and $125, concessions on a sliding scale that operates between $56 and $110, the Under 40 bracket get in for $49, while First Nations peoples from any country only have to stump up $15. Your transaction fee at this site falls anywhere between $4 and $8.50 (a riveting exercise in fiscal logistics, reminiscent of Trump’s mercurial tariff rates) which is hard cheese for the Aboriginal, Torres Strait, Maori etc. patrons.

FOLK REIMAGINED: EAST IN SYMPHONY

Ryan Maxwell Event

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Wednesday July 9 at 7:30 pm

What you’re offered here is a transformation exercise: Chinese folk-song into symphonic form. The executants in this enterprise are the Guizhou Chinese Orchestra and a body called The Australia Orchestra. The visiting ensemble was founded in 2003 and is conducted by Long Guohong in its current Sydney and Melbourne appearances. The local group cannot be traced online (well, I can’t find it) but is to be conducted by Luke Spicer, who is a well-known presence in Sydney for work with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia. And what do you hear? For openers, there’s the Guizhou Kam Grand Choir which will probably be singing a cappella. Then comes that well-worn fusion classic, the Yellow River Piano Concerto, followed by a symphonic sequence of scenes from four great classical Chinese novels, and more solid orchestra (which one?) work in a fantasy springing from the gaming activity Black Myth: Wukong which itself has to do with an Eastern monkey hero questing in the West. For soloists, you will hear Jiang Kemei playing a concerto called Deep in the Night on her jinghu (two-stringed violin) and Zhang Qianyang on the suona (double-reed oboe/horn) in one of the most famous pieces for her instrument, A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix. Admission costs between $35 and $169 with some piddling concession reductions; groups of ten-plus and students pay between $55 and $107. On top of this, factor in that swinging transaction fee of between $4 and $8.50; could that impost factor in Chalmers’ tax review, I wonder?

PASTORALE

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

Thursday July 10 at 7:30 pm

Since I’ve been away, Sophie Rowell has taken over the artistic directorship of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra as well as having recently been posted to the role of associate professor of violin and chamber music at the University of Melbourne. She’s been busy over the years, what with the Tankstream/Australian String Quartet and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra co-concertmaster position for eight years. Tonight, she takes her charges through two string masterworks at either end of the program: first, Barber’s Adagio for Strings of 1936 – a favourite when Americans want to be serious or funereal – and Tchaikovsky’s lush Serenade for Strings, written in 1880. Both of these are more than familiar, so it’s as well that the central works offer some variation. Aura Go will be soloist in Doreen Carwithen’s Concerto for piano and strings which the British composer wrote in 1948 and which is probably here enjoying its Australian premiere. The work’s three movements appear to be worked out in solid neo-classical style with definite tonalities obtaining across its half-hour length; there’s even a good old-fashioned cadenza in the Moderato e deciso conclusion. And the program takes its title from a Peter Sculthorpe excerpt, the central segment of his String Quartet No. 4 written in 1949, then upgraded to string orchestra standing in 2013. It has an even more checkered history in Sculthorpe’s own recollections. but it might well be his last ‘composition’, as the MCO publicity has it. Still, as it’s only about 4 minutes long, who wants to argue? Adult tickets range from $72 tp $124 with some reasonable concession reductions and a flat charge of $30 for students and children. The booking fee on the seat I selected was $7, which – to put it mildly – is excessive for the work involved.

This program will be repeated on Sunday July 13 at 2:30 pm.

YINYA DANA: LIGHTING THE PATH

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall,, Arts Centre Melbourne

Friday July 11 at 7:30 pm

In honouring the 50th anniversary of NAIDOC Week, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is paying an exceptional honour to Deborah Cheetham Fraillon whose compositions are the focus of this event. I’ve not encountered any of her music but I suppose that’s because her recent grounds of operation have been in Melbourne, particularly with the MSO who appointed her to a five-year tenure of their First Nations Creative Chair in 2021; I did experience her work as a soprano with Short Black Opera but that was some time ago. Details about what is actually being performed tonight are hard to find. but the range operates between her 2018 Eumeralla: a war requiem for peace (two movements of which were recorded by the ABC in 2020) and last year’s Earth. A pair of conductors share the honours: Aaron Wyatt and Nicolette Fraillon. as for soloists, Cheethem Fraillon will be singing, as will vocalists Jess Hitchcock and Lillie Walker. That sine qua non of Aboriginal serious music events, William Barton, brings his didgeridoo to the mix of colours and the MSO Chorus is joined by members of the Dhungala Children’s Choir, an offshoot of Cheetham Fraillon’s opera company. Standard tickets range from $68 to $113; concession prices are $5 cheaper which should bring on a chorus of that old favourite, Thanks for Nothing. Mob Tix are available for $25, but how do you prove your standing? Just be prepared to hand over the $7 transaction fee, whether you’re a member of the First Nations or a Johnny Come Lately like me.

BENAUD TRIO 20TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Melbourne Recital Centre

Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre

Saturday July 12 at 3 pm

Yes, it’s a celebration of a kind, if a short one as it’s only an hour long: no interval, quick in, quick out. The members of the Benaud Trio – brothers Lachlan Bramble (violin) and Ewen Bramble (cello), Amir Farid (piano) – still maintain a relationship; although the brothers are both associate principals with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Farid is based in New York. They’re playing two works: Dvorak’s Dumky of 1891, which they have played here before in the heyday of their Benaud-Melbourne years; and Jakub Jankowski‘s Piano Trio No. 2. The latter is an Adelaide composer with a modest body of work to his name. The Benauds seem to have premiered this particular trio in 2018, a few months after the debut of Jankowski’s Piano Trio No. 1 from the Seraphim Trio. Now the piece is back for another airing. It would be handy if more information was available about the piece, but background is sadly lacking. Entry is a flat $50, concession $40, and you have to negotiate the Recital Centre’s odd ‘Transaction Fee’ charge that runs from $4 to $8.50 according to some criterion that escapes me.

This program will be repeated at 6 pm.

FIESTA! DVORAK’S CELLO CONCERTO & CHINDAMO

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday July 17 at 7:30 pm

This was originally labelled ‘Journey to the Americas’ but has since been recast more sensibly so that it covers the entire night’s work. Yes, there is some emphatically relevant-to-the-Americas music on the program in Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez’s Fiesta! Four Pop Dances for Orchestra, written in 2007 and the writer’s most popular work, here promoted by tonight’s conductor (and fellow-Peruvian), Miguel Harth-Bedoya who commissioned it. Joe Chindamo’s Americas connection might emerge in his Concerto for Orchestra of 2021, composed for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; most of us would associate him with the field of jazz, and so easily American. And then we come to the large-framed Cello Concerto by Dvorak, completed in 1895 and written while the composer was living in New York during his last unhappy months directing the National Conservatory of Music. Here is a rich score loaded with melody and a splendid vehicle for its soloist, who on this occasion is German musician Raphaela Gromes; I believe she has made tours of North and Central America. Standard tickets range from $51 to $139; concession card holders might as well pay full price because their deduction is only $5. If you’re under 18, you are charged $20, which makes the compulsory transaction fee of $7 sting all the more sharply.

This program will be repeated in Costa Hall, Geelong on Friday July 18 at 7:30 pm and back in Hamer Hall on Saturday July 19 at 2 pm.

AXIS MUNDI

ELISION Ensemble

Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre

Friday July 18 at 7 pm

The ELISION Ensemble is almost 40 years old, which puts into perspective a fair few of us who were around in its heady early years. Speaking of the few, some of the original musicians survive, including founder Daryl Buckley who remains one of the most adventurous guitarists I’ve come across. A fair bit of tonight’s program is up-to-date, beginning and ending with 2025 compositions. Melbourne-based academic Charlie Sdraulig‘s fresh Air opens us up in a septet (possibly) for flute (all three played by Paula Rae), bassoon (Ben Roidl-Ward), saxophone (Joshua Hyde), trumpet (Tristram Williams), trombone (Benjamin Marks), violins (interesting as there’s only one such player listed: Harry Ward) and contrabass (Kathryn Schulmeister). Then clarinet Richard Haynes performs John Rodgers’ Ciacco solo for bass clarinet of 1999 before we encounter Mexican-born Julio Estrada‘s yuunohui’ehecatl (2010?) to be played by trumpet, trombone, bassoon and contrabass. After interval comes the program’s title work, written for solo bassoon by ELISION evergreen Liza Lim in 2012-13, followed by indigenous composer Brenda Gifford‘s new score Wanggadhi for saxophone, trumpet, trombone and bass. Then we hear Victor Arul‘s Barrelled space featuring bass clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, trombone, percussion (Aditya Bhat and/or Peter Neville), and bass. If you haven’t had enough, you can wait around for a post-recital performance of Double Labyrinth v2, a new construct by British writer Bryn Harrison that calls for alto and bass flute, clarinet d’amore (Haynes had one made about five years ago), clarinet in A, flugelhorn (Williams, presumably), harp (Marshall McGuire), percussion and violin. Tickets are $55, concession $45, and don’t forget that peculiar transaction fee of between $4 and $8.50 that slugs every order you make.

MOZART’S CLARINET

Musica Viva Australia

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

Tuesday July 22 at 7 pm

A trio of specialists take us through a set of works by Mozart and Beethoven in this latest Musica Viva recital. The entertainment features Nicola Boud on ‘historical’ clarinets, Sydney Symphony Orchestra cellist Simon Cobcroft, and Erin Helyard playing the fortepiano. I think their combined aim is to give us the experience of listening to this music as it would have sounded when it was written – a delight for musicologists, an aural adjustment or three for the rest of us. We begin with Beethoven’s Sonata for Fortepiano and Horn Op. 17 of 1800, arranged for basset horn (with the composer’s approval, apparently) by Josef Friedlowsky in about 1802. A touch earlier in his life, the composer wrote his Variations on Ein Madchen oder Weibchen from Mozart’s The Magic Flute for cello and piano in 1798; a puzzle as it’s catalogued as his Op. 66. All three players are involved in Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio of 1786, even if the original called for a viola, not a cello. Back to Beethoven for the Aria con variazioni (four of them, with a coda) tacked on to the Three Duos for Clarinet and Bassoon WoO 27 and written somewhere between 1790 and 1792; you assume Cobcroft will stand in for the lower voice. Helyard then performs the familiar Sonata in C K. 545, composed for all piano learners’ delight in 1788, and the ensemble concludes this exercise with Beethoven’s Gassenhauer Trio Op. 11, written in 1797 with clarinet, cello and keyboard as the designated players. Tickets range from $20 to $153, and, on booking, you will encounter the $7 transaction fee: a disappointment we have always with us.

A GHOSTLY AFTERNOON

Selby & Friends

Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre Wednesday July 23 at 2 pm

This recital features two young musicians in the latest Selby & Friends recital. Violinist Natalie Chee, Sydney-born and recently nominated as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster for 2026, and cellist Benett Tsai, fresh from delivering the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, will partner with Kathryn Selby in three piano trios. First comes an arrangement by the Linos Trio from 2001 of Debussy’s Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune – one of the more formidable works that ushered in a new musical era as far back as 1894. From the program title, you would have guessed that Beethoven’s Op. 70 No. 1 was on track for a hearing, and so it is although perhaps not as spectral as it seemed to listeners in 1809. To end, the group takes on the gripping Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2, a 1944 work that never fails to absorb its listeners from the keening cello harmonics of the opening to the three last bars of soft E Major chords that offer a close but no consolation. Entry ranges from $63 for a student (and a concession card holder), to $79 for a senior, to $81 an adult. You’ll also pay between $4 and $8.50 if you order online or by phone. What if you show up at the box office, cash in hand? Worth a try.

This program will be repeated at 7 pm.

Diary June 2025

May 30, 2025 cliveoconnell

SAMSON ET DALILA

Melbourne Opera

Palais Theatre., St’ Kilda

Sunday June 1 at 2:30 pm

it’s been quite a while since Saint-Saens’ enduring opera of 1877 has been staged here. The one and only time I can recall is from November 1983 when the Victorian State Opera forces, conducted by Richard Divall, presented a version in Hamer Hall, the company’s chairman, Sir Rupert Hamer, having to make a small statement defending the microcosmic amount of nudity that occurred during the Bacchanale. Mind you, this was during the oddly strait-laced premiership of John Cain Jr. who was no stranger to the art form. A lot was made of some naked bodies that were intended to spice up Act 3, Scene 2 and the more salacious among us were looking forward to a bit of real Philistine brouhaha, especially as you had to sit through a fair amount of tedium before the fun started and the roof caved in. Let’s hope that Melbourne Opera has better luck with its orgy. Details are slim: mezzo Deborah Humble is taking on the temptress role; tenor Rosario La Spina will wind up shorn but triumphant as the strongman judge, The director is Suzanne Chaundy, conductor Raymond Lawrence. It seems as though the company is not using the Palais lounge or balcony while ticket prices range between $69 and $199, never forgetting the $7 ‘handling fee’ which gives an expensive venture a little extra bite – and a fiscal necessity for reasons that nobody can explain to me without blushing.

This program will be repeated on Tuesday June 3 at 7:30 pm.

SCHEHERAZADE

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Monday June 2 at 6:30 pm

Have you ever heard a satisfactory live performance of this marvel of orchestration? I can’t say that I have, but my experiences have been limited to three state orchestras in this country. I mean, you can be wrapped in a pleasant cocoon of sound as Rimsky-Korsakov’s suite from 1888 moves from its snarling opening bars to the soaring, placid triumph of its conclusion, but an average reading loses your interest in the middle movements to do with the Kalendar Prince, and then the Young Prince and Young Princess which test the phrasing inventiveness of several exposed individual players. Conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in this gem is Elim Chan, the young Hong-Kong-born musician who has been wooed with various degrees of success by British and European organizations. Scheherazade is the only work on this program which belongs to both the Quick Fix at Half Six and the Meet the Music: Years 9-12 series which have different modes of preparation for their two distinct types of audience member. Mind you, it pays to be a secondary school student: their tickets are only $9 each. If you’re after the quick fix, your standard ticket costs between $62 and $99 (a hell of a lot for one work); concessionaires can expect to pay $5 less (big deal), and your child under 18 will pay $20. Add the compulsory $7 transaction fee, of course; administering your credit card deployment is so time-consuming.

STEPHEN HOUGH

Melbourne Recital Centre

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, MRC

Monday June 2 at 7:30 pm

The formidable British pianist is a guest of the Melbourne Recital Centre and is always good value, not leat for the spread of his programming. This time round, Stephen Hough opens with a group of three pieces by Cecile Chaminade: Automne from the Op. 35 Six Etudes de concert of 1886, Autrefois from the Op. 87 collection of Six pieces humoristiques written in 1897, and the 1892 Les Sylvains. which is Chaminade’s Op. 60. Well, it’s his program but the little I’ve encountered from the French writer’s catalogue strikes me as fin-de-siecle Light. This triptych is followed by Liszt’s B minor Piano Sonata which will probably overshadow anything that precedes it, anyway. Hough then treats us to his own Sonatina Nostalgica, a 2019 work comprising three movements, all with a combined timing of less than five minutes. This mimics the positioning of the Chaminade in preceding another formidable score: Chopin’s final Sonata No. 3, composed in 1844 and enjoying less exposure in the modern recital hall than its predecessor, the Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor. You’d think this presents as a rather eccentric array of offerings; you’d be right. But Hough has the ability to maintain your interest, even in his easy-going moments. Standard tickets cost between $67 and $115, with some half-decent concessions for students and the elderly. There’s also the inevitable $7 levy for taking your money, an unreasonable tax which has apparently infected every musical enterprise across the city.

FIRST VOICES SHOWCASE

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Iwaki Auditorium, Southbank

Wednesday June 4 at 6:30 pm

Here is one of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra‘s special excursions – the First Voices First Nation Composer program under a Music and Ideas banner. I don’t know how the organization is approaching this concept of giving a voice to Aboriginal writers but this strikes me as tentative. For one thing, it’s not hard to fill the Iwaki space. For another, the event is scheduled to last only an hour. For a final touch, all tickets are $15 . . . and you can add on almost half that again for the gouging transaction fee which pushes your price up to $22. Anyway, what do you get for your money? Three works, as it turns out. First comes James Howard‘s Nyirrimarr Ngamatyata/To Lose Yourself at Sea; followed by Leon Rodgers‘ Seven Sisters; the set concluding in Fragments by Nathaniel Andrew. Howard is a well-established academic with a solid background in tracing cultural heritage. The piece by Rodgers was programmed in last year’s First Voices concert, according to a still-extant website. Andrew presents as the most versatile musician with a strong base in performance both here and overseas. I know nothing of the work of any of them but, if in the audience, would be waiting with anticipation for any sign of innovation or irregularity elements that are absent all too often in the output of contemporary writers.

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Musica Viva Australia

Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank

Tuesday June 10 at 7 pm

An inevitable title, given the Swedish-Norwegian background of this recital’s violinist, Johan Dalene. This young celebrity appearing for Musica Viva will be partnered by Hobart-based Jennifer Marten-Smith, latest in a long line of pianists who have partnered Dalene across an active schedule of performances. Mind you, some of the material he’s presenting tonight has been part of his duo programs for some time, like Rautavaara’s Notturno of 1993, and Ravel’s spiky Tzigane from 1924. Dalene also specializes in Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 2, written in a nationalistic blaze during 1865. And he has been known to play Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 8 in G, last of the Op. 30 set of three written in 1902. Three other works that the artists present tonight seem to be new. The most unarguable in this respect us Tilted Scales by (fairly) young Australian Jack Frerer, commissioned for this national tour. Another is Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher of 1878 in which we will be hearing all three parts, not just the popular Meditation. And Lili Boulanger’s D;un matin de printemps enjoys a hearing, written near the composer’s death in 1918. Prices range between $20 and $153; don’t say you don’t have choices. And there’s no avoiding the $7 fee which will be really welcome for those who qualify for the cheapest tickets.

A REFLECTION IN TIME

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday June 12 at 7:30 pm

Back in the well-furrowed trench of orchestral concerts as they were held in this country for years, this presentation follows a venerable pattern, its main components a concerto and a symphony. The difference this time around is that the night’s three components all show their composers at highpoints in their public careers. Conductor Benjamin Northey opens the event with Barber’s Adagio for Strings, originally the slow movement from the 26-year-old composer’s String Quartet Op. 11 from 1936. Christian Li, the Australian-born 17-year-old violinist, is soloist in Korngold’s concerto of 1945; this has become a standard these days, suffering no little neglect for several years after the composer’s death. Finally, Northey takes the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra through Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, written in 1937 allegedly as a response to Stalin-inspired criticism of the composer’s modernist tendencies. These days, the work is seen to have undercurrents of protest against the Soviet state and its oppression of artists. You’d be a noggin-head to take all that final movement bombast at face value but plenty of people do. Whatever the reaction you have, Shostakovich was seen as toeing the Party line, especially by the time-serving music critics in the Russia of that time. It’s all a fascinating reflection of the decade across which these works were written. Standard tickets tonight fall between $75 and $139, concession card holders enjoying a $5 discount, while children under 18 can get in for $20. And there’s the eternal $7 booking/transaction fee/extortion to add on to your cost.

This program will be repeated on Friday June 13 at 7:30 pm in Relaxed Performance mode with special consideration for audience members with disabilities (special prices apply for tickets on this occasion of $35 standard and $30 concession), and on Saturday June 14 at 7:30 pm under regular operating conditions.

ANAM AT THE CONVENT: ELISION ENSEMBLE

Australian National Academy of Music

Rosina Auditorium, Abbotsford Convent

Friday June 20 at 7 pm

The country’s premier contemporary chamber ensemble is playing in the Australian National Academy of Music precincts and also features among its ranks some ANAM alumni. All the same, I think that, from the publicity material, regular Elision Ensemble players will be reinforced by current ANAM musicians. In any case, tonight’s offerings hold memories for me, including the ensemble’s long-time advocacy for the works of Franco Donatoni, whose 1977 Spiri for ten instruments is being played here. Also, the voice of Liza Lim, an Elision essential, will be heard in her Veil for seven players of 1999. Then there’s a work by Xenakis to start the second half – his Eonta of 1964, written for a most mixed sextet of piano, two trumpets and three trombones.. We have an Australian premiere in German composer Isabel Mundry‘s Le Voyage, written in 1996 for four woodwind, three brass, two percussion and a string septet which makes it the most substantial work we’ll hear in terms of participant numbers. Lastly, Russian-born German-based writer Dariya Maminova is represented by her Melchior from 2021; scored for two synthesizers and samples, this promises to exhibit the composer’s attempts to fuse contemporary with rock – I know: an impossible task but the texts come from Edward Thomas and Pasternak, and the piece lasts for ten minutes. Pricing is one of those 1960s box office deals where you can offer $60 if you have the cash, $40 if you fit into the standard patron category, and $20 if you’re feeling the cost of living weighs heavily. And, to show that the organization is really a freedom-loving, libertarian revenant from the hippie era, your booking fee is only $5. As the old song has it, who could ask for anything more?

CLASSIC 100 IN CONCERT

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Friday June 20 at 7:30 pm

Not sure about these popularity polls for serious music because they usually display the responders’ lack of musical experience as the outcomes, especially near the top, are numbingly conservative. This year, the ABC Classic FM hosts and announcers have focused on the piano and are asking which work written for this instrument as a solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or having the instrument in front of an orchestra happens to tickle your fancy. At moments, I feel like doing a Tom Gleeson and fixing the vote by having numerous people propose Boulez’s Piano Sonata No. 2, or Webern’s posthumous piano scrap, or Paisiello’s Concerto in D. You have until 1 pm on Monday June 2 to make your voice heard. Needless to say, patrons won’t be hearing the complete election result; rather, selections will be presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under conductor Benjamin Northey (who is also billed as having ‘creative direction’) , with Andrea Lam as the focal pianist who presents the concertos and solos and chamber music extracts: the sole fount of pianistic wisdom – all without Harry Connick Jr. Your normal everyday customer can pay between $59 and $109 for a seat; the concession reduction remains a risible $5 and the booking fee of $7 still obtains, despite the fact that you have no idea what you’re going to hear – although I’m guessing that surprises will be almost non-existent.

This program will be repeated on Saturday June 21 at 2 pm.

ACO UNLEASHED

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Sunday June 22 at 2:30 pm

A continuation of the Australian Chamber Orchestra‘s 50th birthday celebrations, this event serves to showcase some individual talents from the ensemble’s ranks. The program has been curated by artistic director Richard Tognetti, but he is shining the opening spotlight on violins Helena Rathbone, Satu Vanska and Anna da Silva Chen (the ACO’s latest recruit) through Bach’s Triple Concerto BWV 1064R, which actually enjoyed reconstruction as a three-harpsichord concerto during the mid-Leipzig years. Then Vanska takes the solo line in Ravel’s Tzigane of 1934, here arranged with a strings and percussion support). After this, we can relish Tognetti’s own arrangement of the Beethoven String Quartet No. 11, the Serioso. of 1810 which will be followed by Schubert’s 1820 Quartettsatz; that too will probably involve the ensemble rather than a select four – more’s the pity. Finally, we hear a true rarity in Jaakko Kuusisto’s Cello Concerto, written in 2019. It was the composer’s last completed orchestral work before his 2022 death from brain cancer and will have principal Timo-Veikko Valve taking the solo line; as in the Ravel arrangement, this piece’s orchestra comprises percussion and strings. Standard tickets range from $49 to $141 in the stalls, the cheapest rising to $71 in the circle. Top price for concession card holders is $113 while Under 35s can get in for a flat $35 for those seats still available.. But there’s a lavish $8.50 ‘handling fee to queer your economical pitch; at the moment, this sum tops the list in add-on costs for following live performances of serious music.

This program will be repeated on Monday June 23 at 7:30 pm.

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Friday June 27 at 11 am

A short program in the MSO Mornings series, chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martin, has charge of Mussorgsky’s formidable piano suite in its Ravel orchestration. For years, this has been held up as an ideal example of how to transcribe from one medium to another and the process is packed with memorable touches, like The Old Castle‘s saxophone solo, an exposed tuba powering through the first 20 bars of Bydlo, the strings’ bite throughout Baba Yaga, and the overwhelming cascades of sonority in the last pages of The Great Gate of Kiev. Fleshing out this experience, if not by much, comes Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso; originally a piano piece from the Miroirs collection of 1905 but orchestrated by the composer in 1918. All of which is very interesting if you know the piano originals of both works, although the orchestral tapestries are fascinating in themselves. Your everyday punter pays between $62 and $99, concession holders $5 less, children under 18 pay $20 – and you add on the $7 ‘transaction fee’ to flesh out that warm feeling that always accompanies meaningless, mindless charity.

Diary May 2025

May 3, 2025May 28, 2025 cliveoconnell

THE SOUL OF THE CELLO: TIMO-VEIKKO VALVE

Melbourne Recital Centre

Saturday May 3 at 7:30 pm

After an out-of-town try-out at the Gippsland Arts Centre in Warragul the previous night, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s principal moves to a same-but-different sphere with this Election Day program which reminds us of the cellist’s main arena of operations because both major works are arrangements for string orchestra and it’s only the MSO strings that will be heard tonight. Timo-Veikko Valve begins with a solo in the Prelude from Bach’s E flat Suite, which is followed by one of Mozart’s arrangements of Bach – suitably, an E flat Fugue. But I don’t know whether this is a version of The Well-Tempered Klavier‘s Book 2 No. 7, or the Trio Sonata No. 2’s fugue. Speaking of Mozart, Valve then presents his own arrangement of the String Quartet in D minor No. 15 K. 421, one of the set dedicated to Haydn. A touch of modernity appears with brother-of-Pekka Jaakko Kuusisto’s Wiima of 2011, a 13-minute landscape which Valve has promulgated since its composition in 2011. We finish with Schumann’s Cello Concerto without the original woodwind, horn and trumpet pairs and lacking timpani; I assume this is the transcription by F Vygem (Florian Vygen?) and a. Kahl (Andrea Kahl?). Remaining tickets at this venue for adults are from $57 tp $67, while; the young get in for $20. I assume that a booking fee is imposed but you can’t tell without putting your money down. If not, this would be a major advantage over where I’ve spent the last 5 1/2 years.

FOUR BASSOONS

Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre

Sunday May 4 at 11 am

Necessarily, we’re talking arrangements again, given this unusual front-and-centre combination of Jack Schiller, Elise Millman, Natasha Thomas, and contrabassoonist Brock Imison; all escorted along their way some of the time by an MSO string quintet of violins Anna Skalova and Philippa West, viola Fiona Sargeant, cello Rohan de Korte, and double bass Ben Hanlon. Mozart starts the morning with an unspecified ‘suite’ arranged by Imison for bassoon quartet. Then, an abrupt jump to Wynton Marsalis and his Meeelaan for bassoon and string quartet: a fusion piece now about 25 years old and which lasts between 13 and 16 minutes. Imison revisits his arranger status, this time of Giovanni Batista Riccio’s brief Sonata a quattro, here organised for a quartet of bassoons. Australian writer Gerard Brophy scores with his Four Branches of 2015, dedicated partly to Imison and lasting about as long as the Riccio. Last comes Dutch bassoonist/composer Kees Olthuis’ Introduction and Allegro of 2006 for bassoon, contrabassoon and string quintet; at 20 minutes in length, this promises to be the focal work of the program. The Mozart apart (perhaps), these pieces are completely unknown to me but that has been an occasionally welcome surprise factor in these recitals by musicians who are rarely heard together in intimate converse. As for prices, you might as well forget it because this recital is sold out, thanks to the plethora of bassoonists in Victoria. Bad luck, unless you have high-level double-reed connections . . .

HOLLYWOOD SONGBOOK

Musica Viva Australia

Melbourne Recital Centre

Tuesday May 6 at 7 pm

Soprano Ali McGregor collaborates with the Signum Saxophone Quartet, a group I heard in Brisbane on their last tour supporting Kristian Winther in an arrangement of Kurt Weill’s Violin Concerto. Here, the participants’ combined efforts are centred on film music from the legendary American Dream Factory. We’ve heard of the Great American Songbook and know that this could refer to any collection of songs that your average schmuck could put together and then call his/her collation by that name; a con trick to equal Trump’s repeated clams to singular greatness. But the Hollywood Songbook was a reality: a compilation of 47 songs by Hanns Eisler to poems by Brecht, Holderlin, Goethe, Viertel, Eichendorff, the Bible, Morike and himself – all written in 1943 when the composer was an unhappy refugee in Los Angeles. McGregor and her colleagues will present selections from this liederbuch as well as some scraps by Weill, Porter, Berlin and Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow. Mind you, the Signata share the limelight with a few of Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet from 1924, a set of numbers eviscerated from Prokofiev’s 1935 Romeo and Juliet ballet, a respectable composite in Three Dance Episodes from Bernstein’s On the Town musical of 1944, and then back to selection land for some chunks hacked out of Copland’s Rodeo ballet score, dating from 1942. Tonight will be the second in a series of eight performances and you can attend as a full adult for seats ranging between $65 and $125, with student rush places available for $20. But never forget the $7 transaction fee added on for a reason that no reasonable entrepreneur can explain.

DISCOVER SIBELIUS: SIDE BY SIDE WITH MYO

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday May 8 at 7:30 pm

Yes, you can discover a sort of Sibelius tonight with newly-created stars from the Melbourne Youth Orchestra featured alongside MSO regulars. But what conductor Benjamin Northey and his forces offer is a Reader’s Digest version of the Finnish master; a little bit here, a morsel there, and perhaps enough to titillate – hopefully. But then, who needs this sort of itty-bitty introduction to one of the 20th century’s most individual and approachable voices? The night opens with Finlandia, the composer’s 1899 not-so-open act of anti-Russian propaganda that still thrills to this day with its combination of power and lyricism. Then comes the first movement to the 1902 Symphony No. 2, which is excellent but pales into the background when compared to the score’s sweeping finale. Likewise, we get the last movement of the Violin Concerto of 1904 (with an unknown soloist), but this acts as roughage when compared to the work’s preceding pages which give a fairer picture of the composer’s moody emotional environment. We then hear the Valse triste of 1903, one of the composer’s most frequently performed scraps, and about as useful a musical piece of information as Elgar’s Salut d’amour. To end this brief procession of delights, we come to something more mature in the Symphony No. 5 in E flat, written in 1915. Its grinding. inexorable ending tolerates no grounds for complaint as it simply carries all before it. Sorry, but I’d rather spend my cash on a full performance of either symphony or the magnificent concerto. If you’re under 18, you get in for $20; any older and you have to cough up $39. There’s no fee, unless you want your tickets delivered non-automatically, where you fall victim to the fiscal demands of supplying human contact; it’s not much, but enough to generate a slight feeling of sourness.

AN EVENING OF FAIRY TALES

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday May 15 at 7:30 pm

You’ll get to enjoy your other-worldly experience here without a soloist; the main interest in a pretty pedestrian program comes from conductor Alpesh Chauhan, a British musician who began by playing cello, then sank to the level of directing orchestras – first in Birmingham, then Italy and Scotland, before landing back in Birmingham with side-trips to Dusseldorf. Tonight he expands our awareness with the 1892 Prelude to Humperdinck’s ever-welcome dose of gemutlichkeit, the opera Hansel and Gretel. We are then taken to Prokofiev’s 1944 vision of Cinderella, although nothing is definite here in the land of ‘selections’. Speaking of which, we enjoy more bleeding chunks of extrapolated pleasure in some extracts from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty of 1889 which admittedly lends itself to filleting. Not sure about such a night where you’re faced with extracts from two ballets and an opera and you have to do a lot of extrapolation and supplementary imaginative work to get much out of the whole exercise. Still, for all I know Chauhan has a magic baton that directs such music with brilliant transformative power. You pay full-price $139 in the stalls and circle of Hamer Hall, with a minor reduction to $127 for the balcony. Sit further back and you’re up for $81 or $93 respectively.

This program will be repeated in Costa Hall Geelong on Friday May 16 at 7:30 pm and in Hamer Hall on Saturday May 17 at 7:30 pm.

BACH TO THE BEACH BOYS AND BEYOND

Melbourne Recital Centre

Saturday May 17 at 7:30 pm

Carolina Eyck is the centrepiece of this night’s work. She is a theremin player, mistress of that primal electronic instrument that provides the focus for so much of Messiaen’s Turangalila-symphonie. Richard Tognetti leads his ACO and includes among his forces ABC Radio celebrity pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska. As for what this combination gets up to, the program is as wide-ranging as its title proposes. We start with Bach’s Air on the G String from the Orchestral Suite No. 2, and we end with a compendium of music from Miklos Rosza’s soundtrack to Spellbound (1945), Jonny Greenwood‘s background for There Will Be Blood (2007), Star Trek (Alexander Courage’s opening credits theme for the original series of 1966, you assume), Morricone’s 1966 score for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, as well as Jim Parker’s title music for Midsomer Murders that actually used the theremin and which also dates from 1966. In between come Brian Wilson‘s Good Vibrations (you wouldn’t believe it – released first in that vintage year of 1966), Offenbach’s Can-can (originally from 1858), all Five Pieces for String Quartet of 1924 by Schulhoff, some off-cuts from Saint-Saens’ 1886 Carnival of the Animals as well as his Danse macabre of 1874, Rimsky’s 1900 bumblebee, Glinka’s The Lark romance from A Farewell to St. Petersburg written in 1840. And we’ll have a few samples of local content with the 2005 commission by the ACO of Brett Dean‘s Short Stories: IV. Komarov’s Last Words, plus a world premiere from Holly Harrison. Alongside these works, Eyck gives the Australian premiere to her own 2015 Fantasias: Oakunar Lynntuja for herself and a string quartet, and there’ll be an outing for Jorg Widmann‘s 180 beats per minute of 1993 for two violins, a viola and three cellos. Well, they say it’s the spice of life. Entry costs $49 to $158 for an adult, $75 to $128 for concessionaires, $35 for those under 35, and $30 for a student. There’s an extra fee of ‘between $4 and $8.50’ if you order online or by phone – which pretty much involves everybody in what amounts to an unabashed grab for extra cash.

This program will be repeated on Sunday May 18 at 2:30 pm in Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, and back at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Monday May 19 at 7:30 pm.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS IN CONCERT

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday May 22 at 7:30 pm

Nothing’s changed, then, in the past 5-plus years. Our chief orchestra sticks to a sure-fire dollar spinner with the old live soundtrack exercise although, to my mind, there’s little to commend this episode of the saga, the first of the third trilogy that I dutifully saw in the theatre, bought the DVD, then never looked at again. Visually startling and quite devoid of character-interest, the film once again features music by an incorrigible John Williams which on first hearing sped past my ears at warp speed. But that’s what the MSO, under Benjamin Northey, will be resuscitating tonight under the big screen. Are they still using subtitles so that the actors can be heard over the orchestral sub-text? Let’s hope so because, even in the original cinema screening, parts of dialogue bolted past, incomprehensible and unable to be relished. Still, another viewing is almost worth it just to see Han Solo killed by his psychotic son. Standard adult tickets range from $81 to $150; concession card holders and children enjoy a cut rate of a few dollars less. Makes you salivate, doesn’t it? As well, you have to cough up an extra $7 for a ‘transaction fee’, although I can’t find mention of that when I tried booking. To be honest, I find the MSO ticketing process to be all over the place – something like the entertainment on offer here.

This program will be repeated on Friday May 23 at 7:30 pm, and on Saturday May 24 at 1 pm.

GRIEG’S PIANO CONCERTO

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Thursday May 29 at 7:30 pm

While it’s hard to plumb securely the dim recesses of the past, this popular concerto was probably the first of its Romantic kind that I became aware of, thanks to an LP recording by Dinu Lipatti that I was somehow forced to buy while in a state of early-teen innocence. Still, the reading proved memorable enough to colour several later renditions – and there were many of them as the Grieg proved popular with entrants in the ABC’s Concerto and Vocal Competition staged during the 1950s and 60s. For all its renown, this is one of the easier examples of the Romantic barnstormer; little wonder that Liszt was able to sight-read it for the composer as it’s right up his virtuosic Hungarian alley. Tonight, Alexander Gavrylyuk makes another welcome Melbourne appearance to invest this familiar score with his considerable skill and insight. Surrounding this, Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan leads the MSO through British/United States writer Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour of 2015 which takes its kick-off from poems by Juan Jimenez and Baudelaire and serves as an aural feast for about 12 minutes – or so they say. To end, the orchestra will struggle through Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, a voluptuous and still-testing feast from 1888 that celebrates repetition and instrumental colour in a brilliant exhibition of capture and release. One of the acting concertmasters, Tair Khisambeev or Anne-Marie Johnson, is in for a wild ride. To get in, you need between $75 and $142 for a standard ticket; concession card holders get a $5 reduction. A child is charged $20 but there’s a $7 transaction fee applied to each booking. Mind you, this information comes from the MSO website, so it should be right, right?

This program will be repeated on Saturday May 31 at 2 pm.

Diary March 2025

February 9, 2025 cliveoconnell

VIVALDI VESPERS

Brisbane Chamber Choir/Chamber Players

Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University

Sunday March 2 at 3 pm

This has me beat: I can’t find a mention in the composer’s catalogue of any Vespers setting. But there they are on YouTube – a Vespers for St. Mark from which comes the well-known Beatus vir setting; and a Vespers for the Blessed Virgin with a friendly Domine ad adiuvandum. You can get a recording (presumably of one of them) from the Ex Cathedra ensemble. There’s even a putative vespers available of how an imaginary service for the Feast of the Assumption might have sounded if Venetian composers had clubbed together for such a celebration. Whatever the foundation for this event, the Brisbane Chamber Choir and Brisbane Chamber Players (who are they?) will work together under the choral body’s founding director Graeme Morton with two soloists taking front-and-centre: soprano Sara Macliver and countertenor Michael Burden (know the former, of course; looked up the latter who is a Sydney product, it seems). Well, it could be a revelation but, I suspect, mainly for those of us who know only the Magnificat and Gloria. Students can attend for $15; if you’re under 30, it’s $50; with your concession card, the price is $70; the cost for a full adult is $90. Whatever category you fall into, there’s the extraordinary bonus of no booking/handling fee.

JESS HITCHCOCK & PENNY QUARTET

Musica Viva Australia

Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University

Tuesday March 4 at 7 pm

This combination is new to me and, I suspect, won’t be familiar to Musica Viva audiences, although the Penny Quartet members are well-known quantities as individuals: violins Amy Brookman and Madeleine Jevons, viola Anthony Chataway, and cello Jack Ward. Vocalist Jess Hitchcock hasn’t come my way before, but she’s one of those multi-discipline musicians who sings opera and jazz, as well as writing her own music. Indeed, she appears in this recital as singer and song-writer but, to give it a twist, she is giving us arrangements of eleven of her own songs as organized by a bevy of young Australian composers. Tack on to that a composition by Caroline Shaw, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer who is here represented by Plan and Elevation: The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks: a musical depiction for string quartet of five aspects/features in the famous estate. As for the song arrangers, they are Ben Robinson, Matt Laing, May Lyon, James Mountain, Iain Grandage, Harry Sdraulig, Holly Harrison, Isaac Hayward, Alex Turley and Nicole Murphy. I don’t know any of the songs but wait for their unveiling with high expectations. Entry prices range from $49 to $125 and there’s a transaction fee of $7, which I don’t believe was the practice in previous years but someone has finally hit on the usual way to screw the consumer.

LA CENERENTOLA

Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Tuesday March 4 at 7 pm

To my mind, this is a stand-out Rossini work which appeared as a transient jewel in the national company’s repertoire many years ago and which I saw at the Vienna Opera sometime around 1982 – one of the few unalloyed pleasures I’ve experienced in that city’s opera house. It’s a sparkling construct, capped off with the heroine’s finely graduated Non piu mesta with the Ramiro/Dandini Zitto, zitto, piano, piano duet a true delight. We have here a concert version, I think, because of the venue but a director (Laura Hansford), costumiers (Karen Cochet and Bianca Bulley) and a lighting designer (Christine Felmingham) are included in the performance personnel. Richard Mills conducts a partly unfamiliar cast: Mara Gaudenzi (Angelina), Petr Nekoranec (Don Ramiro), Samuel Dundas (Dandini; well I know this baritone and believe I’ve seen him in this role), James Roser (Don Magnifico), Shaun Brown (Alidoro), Sarah Crane (Clorinda), and Hayley Sugars (Tisbe). The Queensland Symphony Orchestra appears, as does the Opera Queensland Chorus. Full adult tickets range from $75 to $149; the concession rate is small and students pay the same. Never forget the $7.50 charge for the organizers being unable to handle credit cards without smashing the consumer around the head.

This performance will be repeated on Saturday March 8 at 1:30 pm.

THE BIRTH OF BEL CANTO

City Tabernacle Baptist Church

Wednesday March 5 at 7 pm

You get few indications of what exactly will be presented from the Opera Queensland site. You get much more information on the website of One Equal Music, the choral ensemble that is at work on this occasion. Apparently, bel canto begins with Renaissance madrigals by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Strozzi (the recently discovered and extravagantly lauded female composer of the Baroque) ‘and others’ who, according to the OEM pages, are Verdelot, Lotti, Luzzaschi, Fresobaldi, de Wert, d’India and De Monte. From the organization’s ten or eleven members, we have six singers participating, sopranos Louise Prickett and Cara Fox , alto Eleanor Adeney, tenor Tomasz Holownia, bass James Fox. The ensemble, founded and directed by husband-and-wife team Adeney and Holownia, will be accompanied by an unnamed cellist and harpsichordist. A full adult admission is $65, with a reduction of $6 – count them – for concession card holders and students; children get in for about half-price. Still, as far as I can see, there’s no booking fee; must be the venue which is warding off that ever-menacing mammon of iniquity.

PETITE MESSE SOLENELLE

Opera Queensland and The University of Queensland

St Stephen’s Cathedral, 249 Elizabeth St.

Friday March 7 at 7 pm

It’s anything but little, as the composer well knew. When he got around to orchestrating it, the truth came out as the forces employed were very substantial. But this appears to be the original version for four soloists who emerge from the choir of twelve, two pianos and a harmonium. As this is a collaboration with the University of Queensland, the pianists are two of that institution’s staff: Anna Grinberg and Liam Viney. But it doesn’t stop there: the singers come from the University of Queensland Chamber Singers, the UQ Singers, and the Lumens Chamber Choir – which seems a lot to populate a chorale force of a dozen strong. Graeme Morton will play the organ (the cathedral doesn’t run to the more humdrum instrument?) and the whole will be conducted by Richard Mills. Recorded performances range from a bit over an hour to 80-85 minutes; lots of interpretative leeway, one would guess, but this reading is scheduled for 90 minutes uninterrupted. Ticketing follows the same process as for the Bel Canto recital: adults need $65, concession and student entrance is $59, a child gets in for $33. There’s no booking fee but it costs you $1.15 if you want your ticket)s) mailed.

RED DIRT HYMNS

Opera Queensland Studio, 140 Grey St., South Bank

Saturday March 8 at 7:30 pm

With this opus, composer Andrew Ford is providing us with secular hymns; I don’t know how many or specifically who is going to perform them. The poets involved are Sarah Holland-Batt, John Kinsella, and Ellen van Neerven. As for the performers, all that you can glean from Opera Queensland is that students are involved, and they come from the Jazz Department of the Queensland Conservatorium at Griffith University. Still, I’m puzzled by the genre promoted by Ford. A hymn is a song of praise, at bottom. It’s usually addressed to God or a deity of some kind. What we have here are praises of the everyday – ‘the shape of a vase or desire by a river bank at dusk’ are two projections from the OQ website. So the term has been distorted just a tad. When this kind of re-appraisal comes up, I automatically think of Brahms and the German Requiem where the Latin format is ignored and the composer sets a plethora of Biblical texts to do with death. But the construct doesn’t ignore the fundamental requirements for a requiem. I can imagine someone writing encomia to the things of this world, but hymns? Still, we’re in for a hefty dose of Australiana, if the red dirt descriptor is any indication. Anyway, Patrick Nolan is directing the event, so there’ll be a certain amount of staging involved, and the music director is Steve Newcomb who is, among other things, the Head of Jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium. The evening lasts for 80 minutes without interval and admission prices follow the same path as for previous OQ recitals across this month: $65 full adult, $59 concession and student, $33 a child, with no extra fees bar $1.15 if you want your ticket(s) mailed.

BARBER & PROKOFIEV

Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Friday March 14 at 11 am

One of our favourite violinists, Canadian James Ehnes returns to Australia where he’s playing the 1939 Barber concerto: a suitable choice, just before the performer’s country becomes the 51st state, Mind you, Brisbane is the only city on Ehnes’ tour where he plays this work; the rest of the time, it’s Brahms pretty much all the way with a few Vivaldi and Mozart detours in Melbourne and Ballarat. All very nice, even if the American concerto isn’t long; but that leaves more time for encores, doesn’t it? The concert begins with conductor Jessica Cottis directing Matthew Hindson‘s Speed from 1997 which could be giving us a musical image of a racing car meet, or possibly the sensation of just driving quickly, or it could be an imaginative foray into the world of drug-taking. The frenetic pulse coming from a ‘synthetic’ drum-kit, this piece lasts for about 18 minutes, according to its publisher. Which makes it double the length of the Australian composer’s better-known Rush from 1999. Finishing this presentation comes the first movement of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, the only one of the seven that is potentially familiar these days to a discerning concert-goer. I’ve heard the No. 1 Classical all too often, and this one rarely. The others? Never. I suppose the reason behind having only the one movement played this morning is because this event forms part of the QSO’s Education series – and a little learning is more than enough in this era of ignorance. Adult prices for tickets range from $80 to $115, with the usual sliding scale for concession, student and child entry. You’ve still got to pay the $7.50 fee for broaching the Concert Hall doors.

This program will be repeated on Saturday March 15 at 7:30 pm, the only difference being that the QSO will play all of Prokofiev’s symphony. Full prices here move between $100 and $140, which means that three movements of Prokofiev are worth $20/$25 on the current Queensland market. And the $7.50 booking slug still applies.

JAMES ROSER & ALEX RAINERI – AN DIE MUSIK – SCHUBERT’S ART OF SONG

Opera Queensland Studio, 140 Grey St., South Bank

Friday March 14 at 7 pm.

These musicians won’t be hard-pressed for material. Fresh from his appearances as Don Magnifico in the company’s La Cenerentola , baritone James Roser takes on a selection of Schubert lieder, accompanied by Opera Queensland’s go-to accompanist, Alex Raineri. From the promotional material, we are hinted towards Wohin?, Der Lindenbaum, Rast, and ‘the harmonic pangs of unrequited love’ – which last covers a hell of a lot of Schubert territory. As well, patrons are probably justified in expecting the recital title’s setting of Franz von Schober’s verses. As for the rest of this hour-long program, you just have to trust to the discernment of the performers. I’m not that crazy about placing faith in many musicians who are faced with a white program slate, but I think that Raineri would have enough discretion to balance the well-known with some rarities. Ticket prices follow the same path as for the other recitals this month: $65 full adult, $59 concession and student, $33 per child – with the bonus of not having to front up the cash for any extra charges, except for $1.15 if you want your ticket(s) mailed.

This program will be repeated on Saturday March 15 at 2 pm.

TREE OF LIFE

Collectivo

Thomas Dixon Centre, 406 Montague Rd., West End

Saturday March 15 at 1:30 pm

The Collectivo ensemble is a mobile group, its participants moving in and out according to programmatic requirements. This first recital for the year features the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster Andrew Haveron, oboe Tania Frazer (Collectivo’s artistic director), soprano Eden Shifroni, piano Vatche Jambazian, and cello Rachel Siu They’re beginning with Arvo Part‘s Fratres of 1977, probably played in the violin/piano combination. Then Shifroni sings two well-known arias: Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s 1711 opera Rinaldo, and Mozart’s Ach, ich fuhl’s lament from Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute of 1791. Frazer comes on board with Schumann’s Romance No. 1 from the Op. 94 group of three, written in 1849. Just before interval, Shifroni returns for a selection of Debussy songs. So far, so varied; Yggdrasil would be pleased. No rest for the singer when we return as she says goodbye with Caccini’s (Vavilov’s) 1970 Ave Maria, just before Haveron and Jambazian combine for Franck’s epic Violin Sonata of 1886. The exercise concludes with a piece by Argentinian/Israeli clarinettist Giora Feidman called The Klezmer’s Freilach, released in 1998 and a brilliant sample of this branch of Jewish popular music; I’m assuming all the instrumentalists will join in this work to provide a rousing finale. It’s a regular two-hour recital with an interval and tickets cost a flat $74.50; there’s a transaction fee of $5 which is better than some but much worse than others.

LISZT & VERDI

Brisbane Chorale

St. John’s Cathedral, 373 Ann St.

Sunday March 30 at 2:30 pm

Conducted by Emily Cox, the Brisbane Chorale works through four gems of the repertoire, accompanied by organist Christopher Wrench. First up comes Liszt’s Via Crucis, a musical Stations of the Cross for soloists, four-part choir and organ written in 1878/9. This is a solid sing, lasting about an hour. We change from the funereal to the celebratory with Verdi’s Te Deum from the Quattro pezzi sacri, this extract dating from 1895/6 and lasting about 15 minutes (Verdi allowed for 12 only). It asks for two four-part choirs with a short soprano solo and you’d have to guess that Wrench will substitute for the original’s orchestra. Brahms’ Geistliches Lied of 1856 calls for a four-part choir with organ support. At a little over five minutes long, the piece interests for its contrapuntal severity and a combination of warmth and gloom. Finally, the Chorale contributes another five minute-plus delight with Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine from 1864/5 when the composer was a student at the Ecole Niedermeyer. This also follows the Brahms lied‘s pattern of asking for a four-part choir and organ. Tickets cost $60 full price, $53 Centrelink concession, and $22 for a full-time student. The add-on handling fee is only $1.25, which at least is among the more piddling rates of extortion for using a credit card.

Diary February 2025

January 11, 2025January 12, 2025 cliveoconnell

OUR CLASSICAL FAVOURITES

Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Saturday February 8 at 7:30 pm

Back again for another year’s endeavours in combat against the rising tide of growing irritation with high culture, the QSO goes for the popular jugular with this collection of chunky clunkies. Rather than make the audience sit through the whole thing, conductor Benjamin Northey and his musicians sweep straight into the concluding Galop from Rossini’s William Tell Overture of 1829 – the Lone Ranger bit for an audience who doesn’t know what that means. Graeme Koehne‘s Forty reasons to be cheerful fanfare follows, written for the 40th anniversary in 2013 of the Adelaide Festival Centre and comprising 7 minutes of confected jollity. A well-known lump from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet of 1935 emerges: the Dance of the Knights with its clever fusion of pomp and bounce. We calm down for the Nimrod dirge extracted from the 1898/9 score of Elgar’s Enigma Variations, then turn elegant for Faure’s 1887 Pavane. Raise your beers (or rums) for Bernstein’s 1944 On the Town Overture which gets off to a splendid start but moves into sentimental weltering all too soon. Two of the QSO’s principals, harp Emily Granger, and flute Alison Mitchell, combine for the middle movement of Mozart’s concerto for their two instruments, written in 1778 during his 7-month stay in Paris – an unfortunate residence that saw his mother die in that city. The program’s other soloist, violinist Eric Kim, is a Year 12 student who won last year’s QSO Young Instrumentalist Prize; here, he’s up for Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen showcase of 1878. The soulful Adagio from soulless Khatchaturian’s Spartacus ballet of 1956 takes us into a branch of the USSR’s post-Stalin encounters with Hollywood kitsch. Then the Russian dance theme continues with the Pas de deux from Act 2 of Tchaikovsky’s 1892 Nutcracker ballet, based on that memorable descending major scale motif. A little bit more Bernstein (and choreography) with the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (all of them? That’ll be the longest item of the night), assembled in 1960, three years after the musical’s premiere. We wind up with the Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5 from the 1869 Book I collection. Standard prices range from $100 to $140 with the usual derisory reduction for concession holders, students and children coming off much better. The QPAC booking fee continues to impose itself this year operating at the higher level of $7.50.

This program will be two-thirds repeated on Sunday February 9 at 11:30 am. Northey and Co. leave out the Faure, both Bernstein works, and the Brahms. Tickets for adults cost between $80 and $115, the same comments on ticket costs made above still applying.

MAX RICHTER WORLD TOUR

Queensland Performing Arts Centre and TEG Dainty

Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Monday February 10 at 7:30 pm

Probably everyone in the audience knows more about this composer than I do because my only exposure to his ‘work’ has been via a re-composition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: those defenceless and evergreen violin concertos in no apparent need of reorganization. Max Richter is presenting extracts from his album The Blue Notebooks and his latest product – In A Landscape. I’ve listened to a few extracts from both and wonder how much simplicity (or simple-mindedness) we can bear before mental implosion. You could have a few laughs at Michael Nyman tracks in the good old days when tolerance was easier to exercise. Even listening to the cyclical deserts provided by Philip Glass could keep you involved for all of three minutes at a time. But a whole two hours of Richter would turn an inquiring brain to distraction, especially one that has any acquaintance with compositional practice over the past century. The composer will be escorted along his way by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble which is, in this format, a string quintet with two cellos. If you want to hear this concert, you’ll have to wait till next time because tonight is sold out – just like Taylor Swift, although the Concert Hall only offers 1800 seats maximum.

This program will be repeated on Tuesday February 11 at 7:30 pm. This is also sold out.

CLERICI & SCHAUPP

Queensland Conservatorium Theatre, Griffith University

Friday February 14 at 11:30 am

This program is notable for a few elements. The most significant would have to be the world premiere of Gerard Brophy‘s migrating with swallows, a guitar concerto to sit alongside the composer’s Concerto in Blue of 2002. As you can guess from the concert’s title, the soloist will be Karin Schaupp, empress of guitar at the Queensland Conservatorium. It’s splendid to be hearing from Brophy, one of the few survivors of a highly creative epoch in Australian music-making. Bringing up the rear comes Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor which is a marvel of innovation in a tight form and one of the composer’s most athletic creations. To begin, Umberto Clerici and his orchestra play Anahita Abbasi‘s why the trees were murmuring which involves an improvising trombone and two spacialized ensembles. Written in 2020, this score by the Iranian composer now based in San Diego is going to present local audiences with challenges, especially given the prominent solo trombone role and the preponderance of percussion which seem to make up the two different groups that are spatially separate on either side of the orchestra. I can’t see any connections between these three works but is anybody meant to? If you want to get in, the full price ranges between $99 and $140, with students and children getting in for $49 and $35 respectively. Because the event is held at the Con, there’s no sign of that annoying extra charge for handling your credit card.

This program will be repeated at 7:30 pm.

AN EVENING WITH JOSEPH KECKLER

Opera Queensland Studio, South Bank

Friday February 14 at 7 pm

Here’s another one of those oddly non-specific presentations by the state opera company. Joseph Keckler is an American singer/speaker with a wide range – vocally as well as aesthetically. You can enjoy a foretaste of his work on YouTube where the narrator skills are quite evident. I don’t think much of his compositional style, if you can centralize such a concept. It occupies that well-trodden land where consonance is king and progressions take their time; rhythmic patterns are predictable and anything but angular; melodic matter has moved no further than the Romantic era. Will Keckler be accompanied by ambient pre-recorded tape or Alex Raineri’s piano or a chamber ensemble complete with synthesizers? None of this is even suggested on the OQ publicity material. Nor is anything made clear about exactly what he will be singing, although you’d have to assume it’ll be sourced from his previous work, rather than something original, and you can find examples of that on the singer’s own website – if you’re prepared to pay. Speaking of which, tickets are $65, with a ludicrous reduction for concession card holders and students of $6, but there doesn’t appear to be a booking fee.

This program will be repeated on Saturday February 15 at 2 pm.

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Sunday February 16 at 3 pm

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has been in existence less than fifty years, which is surprising given the nature of that city-state’s background and ambition. Here it is, at the fag end of its Australian debut after presenting concerts in Sydney and Melbourne which consist of the same program items as are being mounted here. I thought that I would know by sight some of the orchestra members, possibly a couple of graduates from the Australian National Academy of Music, but not so: there are no familiar faces to be found at the orchestra’s on-line home-page. Artistic director/conductor Hans Graf begins with a piece by 25-year-old Singaporean writer Koh Cheng Jin: Luciola singapura which was commissioned and performed by the Singapore Symphony in 2021. This work celebrates the discovery of a new bioluminescent firefly and features a role for the yangqin (a dulcimer), which instrument the composer herself plays (but will she be doing so tonight? Nobody specific is listed on the participating personnel). After this flurry of nationalistic fervour, we settle into the solid Western tradition with Brahms’ Double Concerto Op. 102, the violin soloist Chloe Chua and the cello soloist Ng Pei-Sian, this latter being the SSO’s principal. After interval comes the gloom-to-grandeur sweep of Tchaikovsky’s E minor Symphony – always a rewarding showpiece for its executants, notably the first horn at the start of the second movement. Tickets are going for between $69 and $146 full adult with a miserable reduction for concession card holders and the usual unjustifiable extraction of $7.20 for all that difficult credit card-use office work.

BRAHMS & BEETHOVEN

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Monday February 17 at 7 pm

In existence slightly longer than the Singapore Symphony, the Australian Chamber Orchestra is this year celebrating 50 years of existence, 35 of them with Richard Tognetti as King of the Kids. To give the opening concert an extra-auspicious aspect, he will take the lead in the Brahms Violin Concerto: an unmitigated joy from first bar to last and gifted with the most exciting and luminous violin writing in all such concertos across the Romantic era. Just as pleasurable will be the Tognetti experience, chiefly because of his ability to find new facets in familiar diamonds; I have rich memories of his outstanding interpretation of the Dvorak concerto many years ago with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. To balance this, we hear the Beethoven Symphony No. 7, the ardent A Major which I don’t believe the ACO has recorded. But you can be sure there’ll be surprises in shaping, rhythmic emphasis and attack as this dynamic warhorse is dusted off. To hear these two big-frame works, you have to pay between $85 and $167 if you’re up for full adult admission. By some computer crack-up, you can get a $10 concession discount, but no such luck if you’re a student or Under 35: Box Office says Full Price for these last two. That can’t be right, surely. In any event, you have to pay the disturbing QPAC cover-charge, slightly increased this year to $7.50.

THE RITE OF SPRING