2MBS Fine Music Sydney

Isaac Stern was born on 21 July 1920 in the small Ukrainian town of Kremenetz. While he was still an infant, his family fled the uncertainties of the Russian Revolution and moved to San Francisco where his mother had relatives.

This article was published in Fine Music Magazine in May 2018 to highlight to a concert given by the Sydney...

Carl Dewhurst, who has been a stalwart of the Sydney jazz scene for over 30 years, is considered one of the country's finest jazz and improvising guitarists. He has played with a Who's Who of mainstream and contemporary Australian jazz artists and has released over a dozen albums of original music as a leader or collaborator. He is currently an Associate Lecturer in Jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

On his latest release pianist and composer Aaron Blakey leads a nimble quartet through its paces in six charming and sometimes upbeat gems he composed and arranged. The pianist and his team, Will Vinson (alto saxophone), Tom Botting (bass) and Tim Firth (drums), chart a trim yet steady course, avoiding well-worn paths and managing to wrest the utmost elegance and allure from each of these gems.

The titular theme of this recording is the bold exploration of the interplay between nature and urbanisation, which again is simply another means towards connection and communion. Inspired by his daily walks through Stringybark Creek (North Sydney) and facilitated by a Freedman Fellowship Award, Avgenicos embarks on his creation and presentation of a new multidisciplinary masterpiece, in collaboration with his established jazz quartet, Delay 45, in partnership with Ensemble Apex String Quartet.

This latest recording from the pianist/composer is engrossing music of the highest quality; a masterclass in how to be full of sound without necessarily being furious. Bringing together musicians from different backgrounds and generations

You couldn’t miss Busoni wherever he went for he was sure to be accompanied by his dog. And not just any dog. First it was a huge Labrador retriever called Lesko, and when Lesko died he was succeeded by a behemothian St Bernard called Giotto. Busoni, whose birth we mark on 1 April, always thought big, a trait he inherited from his father, Ferdinando, a handsome bibulous womaniser who just happened also to be a virtuoso clarinettist.

Giacomo Antonio Perti (1661-1756) is one of the longest-lived significant Baroque composers. During his lifetime his name was almost as well known as that of his great predecessor, Monteverdi. While much of Monteverdi’s music has survived and the composer is revered today, Perti’s music has all but disappeared. Is Perti’s fall into obscurity a fair and understandable judgement of history or the result of unfair and unjust neglect? 

As part of the 2MBS Fine Music Sydney’s Artists in Residence, Nexas Quartet showcased their extraordinary talent, performing works by Boulanger’s students, including George Gershwin, Astor Piazzolla, and César Franck. 

Andrei Hadap, who has a wide-ranging knowledge of keyboard instruments, and corresponding experience in performing on them, studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He began his orchestral career in 2018 with Brahms' First Piano Concerto, playing with the Penrith Symphony Orchestra, and is also a composer, scholar and teacher.