2MBS Fine Music Sydney

Guides to the greatest classical music of all time will routinely praise some of Schubert’s symphonies, piano music, chamber music and songs. They never direct our attention to his operas, yet these take up more space in the complete edition of his works than any other form in which he wrote.

During the 1890s, the young Jean Sibelius was associated with the nationalistic-cultural group Nuori Suomi, or Young Finland, which promoted Finnish distinctiveness free from the cultural dominance of Sweden and Russia. The Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a founding member of Nuori Suomi and enjoyed a creative friendship with Sibelius.

Written by Anne-Louise Luccarini Born in Modena on 18 July 1670, 350 years ago this month, Giovanni Bononcini was the...

An Emergent Jazz special broadcast Saturday 8th Jan at 7:00, Emergent Jazz moves its focus to a special broadcast of Emergent Voices. From...

Thank you, Maureen. After presenting jazz on 2MBS FineMusic Sydney since 2000, Maureen Meers is hanging up her microphone and earphones.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor Designate talks to Andrew Bukenya As all Sydney classical music lovers will know by now,...

No music does heartbreak and loneliness like jazz, and Gregg Arthur’s tenth album The Ballad Collection tugs at your heartstrings with each tender tune. Listening to this album in its intended order is essential. Without the delicate balance of the lighter tunes between the more melancholic tracks, you risk being completely shattered by the emotions Arthur evokes.

The tunes evoke images of Aotearoa New Zealand. Searching for the Coast is a translation of the Te Reo Maori name for the Shotover River, and has the feel of such a river. It flows both physically and musically into The Remarkables | Kawarau. This is at once atmospheric and scenic, as it is deeply meaningful and imaginative jazz.

Wilcock has enormous skill and fluid versatility at the piano as well as on composition thus making this session an exciting (even though at times a blistering) summit of equals. Throughout, there is highly creative intergalactic listening to be had here, which was particularly enjoyable on the vinyl I played.

Born in 1877, it didn’t take too long into Dohnányi’s career for him to realise that he was politically denigrated by the Communists and artistically shunned by the western avant-garde. The truth was that even as a young composer, he was utterly conservative. What he had learnt in the conservatorium was good enough for him; he was no innovator and Brahms was God as far as he was concerned.