Fine Music Magazine | Insider Articles & Features

CD Review – Songs For Dead Sailors

Barry O'Sullivan Jazz CD Reviews Jazz posts

Toby Wren's seventh album of original music is a psychological exploration of love and loss in the era of tall ships, unfolding as a song cycle through a series of evocative compositions performed by a sextet of Brisbane's finest musicians.

Thomas Hardy: The lilt of his lyric wiles

Classical Fine Music Magazine

Some know Thomas Hardy, poet. More know Thomas Hardy, novelist. Few know Thomas Hardy, architect. How many know Thomas Hardy, musician?

A Musical Life in Brief – Miriam Hyde

Classical Fine Music Magazine

Miriam Hyde is one of Australia’s most respected and internationally acclaimed 20th-century pianists and composers. Her long and prolific career started when, as a youngster, she won a scholarship to the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide.

Master of the grand motet: Michel-Richard Delalande

Classical Programs Rex Burgess

Among the many rich periods in French music few are more absorbing than the one that starts with the arrival of Lully in Paris in 1646 and ends with the death of Leclair and Rameau in 1764. The two are the last great exponents of the glorious French Baroque.

Antonio Salieri: On his own terms

Classical Fine Music Magazine

How well known would Antonio Salieri have been without the supposed Mozart murder connection, a story that predated Amadeus, the play and movie by more than 150 years and was the subject of contemporary gossip in Vienna during his lifetime?

A Spellbinding Night of Cuban Passion

Live performance review World Music

On a balmy Sunday evening in April the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room was transformed into a vibrant celebration of Cuban soul, rhythm and cultural unity, thanks to an unforgettable concert organised by Artists for Peace in collaboration with the Cuban Embassy in Australia.

Across oceans and time

Fine Music Magazine

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

CD Review – Gold

CD Reviews Classical CD Reviews Fine Music Magazine Michael Morton-Evans

There’s no doubt whatsoever that the members of the Australian Chamber Choir are great singers, but listening to their recent release, Gold, I just wish they were a little more adventurous. Gold showcases the work of eight different Australian composers, ranging from Luke Speedy-Hutton to Sir Malcom Williamson, all of whom, apart from Williamson, are vaguely similar. The music tends to start pianissimo, usually with the sopranos, builds ever so slightly and then dies off again.

CD Review – Arcs & Rivers

Fine Music Magazine Jazz CD Reviews Jazz posts

This duet album brings together Swedish pianist/composer Lyssarides and Greek bouzouki player Prokopiou. The pairing of a pianist with the player of an instrument from the plucked lute family has been a most successful formula in recent years. The late Chick Corea’s partnership with banjo player Bela Fleck in 2007 and that of Stefano Bollani with mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda in 2013 particularly come to mind.

CD Review – Ember

Barry O'Sullivan Fine Music Magazine Jazz CD Reviews Jazz posts

Drummer Paul Derricott released his sophomore album, Big Sea, in 2010, followed by the energetic self-titled debut from his band COAST in 2018. After the successful release of Skim in 2019 and Live 2023 earlier this year, Derricott’s compositional project returns with nine more calculated tracks of experimental jazz fusion.