Fine Music Magazine

The Austen family owned a ‘pianoforté’, as Jane spelt it, upon which she practised daily before breakfast in a small room so as not to disturb the household. She certainly took lessons from a Music Master, but it is unlikely that she played for any but her family and friends. 

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is arguably one of the most misunderstood. Invariably popular with the general public, largely because of his more emotional works, the almost hypnotic effect that he was able to induce led to serious questioning of his true musical quality.

Luciano Berio (1925-2003) was one of the most important figures of post-war classical music; a composer who experimented with electronics and serialism as well as the newest sounds in vocal and instrumental tone production.

The 2023 album Les Égarés has brought together for the first time the two established duos of kora player Sissoko and cellist Segal with saxophonist Parisien and piano accordionist Peirani.

Superlative descriptions of Palestrina’s music and influence are not hard to find in this 500th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The ‘Anno Pierluigiano’ celebration is in full swing in Italy, encompassing a busy year of concerts in the Cathedral Basilica of Palestrina.

For more than five years Emergent Jazz has broadcast Sydney’s emerging jazz musicians and their innovative work on Saturday evenings. Since the goal of 2MBS is to promote Australian musicians, particularly the young, many of them still on the jazz campuses of The Con or UNSW their jazz is our music.

Most music loving Australians will have heard of Charles Mackerras, his conducting, arrangement and promotion of Czech music (especially that of Janáček), but how did it all happen?

Malcolm Arnold – the centenary of whose birth we celebrate on 21 October – was subject throughout his life to severe depression and extreme mood swings which, with acute alcoholism, led to several suicide attempts.

The freshness of this collaborative effort comes from its stellar lineup of young musicians. Trumpeter Lachlan McKenzie, along with tenor saxophonist Lachy Hamilton, double bassist Jacob Graham, drummer George Greenhill and pianist Wilbur Whitta deliver straight-ahead contemporary jazz with hard-bop edges.

Composer Boris Tchaikovsky is among those ‘almost unknown to us’. Born in 1925, and unrelated to his great namesake, Tchaikovsky avoided the censure and penalties inflicted on Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Myaskovsky, Kabalevsky and others.