Alexandra Mathew
Alexandra Mathew is from Readings State Library Victoria
Review — 23 Feb 2020
Piae Cantiones by Utopia Chamber Choir & Andrew Lawrence-King
Alia Vox Diversa is a subsidiary of Jordi Savall’s label Alia Vox, and showcases performances by Savall’s colleagues and contemporaries rather than by Savall himself. Recently, the Utopia Chamber Choir…
Review — 26 Jan 2020
Pavarotti
Travelling in a tinny through the Amazon jungle, Pavarotti makes a pilgrimage to a boarded-up opera house where Enrico Caruso supposedly performed. Once inside and onstage, he lets loose his…
Review — 26 Jan 2020
Aquarelles: Debussy & Hahn by Siobhan Stagg & Noga Quartet
Admired for her beautiful lyric voice and impressive vocal range, Debussy dedicated his song cycle Ariettes oubliées (‘forgotten songs’) to Scottish soprano Mary Garden, for whom he also composed the…
Blog post — 14 Nov 2019
The best classical albums of 2019
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 classical albums of the year, voted…
Review — 21 Oct 2019
Antonio Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans
The plot of Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans – ‘Judith the Triumphant’ – is gruesome: barbaric Assyrian general Holofernes invades Judea, and in retaliation the virtuous Judith beheads him. It is an…
Review — 22 Sep 2019
MARI by Mari Samuelsen
In our busy lives, we long to feel grounded. MARI – Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen’s first solo recording for Deutsche Grammophon – is an ‘urge to live slow … to…
Review — 22 Sep 2019
Libertà!: Mozart & the Opera
Between composing Die Entführing aus dem Serail in 1782 and the first of his Da Ponte operas in 1786, Mozart experienced a great deal of change and upheaval. He had…
Review — 19 Aug 2019
Maddalena and the Prince by Maddalena del Gobbo
Maddalena and the Prince is the second of Maddalena del Gobbo’s concept albums for Deutsche Gramophon, following on from Henriette: the Princess of the Viol – a disc of viola…
Review — 21 Jul 2019
Lieder: Brahms, Schumann, Mahler by Renee Fleming
Schumann’s Frauenliebe und –leben was groundbreaking: it was the first song cycle composed to be sung by a woman and from her perspective. As the title indicates, the cycle follows…
Review — 24 Jun 2019
Mozart: Le Testament Symphonique by Le Concert Des Nations
During the summer of 1788, aged only thirty-two, Mozart achieved a monumental feat of compositional greatness: in just one and a half months, he completed symphonies 39, 40 and 41…