Alexandra Mathew
Alexandra Mathew is from Readings State Library Victoria
Review — 29 May 2017
À Madame: Divertissement pour Adélaïde by Olivier Baumont & Julien Chauvin
2017 is the year for music from the court of Versailles. First there was La Harpe Reine, then Henriette: The Princess of the Viol, and now À Madame:…
Review — 25 Apr 2017
Preghiera, Rachmaninov: Piano Trios by Gidon Kremer, Daniil Trifonov, Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė
Twenty-year-old Sergei Rachmaninov was shocked to hear of the death of his friend and mentor Tchaikovsky. He immediately set about composing ‘Trio Elegiaque No. 2’, dedicated ‘to the memory of…
Review — 25 Apr 2017
Mahler: Das Lied Von Der Erde by Jonas Kaufmann, Wiener Philharmoniker & Jonathan Nott
When Gustav Mahler composed Das Lied von der Erde (‘The Song of the Earth’), he envisaged two singers – a tenor and an alto – performing the cycle. In the…
Review — 26 Mar 2017
The Spirit And The Maiden by Muses Trio
Australia’s Muses Trio is unique among chamber music ensembles. Consisting of a fabulous all-female line-up – Therese Milanovic (piano), Christa Powell (violin), and Louise King (cello) – the trio’s prime…
Review — 26 Mar 2017
Henriette: The Princess of the Viol by Maddelena Del Gobbo
Princess Anne Henriette of France (1727–1752), daughter of King Louis XV, was a passionate musician and skilled gambist. Her life was short (she died of smallpox aged only 24), but…
Review — 23 Feb 2017
Elena Kats-Chernin: Unsent Love Letters – Meditations On Erik Satie by Tamara-Anna Cislowska
Many years after Erik Satie’s death in 1925, friends gained access to his small and cluttered apartment where they found two grand pianos stacked on top of each other, a…
Review — 23 Feb 2017
Aida by Aida Garifullina
Aged only 29, Russian soprano Aida Garifullina has it all. She is stunningly beautiful, and possesses the voice to match. If that weren’t enough, she is named after one of…
Review — 29 Jan 2017
Rachmaninov & Prokofiev: Cello sonatas by Nina Kotova and Fabio Bidini
Russian cellist Nina Kotova’s 2014 recording of Bach cello suites became a favourite amongst Readings staff and customers. Eschewing the usual constraints of historically informed performance, Kotova’s raw and emotionally…
Review — 29 Jan 2017
La Harpe Reine by Xavier De Maistre
In late eighteenth century Paris, a person in want of a harp could search for the perfect instrument in over two hundred speciality shops, such was the harp’s popularity. While…
Blog post — 17 Nov 2016
The best classical CDs of 2016
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 CDs of the year, voted…