Canberra International Music Festival, Concert 17,
“Waltz to Tango”, at the Fitters’ Workshop, May 7. Reviewed by LEN POWER
THE waltz of 18th century Vienna and the “nuevo tango” of Argentina seem at first glance to be worlds apart.
The waltz was popular in Europe but social unrest in the 19th century resulted in emigration to the Americas. With a melting pot of musical influences, imported and local, new musical genres arose.
By the end of the 19th century, the tango was gaining in popularity in Argentina. In the early 20th century, Astor Piazzolla, who earned his living playing in tango clubs, introduced classical and jazz elements, creating a new repertoire known as “nuevo tango”.
Canberra International Music Festival / Concert 13, “Up Close at Gorman”, Gorman Arts Centre, May 5. Reviewed by
ROB KENNEDY.
CLOSE UP, intimate and fun was the experience for the audience in this Canberra International Music Festival concert over seven spaces in the Gorman Arts Centre in Braddon.
Concert 13 at the 2021 CIMF titled “Up Close at Gorman” began with the multi-talented Ariana Odermatt. Playing the clavicytherium, which is an itsy-bitsy vertical harpsichord that creates a booming resonance for the performer because the soundboard is in the player’s face. The very early music performed was “De che le morta la mia signora”, Anon early 16th century, “O ye tender babes” by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) and “Proœmium in re” by Hans Kotter (1485-1541).
Creative director of the Four Winds Festival, Lindy Hume. Photo: Lisa Herbert.
THE sense of excitement is palpable at the Four Winds office in Bermagui as its inaugural creative director, Lindy Hume, takes over the reins for the 2021 and 2022 Easter fes
tivals.
Hume is one of Australia’s best-known festival and opera directors, with stints heading up Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, West Australian Opera, Victoria State Opera, OzOpera and Opera Queensland, but she’s no stranger to Canberra.
In 1991 she directed Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” (Cinderella) at the Canberra Theatre for the now-defunct Opera ACT, then in 1995 she directed “A Dinner Engagement” by Lennox Berkeley and “Three’s Company” by Anthony Hopkins for the chamber opera company, Stopera.
3 pm ET: London Philharmonic Orchestra presents
All the World’s a Stage. The LPO celebrates Brett Dean, their new Composer in Residence, with the UK premiere of
The Players. The scene is Elsinore, setting of Dean’s opera
Hamlet, with the solo role played by accordion player James Crabb. The concert begins with Bach’s
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and ends with Stravinsky’s mock-Baroque
Pulcinella. View here.
6 pm ET: Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents
Mark Steinberg, Marcy Rosen, and Jonathan Biss play Beethoven. Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday as three chamber music luminaries play a program of early masterworks: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 5 No. 2, Violin Sonata in A, Op. 30, No. 1, and Piano Trio in G, Op. 1, No. 2. View here. LIVE