Rhapsodie:
Fantasie:Poème

Music Web International [UK]

"This is a tasty, original and generous collection of works for horn and orchestra. All credit to the Australian government for  having the percipience to fund it...Melba is an Australian label of fragrant distinction and the musicians are all Australian by birth or firm adoptive choice...the closest thing to hot cakes in years. Snap it up now!"

SA-CD.NET [UK]

"This SACD is a most valuable addition to the horn discography and I recommend it unreservedly." Production and Sonics: 5 stars

SUBLIME MOZART
Works for Clarinet, concerto & quintet
Clarinet PAUL DEAN
The Queensland Orchestra,
conductor Guillaume Tourniaire
Grainger Quartet

"Sublime Mozart indeed! ...as near perfection as one could ever expect to hear."
SA-CD.NET [UK]

BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Folksong arrangements
Steve Davislim, tenor
Simone Young, piano

FRANZ SCHUBERT
Winterreise
Steve Davislim, tenor
Anthony Romaniuk, piano

"...a deeply felt, superbly cogent performance, a credit to tenor, pianist and Melba's recording team...a partnership of uncommon musicianship."
Music and Vision Daily [UK]

CHERRY RIPE
Vocal treasures of the 18th & 19th centuries
Deborah Riedel, soprano
Richard Bonynge, cond.
Arcadia Lane Orchestra

"...a delightful and profitable way to add to your knowledge of opera and song from this period."
Music Web International [UK]

eNEWS UPDATE APRIL 2009

Maestro Ashkenazy with
Melba in Melbourne

Barry Tuckwell, Ben Jacks, Vladimir Ashkenazy  

ACCLAIMED CONDUCTOR, pianist and newly appointed Music Director of the Sydney Symphony, VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY, spent time with Melba in Melbourne last month to mark the release of our CD of music for horn and orchestra, Rhapsodie:Fantasie:Poème.

The performances on the record are conducted by Ashkenazy's friend and one-time collaborator, the celebrated french horn player, BARRY TUCKWELL. Together they made two recordings: a recital disc and a performance of the Brahms trio with Itzhak Perlman.

The Melba CD features, as soloist, the SSO's first horn, BEN JACKS, and contains the work Rhapsodie by Jean-Michel Damase which was commissioned by Barry Humphries especially for his friend Barry Tuckwell to play.

In talking together about the importance of recordings in launching the career of a young artist, Barry Tuckwell told how it was the recording producer, John Culshaw, whose faith in him helped establish his international reputation as a virtuoso soloist. Ashkenazy also talked about the prestige that comes to orchestral players when they make solo recordings.

The Rhapsodie:Fantasie:Poème is a passing of the baton from the greatest brass player of his generation to the young lion of the Sydney Symphony, who is one of the pivotal players in Ashkenazy's team. Recently, as a surprise to the maestro, Ben booked Barry by stealth as the sixth horn for an SSO performance of Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, and during the first rehearsal casually introduced the fill-in player to the conductor—to his great joy.

[Barry Tuckwell is a valued member of the Melba Foundation Board.]

back to top

MORE WITH SYDNEY SYMPHONY PRINCIPALS...

MELBA has made four recordings with principals from the Sydney Symphony, including NICK BYRNE's much praised ophicleide recording, Back from Oblivion, the world's first ophicleide recital CD. We have two more recordings with Nick in the schedule.

We have just completed a recording of music for viola and piano, featuring ROGER BENEDICT and TIMOTHY YOUNG performing the music of Jongen and Koechlin. Roger is principal viola in the Sydney Symphony, a position that he also held in the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy.

And Sydney Symphony principal bassoon, MATTHEW WILKIE's Galant Bassoon with SSO principal bass, KEES BOERSMA, and harpsichordist NEAL PERES DA COSTA, with music by J S Bach, J C Bach and Telemann will be released soon.

back to top