This "Butterfly" has already flittered, swayed, dipped and floated her way down the island from most of the way up north - so quite a few people will by now have seen and heard her. I'll go out on a traditionalist limb and declare that most of these people, I feel certain, would have been pleased to find her heart-rending story more-or-less conventionally staged and costumed, though with enough... read more

Chamber Music Hutt Valley organizers must have wondered about what else was going to go wrong, regarding the chain of events associated with the Society's much-awaited piano recital by Serbian Sonja Radojkovich. Firstly, Radojkovich had to withdraw due to ill health, and then replacement pianist Jason Bae, of Auckland, had his bag containing practically all of his personal effects stolen from the Lower Hutt Theatre while he was rehearsing... read more

Time was when many people would look at the kind of fare offered by a concert such as this and suddenly discover all kinds of other things that they simply HAD to get done instead, such as mowing the lawns. Although the Ilott Theatre wasn't packed to the extent that it was for Michael Houstoun's recent Beethoven concerts, I thought the attendance was a "good average" for what seemed... read more

On the face of things, this was another expertly put-together and engagingly-performed concert in Baroque Voices' Monteverdi series, with pretty much the same underlying features as in previous concerts. But the ensemble has now reached Book Four of the composer's nine separate madrigal collections, one which represents a crisis-point in the series. Monteverdi was to thenceforth embark on a new path, what he called his "Seconda Pratica", moving away from... read more

With some surprise I read in the Stroma program booklet that this was in fact the SECOND "Mirror of Time" Concert presented by the Ensemble, following on from an occasion in 2012 - had I recently awakened from a kind of "Rip Van Winkel" sleep, or something? I had been to and reviewed a couple of Stroma concerts that year, but I couldn't remember a "Mirror of Time" title... read more

For some reason I hadn't really registered before this concert just how big a space at St.Andrew's Church a small ensemble has to fill with sound, both behind the musicians and above them. It seemed to my ears when the Aroha Quartet began their Beethoven which opened the concert that everything was set back, as opposed to "being in one's face", and that the instrumental timbres were more than... read more

One of the highest accolades a musician can receive is to have his or her name indelibly associated in people's minds with that of a particular composer's music - and more than any other pianist in this part of the world, Michael Houstoun's name has become practically synonymous with Beethoven. It's not been an association lightly or casually wrought - it's grown and developed over a span of time and... read more

This was a whale of a concert from the NZSM Orchestra and conductor Kenneth Young, performing with Auckland-based viola soloist Irina Andreeva. Much of the enjoyment was in our anticipation of the programme, which featured a not too-well-known Folksong Suite by Benjamin Britten, and an even more rarely performed concerto for viola by Darius Milhaud, coupled with one of the best-loved of the Tchaikovsky Symphonies, the "Pathetique". If not... read more

The present recital, featuring violinist Martin Riseley and pianist Jian Liu, was one of a series of concerts organized this year by the New Zealand School of Music. Martin Riseley has on at least one previous occasion given me short-term lockjaw in the open position, when he played the 24 Caprices of Niccolo Paganini at a concert I attended in Wellington a little over three years ago. Playing those works... read more

"…..a musical reunion? - ooh, yes, a lovely idea! Remember some of those things we unearthed and played, and had so much fun with? Yes, they'll sound great, especially with a few wines, and plenty of yummy food - what's that? A concert? You mean, the real thing? - an audience? - Ooo-er! - eh? - what was that? - No, not at all! - I'm on if you... read more