Thursday 4 September 2025 Sydney Opera House The Australian World Orchestra Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) More words have been written about Gustav Mahler’s 4th and 5th Symphonies than the number of notes in both works combined. Given that they are scored for around 100 musicians and they both last around an hour, that […]
Read More… from Review: Australian World Orchestra – Mahlerfest
Tuesday 2 September 2025 Eternity Theatre, Darlinghurst Lewis Major Projects Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) Through a series of curious circumstances, Lewis Major went from a future as a sheep shearer in South Australia to becoming a celebrated choreographer. He left the farm to learn dance, but an onstage accident left him unable to […]
King Street Gallery on William Exhibition and sale 26 August – 20 September 2025 Review by Anthony Frater (Arts Wednesday) It always a long awaited treat when a new collection of paintings from Idris Murphy come to market. Idris Murphy was born in Sydney in 1949 and graduated from Sydney’s National Art School in 1971. […]
Read More… from Review: Idris Murphy – Vibrations of the Primal
Friday 29 August 2025 Seymour Centre Omusubi Productions Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) Jizo (地蔵/womb of the earth): stone statues that have a spiritual power for protection and longevity. 80 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, The Face of Jizo could not be more relevant or timely. It probes the importance of telling and […]
Art Gallery of Australia 31 May – 21 September 2025 Review by Anthony Frater (Arts Wednesday) It’s always good to have a reason to visit Canberra and Cézanne to Giacometti, Highlights from the Museum Berggruen / Neue Nationalgalerie, is a jolly good reason. On now at the National Gallery of Australia until 21 September it’s […]
Read More… from Review: Cézanne to Giacometti: highlights from Museum Berggruen
Saturday 23 August 2025 ACO on the Pier – The Neilson Walsh Bay Arts Precinct Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) When I saw the program for the latest ACO Up Close recital at The Neilson, I was curious as to the connection between Valentin Silvestrov and Dmitri Shostakovich. Yes they were both Soviet era […]
Read More… from Review: ACO Up Close, Shostakovich & Silvestrov
Monday 18 August 2025 City Recital Hall Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) Four strings. One mind. It’s easy to see why the Takács Quartet is considered one of the pre-eminent string quartets on the planet and a regular guest of Music Viva Australia. An appreciative crowd gathered on a wet winter night at the […]
Friday 15 August 2025 Rebecca Jensen and Sydney Dance Company. The Neilson, Walsh Bay Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) Having spent the early years of my career working as a foley artist and sound effects editor, when I heard about a contemporary dance work based on the art of foley, I was intrigued. Rebecca […]
Saturday 16 August 2025 Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Ensemble White Bay Power Station Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) What White Bay Power Station lacks in the elite acoustic of the City Recital Hall or the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, it more than makes up for with its dramatic pre-WWI industrial infrastructure […]
Read More… from Review. Lost Birds at White Bay Power Station
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Friday 1 August, 2025 Sydney Opera House Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) I’ve often thought for an orchestral musician, the absolute honour of opening a symphony concert with an exposed solo must be so exhilarating and at the same time so terrifying. The audiences’ expectations are greeted by you alone (no […]
Read More… from Review: Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Javier Perianes
Australian Chamber Orchestra Saturday 28 June, 2025 City Recital Hall Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) After the sudden cancellation due to injury of scheduled guest director and violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the ACO scrambled to come up with an alternative program for the tour branded ACO Unleashed. What they devised was a program of familiar […]
Sydney Opera House VOX (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs) Fri 27 June 2025 Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday) Eric Whitacre is the master of suspension. Not in the horror movie kind of way, but more in his ability to create musical tension through harmony, sustain it until you think it will burst, and then resolve it […]
Read More… from Review: Eric Whitacre & VOX – Eternity in an Hour