Fine Music Magazine

From The Editor

The first concert in the Sydney Symphony’s exhilarating program for its 80th anniversary year celebrates three composers, Beethoven, Richard Strauss ... and Brahms. Brahms was a much-performed composer in the orchestra’s early years, and his Violin Concerto is the highlight of this February concert, featuring soloist Lisa Batiashvili. In our cover story Paolo Hooke chats with Batiashvili about her childhood in the Soviet Union, Brahms, and other musical influences. Read more …

Lisa Batiashvili’s CD Echoes of Time is the prize for our crossword winner this month, so why not give it a go?.

We don’t often talk about the Blues…but Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges is back in town to sing the Sam Cooke songbook at the Basement, and he’s certainly worth more than a mention. Over the last ten years Eugene has built a long-standing association with our award-winning Blues program Stormy Monday and has appeared many times playing live on air and at numerous 2MBS-FM fundraisers. To find out more about Eugene’s nomadic musician life read Chris Rhule’s story.

This month on 2MBS-FM we celebrate the anniversaries of two very different conductors –Bruno Walter and Erich Leinsdorf. Read Derek Parker’s comprehensive article about the careers and personalities of these two leading conductors of the first half of the last century (pages 10–11). Walter and Leinsdorf. Given the magical choice of attending a live performance by one of them, which would one choose?

In case you’ve missed it ... at the end of our Program Guide is a regular feature, a list of composers to be heard on 2MBS-FM during the month. A way of making sure you don’t miss your favourites ... or to help you find new ones.

Ildikó