David Larkin is a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Sydney, where he specialises in nineteenth-century music. Educated at Dublin and Cambridge, he has published on the music of Richard Strauss, Liszt and Wagner. As a reviewer, he has reported from the Bayreuth Festival and reviewed opera and concert performances in four different countries. He gives regular pre-concert talks and educational lectures at venues all around Sydney and enjoys singing with choirs and playing the piano (in private).
An afternoon programme by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra featuring Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Brahms' Third and shorter pieces by Schreker and Harry Sdraulig offers pleasant but somewhat underwhelming impressions.
Mahler and Schubert: masters of both song and symphony. Jacqueline Porter is the soloist as the SSO under Umberto Clerici perform Schubert arrangements and Mahler's classical Fourth Symphony.
A mixed-bag of an evening at the Sydney Opera House, with a production of Ernani imported from La Scala failing to solve the inherent challenges of the work, despite good performances from the cast.
The revival of David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust provides spectacle and entertainment in spades, with strong performances from Ivan Magrì (Faust) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Méphistophélès).
David McVicar's dark and gothic Don Giovanni is revived in Sydney, with stand-out performances from Luca Micheletti as an unapologetic and dashing Don, and Eleanor Lyons as a magnificent Donna Anna
An exquisite evening of British 20th-century choral music from Tenebrae under Nigel Short at the Sydney Festival, with outstanding renditions of the music of Parry, Bingham and Stanford.
The expanded forces of the ACO take on two major nineteenth-century symphonic works by Dvorak and Brahms, prefaced by world and Australian premieres of pieces by Andrew Ford and Andrew Norman
A brilliantly staged production of Reimann's Ghost Sonata by Opera Australia shows once again that modernist opera can be compelling if a provocative story is rendered by an outstanding cast.
Davide Livermore's new production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena offers moderate pleasures, with solid performances by Ermonela Jaho in the title role, and Carmen Topciu as Jane Seymour.
Graeme Murphy's new Madama Butterfly opens with arrestingly kinky imagery and heavily exploits digital projections thereafter, but the joy of the production is in the uniform excellence of the performers, headed by the outstanding Karah Son in the title role.
Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is given the Pinchgut treatment, with an abstract staging complementing historically informed music-making under Erin Helyard.
Under guest director Lorenza Borrani a subdued ACO offers a programme of arrangements of Prokofiev and Beethoven sandwiching a new work by Dobrinka Tabakova.
For their 2019 season-opener, Tognetti and the ACO collaborate with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir to give a meditative, quasi-religious program centred on Bach and Pärt.
Setting aside a disappointing first movement of the Eroica, the Berlin Staatskapelle under Barenboim deliver another polished and persuasive performance in their third Sydney concert.
Having offered a strong feminist reading of Wagner's Ring, could Kasper Holten do the same again for Die Meistersinger? Opera Australia's co-production had moments of excellence, but ultimately left the viewer with more questions than answers
Richard Tognetti, David Grimal and Daniel Hope, three well-known violinists who also lead chamber orchestras, provide fascinating insights into the changing musical landscape today and the challenges of being both performers and leaders.
Ilya Gringolts brings his brand of unspectacular virtuosity to the ACO's latest programme, with the Paganini Violin Concerto no. 1 and Bartók's Divertimento clear highlights.
Pared-down forces of the ACO performed pared down masterpieces, in a brilliantly conceived programme which included works by Wagner, Strauss and Mozart.
Davide Livermore's digital set for Opera Australia's new production of Aida ushers in a new type of staging to the Sydney Opera House, and backs up a stellar performance from Amber Wagner in the title role.
