Recent ABR Arts reviews:

• David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018 (Museum of Contemporary Art)
• The Dance of Death (Belvoir St Theatre) ★★★★
• Giselle (Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company) ★★★★★
• Twelfth Night (Melbourne Theatre Company) ★★★★
• Hedda (Queensland Theatre Company) ★★★★
• Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Opera Australia) ★★★★
• Peterloo ★★★★
• Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues
• A Cheery Soul (Sydney Theatre Company) ★★★1/2

Giveaways

• One premium double-pass ticket to Daniel Barenboim conducting the world-renowned Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra at the Sydney Opera House (valued at $219)
• Five double-pass tickets to the David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art

See below on how to win the free tickets.

Coming up in ABR Arts?

There’s plenty of quality ahead in ABR Arts.
• Zoltán Szabó reviews Daniel Barenboim conducting Staatskapelle Berlin
• Sophie Knezic reviews Escher X nendo
• And Anwen Crawford reviews Lean on Pete

Alison Lester wins $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature

Alison Lester (photograph via Affirm Press)

Australia’s popular children’s author Alison Lester won the revered $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature at a ceremony in Melbourne on 14 November 2018. Lester was selected as winner from a formidable shortlist comprising Tony Birch, Gideon Haigh, Christos Tsiolkas, and Alexis Wright. Lester’s children books have been entertaining children for more than thirty years.

Maria Tumarkin was chosen as the winner of the Best Writing Award for her non-fiction work Axiomatic (reviewed for ABR by Darius Sepheri), published by Brow Books. The small independent publisher Brow Books also saw another of its small group of writers pick up the Readings Residency Award, with Jamie Marina Lau announced as winner for her first book, Pink Mountain on Locus Island. 

For more information on awards, visit the Melbourne Prize website.

SSO’s Music of Count Basie and Duke Ellington

Sydney Symphony Orchestra promotional image of Wynton Marsalis

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is set to open their 2019 season with a one-off celebration of jazz titans Count Basie and Duke Ellington on 23 February 2019. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis will lead the Jazz at the Lincoln Centre Orchestra in paying respects to these legendary musicians by playing their greatest hits. The ensemble will also be playing with Sydney Symphony Orchestra on 21, 22, and 25 February.

Tickets are now available to both Music of Count Basie and Duke Ellington and the joint performance of the two orchestras.

David Goldblatt retrospective at MCA

Eyesight testing at the Vosloosrus Eye Clinic of the Boksburg Lions Club. 1980 silver gelatin photograph on fibre-based paper. Image courtesy Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg and Cape Town © The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

The Museum of Contemporary Art is currently exhibiting an extensive photographic retrospective of David Goldblatt, a seminal South African photographer. Goldblatt gained international recognition for his work documenting South Africa, both during apartheid and proceeding it, crafting an unflinching portrait of the nation’s people, its workforce, and landscapes. Alison Stieven-Taylor reviews the collection, David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018, and describes it as ‘an exhibition you need to plan for’, one ‘not designed for a quick whip-around’.

ABR is delighted to be able to offer five subscribers double-pass tickets to MCA’s David Goldblatt exhibition. For information on how to win, see the giveaway section below.

Nikolayeva lives!

The cover art for Reflections by Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev

Lovers of great pianism and the Russian repertoire should not miss Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev’s Reflections (Decca/Universal Music). In 2016, Tarasevich-Nikolaev (now aged twenty-five) was placed second in the Sydney International Piano Competition. (His first-round performance is available here on Youtube.)

Reflections, his second disc, contains a wondrous performance of Rachmaninov’s Moments Musicaux, which the artist describes as his ‘flesh and blood’. In addition to solo works music by Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev, there are two rarities by Tarasevich-Nikolaev’s grandmother Tatiana Nikolayeva, the great pianist and Shostakovich’s muse. Let us hope that this outstanding young pianist records more of her 24 Concert Etudes.

Barenboim returns to Australia with Staatskapelle Berlin

Daniel Barenboi (photograph by Holger Kettner)

For three nights at the Sydney Opera House, Daniel Barenboim will conduct the German Staatskapelle Berlin, one of the leading orchestras in the world. It is forty-eight years since this remarkable musician and cultural leader last performed in Australia (with his first wife, the great cellist Jacqueline du Pré).

Barenboim will conduct three different programs over 25–27 November. Program one features Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op.68 and Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op.73; program two features Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op.90 and Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op.98; and program three features Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D.759 ‘Unfinished’ and Beethoven’s No.3 in E-flat major, Op.55 Eroica.

ABR is delighted to be able to offer one lucky subscriber a premium-seat, double-pass ticket to the Monday 26 November (Program Two) performance (valued at $219). For information on how to win, see the giveaway section below.

Three $100,000 Fellowships for Australian women artists

Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship was recently announced by the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Carriageworks, and Mona (Museum of Old and New Art). The fellowship, valued collectively at $300,000, will be granted to three female-identifying artists working in performance and installation who wish to realise an ambitious project. The three selected recipients will then present their works in a 2020 Suspended Moment exhibition.

Expressions of interest are now open for the fellowships here and close on 17 December 2018. For more information, visit the ACCA website.

The Clock comes to Australia

Christian Marclay’s renowned cinematic installation The Clock is finally ticking on to Australia. The continuously running 24-hour work features thousands of excerpts from film and television of clocks, all expertly woven to present the current time at any point throughout its cycle. Both a Dali-esque immersion and a history of one hundred years of cinema, The Clock is sure to leave a lasting impression. Marclay’s filmic collage has garnered international critical acclaim, and won the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennial.

The Clock will be a free event running at Federation Square, Melbourne from 23 January to 10 March 2019. For more information, visit the ACMI website.

Giveaways!

Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin

Thanks to the Sydney Opera House, one subscriber will win a premium-seat double pass to Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin for the Monday November 26 performance at 7pm (valued at $219).

David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018

Thanks to the Museum of Contemporary Art, five subscribers will win a double pass to the David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018 exhibition, running 19 October 2018 to 3 March 2019.

How to enter: To be in the running please email Grace Chang at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your full name and contact details. Preference is given to subscribers who have not received a giveaway in recent months. To be eligible for these giveaways, you must be a current or new paid subscriber to the print edition of ABR or to ABR Online.