Hidden Author
The return of Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen's masterpiece for solo piano Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus was last performed in Melbourne in February 2009 – days after the opening of the Melbourne Recital Centre. Steven Osborne was the soloist on that occasion. His was a memorable performance – in front of a pitifully small audience, not helped by the eccentric programming so typical of ... (read more)
Brian Johns, who died in Sydney on New Year's Day, was a remarkable man, a great friend to many, and a great enabler. His family came to Sydney from Queensland in 1947, and at the age of sixteen Brian entered St Columba's Seminary. After three years he left and went to Canberra to become a journalist. It was the start of a career marked by his passion for providing increased opportunity to Austral ... (read more)
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND BORDER CONTROL
Dear Prime Minister and Minister Dutton,
As writers committed to protecting and defending human rights, and as citizens of conscience, we the undersigned wish to express our deep abhorrence of the ongoing mistreatment of refugees in Australia's offshore detention centres.
As writers, we are called in our work to e ... (read more)
Porter Prize
Five poems have been shortlisted in the 2016 Peter Porter Poetry Prize. The poets are Dan Disney, Anne Elvey, Amanda Joy, Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet, and Campbell Thomson; their poems can be read here. The judges on this occasion were Luke Davies, Lisa Gorton, and Kate Middleton.
Join us at our studio in Boyd Community Hub on Wednesday, 9 March (6 pm), when the poets will introduce an ... (read more)
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Flash Sale
Sydney-based music lovers shouldn’t miss the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 72-hour flash sale. Design your own concert package and book three performances from twenty different programs in the 2016 season and receive 50% off the full ticket price. Possible combinations include Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, and Pink Martini ... (read more)
David Williamson (1942–) is one of Australia's most decorated playwrights. Writer of award-winning theatre, film and television, David's works have remained consistently relevant, with new seasons performed yearly. He has won awards in both film and theatre, with The Removalists (1971) earning him the George Devine Award as well as the prestige of being the first foreigner to win the award. The ... (read more)
On the unanimity of arts critics
Peter Wilby – whose column 'First Thoughts' is the first thing Arts Update turns to in New Statesman – enjoyed the current revival of Guys and Dolls in London. 'I had no quarrel with the national newspaper critics' seemingly unanimous awarding of four stars,' he wrote. 'Why, though, was one of them not sufficiently generous to give it five stars and why was th ... (read more)
Women on the podium
When was the last time you saw a woman conduct an opera or a symphony orchestra – that is, one whose name isn't Simone Young?
Conducting remains an overwhelmingly male preserve, especially in this country – to an extent that would be pilloried elsewhere in the arts. The infinitesimal number of women conducting orchestras makes the composition of most company boards or the ... (read more)
Vale Pierre Boulez
Arts Update was in the United States when Pierre Boulez died (5 January). The French composer and conductor, who was aged ninety, had remained active well into his eighties, no longer the enfant terrible who had excoriated musical conservatives and led a revolution in music in the 1960s. Arts Update, inured to the desultory coverage of the arts in most Australian newspapers, wa ... (read more)