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Roger Covell

Roger Covell is Professor Emeritus in the School of English, Media and Performing Arts at the University of New South Wales. He was principal music critic at The Sydney Morning Herald from 1960 until the late 1990s. He is the author of Australia's Music: Themes of a New Society (1967). He won the Pascall Prize for Critical Writing in 1993. In 2013 he received the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award for his contribution to music in Australia

Roger Covell reviews 'Robert Schumann: Life and death of a musician' by John Worthen

September 2008, no. 304 • 01 September 2008
Does it matter whether Robert Schumann suffered a slow, passive and continuous decline towards the madness of his last two years or, as John Worthen strongly affirms, a sudden descent into psychosis after a creative lifetime marked by personal resilience and determination? Many people would argue that it is particularly important in music not to let biography get in the way of hearing what the com ... (read more)

Schumann and music’s ‘grandest species’ (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)

ABR Arts • 23 February 2015
It was refreshing, to say the least, that two sets of concerts given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Opera House in mid-February had the symphonies of Robert Schumann as their theme. With two symphonies assigned to each program it was possible in less than a week to hear the entire standard representation of Schumann as a symphonist. The refreshing elements in this plan included its escap ... (read more)