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Not only does every International Concert Season need to contain something surprising, it should also contain some performers new to our continent, or new to Musica Viva audiences. Such musicians are likely to be young, energetic and highly motivated, and can be found this year in the Morgenstern Trio, which first visited Australia in 2007 [...]

Musica Viva third festival a feast of delights
Steve Moffatt, Manly Daily
April 09, 2013

Music lovers have feasted for four days on a diverse range of material performed by leading international musicians, along with some of Australia’s best talent, as part of Musica Viva’’s third festival which finished on Sunday.

On a more modest scale than its predecessors, it nevertheless featured some big names on the international scene and, as always, was a valuable opportunity for audiences to hear our next generation of players from the Australian Youth Orchestra and watch them being mentored.

The three concerts that this reviewer saw were top quality and packed to the rafters. Musica Viva deserves praise for bringing such depth and ...

Today marks the 21st anniversary of Richard Goldner’s death. Richard founded Musica Viva in 1945 with the vision of bringing the joy of chamber music to Australia. Inspired by Richard’s passion, we have shared his love of chamber music with Australians from the very young to the very old. At tonight’s concert by the Kuss [...]

The Kuss Quartet & Naoko Shimizu’s Australian tour continues. Tonight they perform in Brisbane with concerts in Newcastle and Sydney still to come. While audiences have delighted in the great quintets by Mozart and Brahms, the newer works on the tour program have also been talking points. The Kuss Quartet has studied with Gyorgy Kurtag [...]

When Mikayel Hakhnazaryan joined the quartet in 2008, replacing Felix Nickel, the quartet was thriving and busy, looking more for a member who would blend with them, rather than one who would force a change in direction. Hakhnazaryan had just been offered a solo cello post with a Swiss orchestra, but turned it down in [...]

Musical advocacy of most persuasive order Mark Coughlan, The Australian June 21, 2012 FOR an ensemble such as the Takacs Quartet, which consistently receives rave reviews in the world’s leading journals, one should always expect music-making at the highest level. Judging by this concert at the Perth Concert Hall, the quartet, whose relationship with Australia [...]

The Takács Quartet arrives in Australia on the weekend ready for their tour of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Sydney. We’re looking forward to their programs including works by Janacek, Britten, Debussy, Ravel, and Musica Viva’s 2012 Featured Composer Gordon Kerry. Many in the Musica Viva office still remember the Quartet’s performance of [...]

Similar in intensity, but less black, are Janáček’s First and Second String Quartets, which are also on the program for the Takács Quartet‘s forthcoming Australian tour. ‘Janáček is such a mix of Romantic quirkiness and strangeness,’ Fejér observes. ‘His thoughts are totally unexpected, even today. There’s a gorgeous melody which will bring tears to your [...]

András Fejér is officially on holiday when we speak, but still brimming with good humour from the Takács Quartet’s Australian tour the previous month. ‘I loved it,’ he enthuses. ‘There’s such care and affection and kindness and energy. We just keep grinning like little kids.’ With the last tour still so fresh, and the next [...]

Robert Dunstan, The Adelaide Review June, 2012 Musica Viva are once again touring Takács Quartet, a Grammy Award winning classical string quartet that formed in Hungary in 1975 but are now based in Boulder, Colorado, where they are artists in residence at the University of Colorado. “We love coming to Australia because it’s a special [...]