John Shand Posts

July 29, 2014 / Album Reviews - Archive

(www.xylourisensemble.net)  Greece may be a financial basket-case, but its cultural wealth remains boundless, and an instrument like the three-string Cretan lyra seems to offer an immediate link to the dawn of European civilisation. In fact this ancestor of the violin family may be only 1100 years old, but its sound,…

July 25, 2014 / Concert Reviews - Archive

City Recital Hall, July 19  Had Jacques Brel been alive and well and living in Sydney, and had he attended Amanda McBroom and Michelle Brourman’s concert entitled Let’s Fall In Love, he may have died a man content. McBroom’s delivery of his dazzling Carousel, about being unable to step off…

July 22, 2014 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Camelot Lounge, July 17  The acoustic guitar’s very familiarity makes hearing the parameters of what is possible on it suddenly redefined all the more startling. That Dutchman Stochelo Rosenberg has taken Django Reinhardt’s legacy to an almost absurd level of virtuosity was a given. Less expected was that his young…