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Sinfonia da Requiem

by
October 2007, no. 295

The Rite of Spring: 75 Years of ABC music-making by Martin Buzacott

ABC Books, $49.95 hb, 496 pp

Sinfonia da Requiem

by
October 2007, no. 295

In the course of its seventy-five years, the ABC has maintained a variety of in-house live music ensembles, including symphony orchestras, radio choruses, dance bands, a show band, military band and string quartet. In its capacity as a concert agency, the national broadcaster has been responsible for touring an astonishing array of artists. Claudio Arrau, John Barbirolli, Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer, Rafael Kubelík, Yehudi Menuhin, Birgit Nilsson, Eugene Ormandy, Artur Schnabel, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Isaac Stern, and Igor Stravinsky all made at least one visit to our shores, thanks to the concert-giving activities of the ABC. High-end classical music traffic in and out of the country has been so intense over the years that, at one point, piano legend Arthur Rubinstein crossed paths with violin virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman in remote Daly Waters in the Northern Territory (their inbound and outbound planes were refuelling at the time). To the Polish-born classical music celebrities, outback Australia in 1937 must have seemed as strange and unlikely a meeting place as deepest, darkest Congo. Rubinstein couldn’t resist exclaiming to his startled friend, ‘Dr Huberman, I presume!

Robert Gibson reviews 'The Rite of Spring: 75 Years of ABC music-making' by Martin Buzacott

The Rite of Spring: 75 Years of ABC music-making

by Martin Buzacott

ABC Books, $49.95 hb, 496 pp

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