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Max Rashbrooke
Journalist
Max Rashbrooke is a journalist and author working in Wellington, New Zealand, where he writes about politics, finance and social issues.
Max Rashbrooke - Latest News [Page 1]
A Closing Kabarett
Wednesday, 18 November 2020, 3:27 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Shed Series – Kabarett New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Friday, 13 November When you’re designing a themed concert, it’s always a tricky question: how thoroughly do you commit to the bit? Do you – in this case – play actual cabaret music, ... More >>
Extending Bach
Tuesday, 3 November 2020, 9:41 am | Max Rashbrooke
Johann Sebastien Bach and his composer sons were the focus of this faintly unorthodox concert held – for the first time in my reviewing life – in Wellington College’s swanky Alan Gibbs Centre. (What it is to have improbably wealthy alumni as donors!) ... More >>
In The Time Of The Greats
Tuesday, 3 November 2020, 9:30 am | Max Rashbrooke
Mozart (born 1756), Haydn (1732) and Beethoven (1770) are three great way-markers in the path of classical music, although here – in the order presented in this concert – slightly out of sequence. More >>
Her Master’s Voice?
Friday, 30 October 2020, 10:56 am | Max Rashbrooke
A woman enters a hotel room, bearing a bottle of wine. Pills sit on the sideboard. Then the phone rings, and its sound is like an electrical current sent racing through the room, upending everything. More >>
Monuments To Beauty
Tuesday, 20 October 2020, 3:15 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Monumental New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Friday, 9 October Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke Monumental by name, and monumental by nature: this was a massive concert, clocking in at a solid two hours of music, plus interval. Not that that’s inherently a good ... More >>
Not All Heroes Wear Capes
Thursday, 1 October 2020, 12:07 pm | Max Rashbrooke
In a stop-start year for live classical music, this was another start, a rescheduled programme at the unusual time of 1.30pm on a Sunday. Not that that seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of a (slightly sparse) New Zealand Symphony Orchestra crowd. More >>
Democracy 2.0 : What Is On Offer In GE 2020?
Friday, 21 August 2020, 2:38 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Imagine a twenty-first century piece of software trying to run on a twentieth-century computer, and you have a fair picture of the New Zealand democratic system. More >>
O’Neill Shines
Friday, 7 August 2020, 10:11 am | Max Rashbrooke
It’s an ill wind that blows no good, as they say, and it’s presumably the coronavirus pandemic that we have to thank for tenor Simon O’Neill still being on our shores. On his previous schedule, he would currently have been in the US singing Tristan ... More >>
Goldberg Variations - NZSO
Friday, 31 July 2020, 9:10 am | Max Rashbrooke
Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke It’s the Goldberg Variations, Jim, but not as we know it. For this latest concert, members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra joined forces with Stephen de Pledge, on the fortepiano, to present a variation on the Variations, ... More >>
Back For Good
Tuesday, 14 July 2020, 10:19 am | Max Rashbrooke
Pastoral New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke Wednesday, July 8 It was good to be back. It might only have been a good concert, rather than a great one. But boy was it good to be back in the Michael Fowler Centre, back listening ... More >>
A Conchord Takes On Totalitarianism
Friday, 13 March 2020, 3:09 pm | Max Rashbrooke
This Festival of the Arts production is modestly billed as a ‘work in progress’ – but is already well advanced, remarkably polished, and looking like a surefire hit. More >>
Disappointing Stars
Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 10:20 am | Max Rashbrooke
Perhaps more than any other genre, classical music places immense stress on technical perfection. And rightly so: it’s essential to any pleasurable performance, especially given the demands that the greatest classical works place on their performers. But ... More >>
Improvised Trance
Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 10:15 am | Max Rashbrooke
This show marked Michael Keegan-Dolan’s fourth appearance at the Festival over the years, and came highly recommended. But while it was certainly full of striking moments, I wasn’t convinced by the overall construction. MAM opens with a stark, ... More >>
Only Mad North By Northwest
Friday, 6 March 2020, 3:59 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Eight Songs for a Mad King New Zealand Opera Until 7 March Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke A few years back, the Festival of the Arts featured a circus show in which the audience got to see the performance twice, once from the front and once from behind. It was ... More >>
Migrants Of The Sacred Galaxies
Thursday, 5 March 2020, 1:55 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Kopernikus: Opéra – rituel de mort Peter Sellars/Roomful of Teeth/Ensemble L’Instant Donné Monday 2 March Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke High-end, high-concept, completely bonkers brilliance: that’s what arts festivals are for, in my opinion. You don’t ... More >>
The NZSO Goes To The Disco
Wednesday, 26 February 2020, 10:13 am | Max Rashbrooke
Glass/Richter/Jarvi NZSO Sunday 23 February Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke In the endless, anguished debates about how to make classical music more relevant to new audiences, proposals are often put forward to strip away certain elements – reduce the formality, ... More >>
Not The Promised Land
Tuesday, 25 February 2020, 11:58 am | Max Rashbrooke
Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke Talk about highs and lows: after the stunning success of the Lemi Ponifasio-created opening night work Chosen and Beloved, the same director presented us with a piece that, despite containing moments of real beauty, was wildly ... More >>
Beloved Indeed
Saturday, 22 February 2020, 5:49 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Chosen and Beloved MAU/NZSO Friday 21 February Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke The Festival of the Arts is a prime opportunity to boldly experiment, to push the boundaries. And that’s just what Chosen and Beloved did on the festival’s opening night, ... More >>
Unusual Symmetries
Wednesday, 12 February 2020, 10:07 am | Max Rashbrooke
Shed Series: Symmetries New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Friday 31 January Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke The NZSO’s expanding Shed Series – this year taking in Auckland as well as Wellington – kicked off the classical music year with an ... More >>
The Life and Souls of the Party
Thursday, 23 January 2020, 3:24 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Some years ago, I was at a political candidates meeting where one of the hopefuls illustrated his critique of the current system by saying, quite seriously, “The invisible hand has eaten all its fingers… and is now the invisible stump!” And ... More >>
