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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 2]
Dramatic Messiah
Saturday, 14 December 2019, 11:32 am | Max Rashbrooke
The NZSO’s annual Messiah performance is now a tradition. But a good tradition isn’t simply the repetition of something over and over; all traditions adapt and flex to fit changing conditions. More >>
Resurrection – and farewell
Friday, 29 November 2019, 8:47 am | Max Rashbrooke
With this concert Edo de Waart bowed out as musical director in the same way he began, conducting Mahler. And what a farewell it was! I’ve not been his biggest fan, often finding his interpretations cultured and intelligent but lacking a certain vitality. ... More >>
Turning the screws
Friday, 4 October 2019, 8:11 am | Max Rashbrooke
The Turn of the Screw New Zealand Opera October 3 & 5 (Wellington), October 18, 20 & 23 (Auckland) Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke More >>
Beethoven Forever
Tuesday, 3 September 2019, 7:33 pm | Max Rashbrooke
And so, like all good things, it had to come to an end. The last night of the Beethoven Festival was, appropriately enough, sold out, the acceleration in the audience numbers matching the growing sense of musical excitement. More >>
Beethoven Returns
Tuesday, 3 September 2019, 10:36 am | Max Rashbrooke
And so on to the third night of the Beethoven Festival/Marathon – and in one sense its peak, as this was the only night containing two genuine blockbusters, the Pastoral Sixth and the Seventh with its famous funeral march. The audience was greater than ... More >>
Rollover Beethoven Review
Friday, 30 August 2019, 5:25 pm | Max Rashbrooke
And so the Beethoven Festival rolls on: after symphonies 1-3 the previous night, last night it was the turn of Nos. 4 and 5. The evening followed the ideal pattern that a Beethoven cycle so naturally sets up, the calmer, even-numbered symphony laying ... More >>
Beethoven beginnings
Friday, 30 August 2019, 9:45 am | Max Rashbrooke
The Beethoven symphony cycle isn’t a new idea: the NZSO performed one just five years ago, under their previous music director, Pietari Inkinen. But it’s still a brilliant concept. More >>
Rigoletto - Review
Monday, 26 August 2019, 4:10 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Newcomers to the Wellington scene, Eternity Opera have achieved immense success with recent productions of Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly, among others. This production is, though, much less of a triumph, perhaps because they have bitten off such a big ... More >>
Sinfonietta Fantastica
Monday, 19 August 2019, 9:12 am | Max Rashbrooke
Friday night’s Sinfonietta, the latest offering in the Shed Series concerts, continued its (newly forged) tradition of innovative ideas. If the positioning of the orchestra in the room was, regrettably, a little more traditional than in past outings, the ... More >>
Burning darkly
Sunday, 18 August 2019, 10:39 am | Max Rashbrooke
Compromise is the essence of politics. But which compromises are beyond the pale – are, in fact, compromising? To what extent does our purity rely on the compromises of others? And do women in politics have to make compromises very different to those ... More >>
Review - Matauranga
Tuesday, 16 July 2019, 4:07 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Looking at the programme ahead of the concert, I thought, 'I'm not sure this will pull a big crowd.' And so it proved: on the night the Michael Fowler Centre must have been more than half empty. No wonder, either. This was a strange bits-and-pieces ... More >>
A barber of quality: Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke
Sunday, 30 June 2019, 2:13 pm | Max Rashbrooke
The Barber of Seville New Zealand Opera In Wellington until July 6 Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke More >>
Positive Responses
Monday, 27 May 2019, 5:02 pm | Max Rashbrooke
I was delighted with the one Shed Series concert – gig? – I attended last year: it brought a different kind of energy, and, crucially, audience. Accordingly I had high hopes this time round. More >>
A performance for all time
Monday, 27 May 2019, 5:01 pm | Max Rashbrooke
This concert provided a platform for two striking European talents, Danish conductor Thomas Sondegard and Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin. The Dane was first out of the blocks with a stirring rendition of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, in which the ... More >>
Surely tomorrow? - Waiting for Godot at Circa
Monday, 6 May 2019, 1:52 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Circa’s current production of Waiting for Godot is a fine, understated rendition of a contemporary classic. More >>
A splendid feast
Tuesday, 23 April 2019, 9:30 am | Max Rashbrooke
Most classical concerts are a little like the standard Anglo meal: a main course, accompanied by side dishes. This was more in the Italian vein, where one traditionally gets both a primo piatto and a secondo piatto, and both are of (roughly) equal importance. More >>
A Stellar Show: The Planets
Wednesday, 3 April 2019, 9:33 am | Max Rashbrooke
The Michael Fowler Centre (or the fowl house, as it is affectionately known) was almost completely packed for Saturday night’s concert, this time one with no obvious theme, in contrast to the loose set of Haydn associations that characterised the ... More >>
Expectations confounded - Classical Journey
Friday, 1 March 2019, 11:15 am | Max Rashbrooke
I’ll admit I wasn’t enormously excited by this programme, a set of mainstream pieces with nothing to shock audiences in the provinces where it has been touring for the last couple of weeks. (I use the term provinces in a positive sense, of course, ... More >>
Blockbusters both Beethoven and Handel
Friday, 21 December 2018, 2:11 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Beethoven 9 and Messiah New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Reviewer: Max Rashbrooke Friday, 23 November and Saturday, 8 December More >>
Madam Butterfly: A Review
Sunday, 18 November 2018, 2:53 pm | Max Rashbrooke
Eternity Opera is a still-new company rapidly gaining a reputation for smart, stripped-down productions. And their latest, an English-language version of Puccini’s classic Madame Butterfly, is no exception. More >>
