Live at the Sydney Opera House

The oud is normally rather a modest instrument, so an oud concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House is about as grand as things get for it! Joseph Tawadros has worked tirelessly to take his instrument into new areas and already ticked off one world-famous venue (Abbey Road Studios) for a live recording. There are only a handful of other oud concertos, so this is a welcome addition to the repertoire and it's certainly more harmonically and texturally adventurous than others.

The skilful orchestration by Jessica Wells is discernibly lush and Russian in feel but steers judiciously clear of any Scheherazade clichés. It is the perfect foil for Tawadros’ dancing oud. He plays with the dexterous vivacity that we have come to expect from him but shows the breadth of his musicianship by reining things in for the gentler second movement. Other notable tracks on this live album include a sumptuous orchestral arrangement of ‘Permission to Evaporate’, which moves from its understated original form towards something grandly cinematic, and a hilarious fusion of the Nikriz maqam (mode) and bluegrass (‘Bluegrass Nikriz’): imagine Aaron Copland and his hillbilly chums lost in the souk…