John Adams’s Nixon in China, first performed in 1987, is usually regarded as launching the concept of “CNN opera”: music-theatre works that dealt with contemporary events and recent history, often with protagonists who were still […]
Music is “a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself”, wrote Robert Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy, first published in 1621. Yet music is not simply a cure […]
For his debut disc as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s chief conductor, Domingo Hindoyan has brought together three of the most significant French ballet scores of the first half of the 20th century. Paul Dukas’s La […]
Cate Blanchett has played her share of formidable characters, rulers who could bring mere mortals to their knees with a single icy stare: Queen Elizabeth I in “Elizabeth,” Galadriel in the “Lord of the Rings” […]
I confess I am a philistine when it comes to classical music. It’s not that I don’t like it – I went through a period as a teenager in Southend when I drove around with […]
Polyphonic paints drum & bass music a truly unique way—by uniting a 15-piece orchestra. Led by Fiber and The Fiber Pianist, the band aims to reframe the genre’s timeless hits into an awe-inspiring orchestral performance, breaking its […]
In January 2014, Lars Vogt stepped on to the stage at Sage Gateshead to make his UK conducting debut with Royal Northern Sinfonia. Lars had an endearing and quiet confidence, even when trying something new. […]
Pianist and conductor Lars Vogt has died at age 51. He had cancer. Gioriga Bertazzi/Askonas Holt hide caption toggle caption Gioriga Bertazzi/Askonas Holt Pianist and conductor Lars Vogt has died at age 51. He had […]
World famous Maestro Marin Alsop and sensational pianist Hayato Sumino during intense rehearsals with the NOSPR orchestra of Poland before their grand tour in Japan. — © Radosław Kaźmierczak / NOSPR Every once in a […]
Here’s another bonkers-at-first-glance, brilliantly curated album from the guitarist Sean Shibe. He describes Lost and Found as “an emporium of curiosities”, and all the exhibits are for electric guitar. That doesn’t mean all the music […]
Though these days we generally hear the Brahms symphonies performed by a full-sized symphony orchestra of 70 or 80 players, the composer himself is said to have preferred smaller forces. The orchestra in Karlsruhe, which […]
Albums that sidestep familiar repertoire always deserve attention. The Irish Baroque Orchestra’s The Hibernian Muse (Linn), with the vocal group Sestina, is shaped around music played at festivals at the turn of the 18th century, […]
The summer hiatus is the time to sample star players of the past and hear how performance styles have changed. The latest release on the Biddulph label, specialists in historic string players, is Nathan Milstein: […]
With a stirring rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem, the first concert of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra came to an end in Warsaw late on Thursday evening amid thunderous applause from a packed house at […]
Ask people about Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose 150th anniversary we celebrate this year, and you might be told either that he is hands down Britain’s favourite composer or a parochial embarrassment whose music sounds like […]
Abel Selaocoe walks into a bar in King’s Cross, London, with a small suitcase and a large, curvaceous silver case. “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re going to have to put that in the cloakroom,” the […]
Camille Saint-Saëns composed 13 operas, but only one of them, Samson et Dalila, is now part of the regular repertory. However, during the composer’s lifetime at least, Henry VIII, first seen in Paris in 1883, […]
Santoor legend Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma passed away last night from a cardiac arrest, leaving a big void in the classical music industry and the hearts of his admirers. The musical legend and Maestro of […]
The Romanian pianist Radu Lupu, who has died at the age of 76, shot to prominence in the UK when he won the Leeds Piano Competition in 1969, giving an acclaimed Wigmore Hall recital in […]
“Oh crikey, what can I get for Harriet?” asked an ad in this newspaper three days before Christmas 1992. Alongside images of albums by Enya, Prince, Madonna and REM was one featuring the silhouette of […]