Classical
Words are the most important part of any opera
The long days wane, summer fades and sure enough, the big international guest orchestras begin to land at the BBC…
A true visual spectacle: Edinburgh’s The Galloping Cure reviewed
Those lights! Thinking back on The Galloping Cure, Missy Mazzoli’s new opera for the Edinburgh International Festival, that’s what lingers:…
Apple Music has redeemed itself
Just two weeks ago I was ready to cancel my subscription to Apple Music. I’d stumbled across its ‘Composer Essentials’…
Don’t miss this dark Hansel and Gretel
The Three Choirs Festival always feels so nourishing, so eternally English, that you sometimes forget how much history has been…
The concert of the year
Ah, so that’s where the kangaroo comes in! Garsington Opera produces a souvenir mug each summer decorated with cartoons of…
The greatest symphony that no one’s heard of
I’ve been listening to a symphony that I would describe as an almost perfect masterpiece by a composer of towering…
Choral church music must be heard within the liturgy
Choral church music is at its most effective when it’s embedded in the liturgy as it was designed to be,…
The British modernist who was airbrushed from history
Elsewhere in British music in 1960: William Walton was writing his Symphony No 2, Benjamin Britten his opera on Midsummer…
In defence of Hindemith
There’s a photo of Paul Hindemith with the pianist Artur Schnabel on hands and knees, surrounded by model railway track.…
The art of noise
I’m bullish about AI. All aesthetic snobs should be. In the war on man-made slop – still the most pressing…
A spring mood lifter: Tales of Love and Loss at the Linbury Theatre reviewed
This year’s Jette Parker Artists showcase is a triple bill of modern-ish operas; a cleverly assembled trittico of one-acters, linked…
The magic ears of Hyperion
How do we evaluate Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series, which over a period of 35 years recorded more than 200…
Heart-melting loveliness from John Rutter
Anyone for a spot of acoustic science? Apparently the distinctive colour of a musical note is concentrated almost wholly in…
Why the Goldberg Variations fill me with dread
Is Sir Andras Schiff becoming the Ken Dodd of the piano? In his later years, you’ll recall, the Yorick of…
Recordings have stunted us
Bring me my bow of burning gold; or failing that, the opening notes of Elgar’s Second Symphony. That’s how I’ve…
A playful, big-hearted, intelligent new opera
Some people like art to have a message. So here’s one, delivered by Katsushika Hokusai near the end of Dai…
What a masterpiece. What a man: Borodin at the Barbican reviewed
Gianandrea Noseda conducted the London Symphony Orchestra last week in a programme of Stravinsky, Chopin and Borodin. The Stravinsky was…
The early-music movement is ageing well
The early music movement: it’s grown up so quickly, hasn’t it? The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is 40…
Richard Jones’s Boris Godunov feels like a parody
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov is back at Covent Garden, and there are ninjas. This isn’t a spoiler. There hasn’t been a…
The Neapolitan Horowitz
‘You play Bach your way, and I’ll play it his way.’ That remark by the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska is…
Rattle’s glorious Janacek
The Czech author Karel Capek is probably best known for his plays: high-concept speculative dramas such as R.U.R. and The…
This Royal Opera Traviata is no ordinary revival
First opera of the year, first night back in London, and the jolly old metrop was already springing surprises. A…
The magnificence of Beare’s Chamber Music Festival
The quartet is the basic unit of string chamber music. Two violins, a viola and a cello: subtract any one…
The joy of composers’ graves
I called on Hugo Wolf the other week, and he didn’t look too great. He wouldn’t, of course; he died…
Intoxicating Elgar from the London Phil
By all accounts, the world première of Elgar’s Sea Pictures at the October 1899 Norwich Festival made quite a splash.…
