Mariinsky’s Boris Godunov - a revelation
Anyone who thinks opera singers and orchestral players are overworked should spare a thought for the Mariinsky Opera on its…
The yes-no-maybe world of Harrison Birtwistle
For better or worse, we live in the age of the talking composer. Some talk well, some badly, a few…
Portrait of a Guardian music critic
We critics seldom write our memoirs, perhaps because we skulk away our lives in dark corners, avoiding the public gaze,…
Shostakovich, Leningrad, and the greatest story ever played
The horrors of the Leningrad siege — the 900 Days of Harrison Salisbury’s classic — have been pretty well picked…
Did Leonard Bernstein do too much to be a great artist?
Nigel Simeone’s title for his edition of Leonard Bernstein’s correspondence rings compellingly, novellistically, through the force of the definite article,…
Was Bach as boring as this picture suggests?
What, one wonders, will John Eliot Gardiner be chiefly remembered for? Perhaps, by many who have worked with him, for…
