Classical
There’s no better sonic hangover cure: New Year’s Day Concert reviewed
The best moment in the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s Day Concert comes after the end of the advertised programme.…
Alan Rusbridger on the joys of four-hand piano
One of the few social activities not yet prohibited under lockdown laws is four-handed piano playing. I don’t mean sitting…
Refined and dreamy: CBSO centenary concerts reviewed
For an orchestra to lose one anniversary concert may be regarded as unfortunate. To lose two? Welcome to 2020. The…
The beautiful, haunted symphonies of Franz Schmidt
The sounds that Franz Schmidt made while learning the trumpet were pretty much unbearable, or so the story goes. In…
The grotesque unevenness of Mozart’s Requiem
It is amazing what fine performances you can get beamed to your computer these days. Slightly less amazing is the…
In defence of the tyrannical male maestro
Praising the grand old maestri of the podium isn’t a good look, as they say on Twitter. Conductors such as…
Unobtrusively filmed, powerfully performed but still unsatisfying: LSO's Bluebeard reviewed
The timing couldn’t be better. Just as the gates clang shut on another national lockdown, trapping us all indefinitely with…
A silly, bouncy delight: Glyndebourne's In the Market for Love reviewed
Offenbach at Glyndebourne! Short of Die Soldaten with a picnic break or a period-instrument revival of Jerry Springer: The Opera,…
Why did Balakirev's beautiful, inventive works go out of fashion?
Anyone who invited the Russian composer Mily Balakirev to dinner had to be jolly careful about the fish they served.…
The joy of going to a real concert: OHP's Heart of Delight reviewed
I went to a concert! Not a livestream or download: a real concert, with real musicians, a real conductor, a…
