Classical music
Our hero worship of Bach is to blame for rubbish like ‘Written By Mrs Bach’
My impression that Bach has come to rival Shakespeare as a flawless reference point in the cultural life of the…
There’s nothing wrong with getting into Thomas Tallis on the back of Fifty Shades of Grey
Great works of art may have a strange afterlife. Deracinated from the world that created them they are at the…
Classical music's greatest political butt-kissers: Dudamel, Gergiev and Rattle
On 8 March 2013, Gustavo Dudamel stood by the coffin of the Marxist autocrat Hugo Chavez and conducted the Simon…
Spotify: saint or sinner?
We have all read about the current woeful state of the CD industry — how it is 28 per cent…
An artistic crime is committed at the Royal Festival Hall
In one of the more peculiar concerts that I have been to at the Royal Festival Hall, Vladimir Jurowski conducted…
Confessions of an illegal downloader
I’ve never been into shoplifting, though I once had a friend who was. And, no, before you ask, I’m not…
The Nazi origins of the Vienna Phil’s New Year’s Day concert
Vienna’s New Year’s Day concert is still tarnished by its Nazi origins, says Norman Lebrecht
Sex, lies and El Sistema
An explosive new book uncovers abuse at the heart of one of classical music’s most revered institutions. Damian Thompson investigates
Why Church music is back in vogue - and squeaky-gate music has had its day
One of the growth areas of contemporary music is in setting sacred texts. It might be thought that I had…
Forget the Germans. It’s the French who made classical music what it is
The poor French. When we think of classical music, we always think of the Germans. It’s understandable. Instinctive. Ingrained. But…
Is this 65-year-old British pianist the next big thing in classical music?
Earlier this month the Wigmore Hall was sold out for a Schubert recital by a concert pianist whose only solo…
The drunk conductor who ruined Rachmaninov’s career
Would musical history have turned out differently if Alexander Glazunov hadn’t been smashed out of his wits when he conducted…
Christopher Hogwood: the absolutist of early music
The death of Christopher Hogwood has deprived the world of the most successful exponent of early music there has ever…
Wedding music lives or dies at the hands of the organist
A few weeks ago I was at the perfect wedding. My young friend Will Heaven, a comment editor at the…
The Spectator's Notes: French presidents used to have a touch of the monarch. Not any more
When I interviewed Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former president of France, for my biography of Margaret Thatcher, I asked him…
Anthony Horowitz's notebook: Have our schools lost all faith in culture?
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Master of the Queen’s Music, recently wrote about the almost total ignorance of young people…
Why do we pounce on Wagner's anti-Semitism, and ignore that of the Russian composers?
Philip Hensher on how an impassioned, chaotic group of amateur 19th-century composers created the first distinctively Russian music
'I was an arrogant 18-year-old': Daniel Harding on growing up
Michael Henderson talks to the youthful conductor Daniel Harding, who realises that the older he gets the more he has to learn
How to conduct a Tallis motet in a cardboard cathedral
To undertake a concert tour of New Zealand’s cathedrals at the moment is to be constantly reminded of the destructive…
