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Classical music & opera

  • ‘He made over 600 recordings in five decades’ … Sir Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite at Carnegie Hall in February 2007.

    Amadeus, Elgar, a bogus gold disc and Goldie Hawn
    Neville Marriner’s best recordings

  • Schubertiade 20th anniversary gala recital at Leeds Lieder festival 2024.

    Review
    Leeds Lieder festival Opening Gala – a good old-fashioned Schubertiade

    The song festival – with Arts Council funding reinstated – opened with a meaty all-Schubert programme full of delights and camaraderie
  • Composer Cassandra Miller for g2 Arts. Photo by Linda Nylind. 04/04/2024.

    Deep listening
    The haunting sonic world of Cassandra Miller

    Her intimate compositions take existing melodies that she refracts, rethinks and expands into compelling new pieces. Ahead of the premiere of a new work for guitarist Sean Shibe, Cassandra Millers talks about process, pleasures and sleep chanting
  • Antonio Pappano, Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, at a press conference announcing the 2024/25 Season at LSO St Luke's, London.

    News
    British music, birthdays and building work: LSO announce first season under Pappano

  • Trumpet soloist Alison Balsom performed with the L.A. Philharmonic, conducted by Bramwell Tovey, on his "Songs of the Paradise Saloon," at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Nov. 10, 2013. (Photo by Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

    Alison Balsom
    ‘This is the most important piece written for the trumpet in 200 years’

  • Viktor Bomstad’s swimming pool concert, Borealis festival, Bergen, Norway, March 2024. Credit: Thor Brødreskift/Borealis

    Reindeer skins and sonic looms
    Borealis music festival dives into Sámi culture

  • Pierre Doyen (Dancaïro), Gabrielė Kupšytė (Mercédès), Aigul Akhmetshina (Carmen) and Sarah Dufresne (Frasquita) in Carmen at the Royal Opera House.

    Opera
    Carmen – Aigul Akhmetshina is electrifying in Royal Opera's simmering, naturalistic staging

Live reviews

  • Alison Balsom on stage with Antonio Pappano in Bristol.

    LSO/Pappano/Balsom review – elephant honks kick off Wynton Marsalis’s trumpet showcase

  • a smiling Aigul Akhmetshina as Carmen at the Royal Opera House, in a low-cut, off-the-shoulder red dress

    The week in classical: Carmen; National Youth Chamber Choir/ OAE/Jeannin; LSO/ Roth review – from Habanera to doo-wop

  • Sean Shibe plays the lute with the Dunedin Consort.

    Sean Shibe/Dunedin Consort/Butt review – Scottish links bring the rich and strange

  • Mary Bevan as Aci, Claudia Huckle as Galatea and Callum Thorpe as Polifemo onstage with a projection of the play behind

    Aci by the River review – just add water for a stylish rethink of Handel

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Album reviews

  • Intense, engaging … Isabelle Faust.

    Britten: Violin Concerto Chamber Works album review – bravura and brilliance as Faust turns to Britten’s violin writing

  • ERIN MORLEY - singer - press handout image 2024 - ERIN MORLEY-0470 V2-1-scaled

    Rose in Bloom album review – crystalline debut of a new high coloratura star

  • Harmonic colours … The 12 Ensemble.

    Metamorphosis: Works by Finnis, Vivier, Leith & Strauss album review – teasingly diverse

  • BBC SSO in rehearsal with Thomas Dausgaard

    Bartók: The Wooden Prince album review – very fine recording of rarely heard fairytale ballet

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

People

  • Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn

    ‘Music for you must only be an ornament’
    How Fanny Mendelssohn’s voice was stifled, then saved

  • Martyn Brabbins rehearsing with English National Opera Orchestra at the Henry Wood Hall in London.

    News
    ENO’s music director resigns over proposed cuts to musical staff positions

  • Joana Mallwitz

    Conducting
    Joana Mallwitz is the first woman to lead a Berlin orchestra. And, no, she hasn’t seen Tár

  • Christian Thielemann

    News
    Christian Thielemann picks up baton as director of Berlin State Opera from old rival

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

You may have missed

  • WNO rehearsals for Death in Venice

    ‘We’re all agog’:
    Behind the scenes at Welsh National Opera’s Death in Venice – a photo essay

  • Guy Johnston practising The Protecting Veil at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Divine Wisdom, February 2024

    ‘He had a mystical aura’
    Cellist Guy Johnston on John Tavener’s masterpiece The Protecting Veil

  • Violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster. 2023

    Soaring, searching and silent for too long
    The remarkable life – and music – of composer Mel Bonis

  • Visitors queue at Halberstadt’s St Burchardi church in September 2020 for the 14th sound change in John Cage’s composition, Organ²/ASLSP As Slow as Possible.

    ‘There’s a certain madness to it'
    Fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years left to run

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

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