Dear Alma, A letter from summer camp
Our agony aunt’s mailbag this week is bulging with ‘take me home’ cries: Dear Alma, I am a 16 year old violinist at a summer music camp. We have been here for 2 weeks and […]
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Critical clunk: Bayreuth’s Meistersinger goes Monty Python (again)
The headline in Vienna’s Die Presse on Matthias Davids’s new production at the 2025 Bayreuth Festival reads: ‘As if Monty Python had been the inspiration for the “Meistersinger”. Why does that cliché ring a bell? […]
Pro-Palestine disuption at Salzburg Festival opening
At yesterdday’s opening of the Salzburg Festival, a speech by Minister of Culture Andreas Babler at the Felsenreitschule was interrupted by shouts of “Stop the genocide” and “Free Gaza now”, and the unfurl;ing of banners. The […]
“Beethoven’s Fifth”: the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Proms
Beethoven’s Fifth: Rameau, Saint-Saêns, Capperauld, Beethoven Alexandre Kantorow (piano); Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor/drum). Royal Albert Hall, London, 25.07.2025 Rameau Les Indes galantes (1735), Suite Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 in F, Op. […]
Ruth Leon recommends… The Gospel at Colonus
The Gospel at Colonus has built a fervent following over the past four decades or so. This superlative take on Lee Breuer and Bob Telson’s gospel retelling of Sophocles’ tragedy of Oedipus boasts a powerhouse […]
Evgeny Kissin condemns airline’s removal of Jewish children
Message from the international pianist: Dear Vueling Airlines, I am writing to express my deep shock and outrage regarding the incident that occurred on July 23, 2025, involving your staff and a group of fifty […]
Death of Leonard Bernstein’s son, 70
Message received: The Leonard Bernstein family is devastated to report Alexander Bernstein’s passing on July 22. Father of Anya, brother of Nina and Jamie, devoted uncle, loyal cousin, and beloved friend to so many, Alexander […]
Schoenberg’s folk music and Stockhausen’s dead horse
Who knew? or this? The post Schoenberg’s folk music and Stockhausen’s dead horse appeared first on Slippedisc.
To honour the women by giving voice to their experience: pianist Deirdre Brenner introduces The Magdalene Songs which she brings to the Oxford International Song Festival
Deirdre Brenner (Photo: Andrej Grilc) From 1922 to 1996 more than 10,000 women and girls were incarcerated in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. Operated by four religious orders, these for-profit punitive institutions detained individuals against their will, […]
Ruth Leon recommends… The Kiss 1896
There are many artworks entitled The Kiss – Rodin, Klimt, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc – but this one is remarkable for being the very first on-screen kiss. It happened in April 1896, between actors May Irwin and […]
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