Just in his own time for Chopin
There’s a surprise #1 on the Apple Classical global streaming charts this week. It’s a French-US harpsichordist called Justin Taylor playing Chopin on a Pleyel pianino of 1839. The label is Outhere. Is Justin out […]
tritonous
What’s going on inside your Strad?
Three yars ago, we featured the work of orchestral cellist and photographer Charles Brooks who likes to get inside whatever he’s playing. Charles has now got inside a Stradivarius violin. The instrument is the 1717 […]
Suzuki to debut with ex-Gardiner ensembles
The Japanese Bach specialist Masaaki Suzuki will direct the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists for the first time next month at St Martin-in-the-Fields, on June 19. The programme is taken from the 1725 cantatas. […]
Stuttgart finally pays off conductor
Stuttgart Ballet has finally parted company with music director Mikhail Agrest, erasing his name from the new season brochure. He was first dismissed in 2021 after dancers complained his tempi were too fast. Since then, […]
Famed Polish contralto, 73
The serene and much-recorded Polish concert and opera singer Jadwiga Rappé died this weekend. She performed in most major venues and appeared on 56 recordings, including Wagner with Bernard Haitink and works of Lutoslawski and […]
Double debut in Parisfal, 54 years apart
Frankfurt’s young General Music Director Thomas Guggeis conducted his first Parsifal last night. He is 31. The director, Brigitte Fassbender, was also staging her first Parsifal. She’s 85. It went pretty well, by all accounts. […]
English National Opera – new season, new music director: Dead Man Walking, Mahoganny, Cenerentola, Albert Herring & more
André de RidderCourtesy of English National Opera © Hugo Glendinning English National Opera’s announcement of its 2025/26 season (good news in itself, there is a season and it is far stronger than might have been […]
The fight to protect music and the arts in Norfolk’s schools: Anguish’s Educational Foundation & Into Opera to explore solutions & drive meaningful change
Bizet: Carmen – Norfolk Into Opera Festival 2023 (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) As Norfolk’s primary schools grapple with an escalating crisis in arts education funding, Anguish’s Educational Foundation and Into Opera are inviting local stakeholders, educators, […]
Music on a summer’s day. How lovely! Avid Prommer Tony Cooper explores the 2025 BBC Proms
Bliss’ The Beatitudes performed in Coventry Cathedral for the first time, the building for which it was commissioned and written; Orla Boylan (soprano), Andrew Kennedy (tenor), Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, BBC Philharmonic, Paul Daniel (conductor) in […]
A Duke moment
This release, aptly titled “A Duke Moment”, spotlights music originating from Duke University. The Ciompi Quartet, comprised of professors at Duke, play an interesting program of new and recent works for string quartet by composers […]
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