In 1991 I spent time with the rock-star Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who has died aged 84. Phil had conceived a passion verging on obsession with recent, mostly British, symphonists of considerable obscurity. Havergal […]
Gilbert & Sullivan: Ruddigore – Dominic Sedgwick – Opera North, 2024 (Photo: © Richard H Smith) Gilbert & Sullivan: Ruddigore: Amy Freston, Claire Pascoe, Dominic Sedgwick, Henry Waddington, Xavier Hetherington, Helen Evora, John Savournin, Steven […]
Thursday’s Berlin Philharmonic concert, conducted by Daniel Barenboim with Marthat Argerich playing Beethoven’s second piano concerto, has been described in local media as ‘the gift of the season’. Barenboim, visibly frail, conducted from a chair […]
We’re hearing that talks with Philadelphia’s Matias Tarnopolski have stalled. The new favourite to lead the New York Philharmonic is Marie-Hélène Bernard of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Some expect an announcement in the next […]
The flamboyant Georgian-French pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is taking up directing concertos from the keyboard. She plays London’s Barbican in December. ‘My control is that I lose control,’ she tells an AP videographer. ‘I just give […]
Canada’s international organ competition has been won by a Swede, Johannes Skoog. He flies home with C$25,000, a record release on ATMA Classique and a three-year agencty deal with Karen McFarlane Artists. Second was Henry […]
We hear that the orchestra of English National Opera has been engaged to play Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa at Grange Park Opera next summer. It will be conducted by ENO’s former music director, Martyn Brabbins, who resigned […]
Here on Classical Explorer, we met the Sitkovetsky Trio (Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin; Isang Enders, cello; Wu Qian, piano) before in works by Ravel and Saint-Saëns. This is volume three of their ongoing Beethoven piano trios […]
The death has been communicated of Barbara Kolb, a prominent American modernist. She was among the first Americans to work with Pierre Boulez at his IRCAM institute in Paris. The post US composer, 85 appeared […]
Friends are reporting the death of Donald McInnes, influential performer and teacher. With an international career, he was long associated with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles at the Thornton School of Music. […]
