Slipped Disc

During a Handel & Haydn Society concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall in May 2019, a 9-year-old boy shouted ‘wow!’ at the end of Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music. H&H president David Snead, moved by the response, […]

This week’s revamped competition under Israeli president Yaron Kohlberg will feature a round of pop tunes in an attempt to broaden the public appeal of an increasingly esoteric enterprise. Kohlberg says: ‘People really love the […]

The Portuguese virtuoso Cristiana Neves Custódio has been named princpal horn of the Luxembourg Philharmonic. She’s currently touring with them in Holland and Spain. Cristiana, 27, previously enjoyed a spell with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.   […]

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week: Klaus Tennstedt fled East Germany in his mid-40s in 1971 and hung around for half a decade before anyone noticed he was a truly remarkable conductor – ‘last […]

From my latest essay in The Critic: The harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani tweeted the other day asking, how many handshakes to Hitler? Most respondents touched Adolf at three or four removes. I managed it in one […]

Opera singers are sharing sad news of the death, on Thursday, of the legendary Benjamin Luxon. He was 85. A Cornishman from Redruth, Luxon created the role of Owen Wyngrave in an opera that Benjamin […]

Hello Dolly! – London Palladium This is the show they don’t make ‘em like anymore. Imelda Staunton, completing her trio of big female roles – Mama Rose, Mrs. Lovat and now Dolly Levi – is the centrifugal force around which […]

Caroline Oltmanns writes: It is with great sadness that we have to say our final goodbye to Sean Ryan Baran who was tragically killed in a pedestrian accident yesterday near his home. Sean was one […]

The prolific German composer Wolgang Rihm died today in Ettlingen after an illness, his family announced. He was 72. His output included eight operas, at least two dozen works for orchestra and 13 string quartets. […]

This was the French National Orchestra playing in the Olympics Opening Ceremony under the baton of Cristian Macelaru. Also inundated in the horrensdous Paris weather was the pianist Alexandre Kantorow. It seems remarkable that in […]