Verdi’s Macbeth masterfully compresses Shakespeare’s play into a compelling four Act opera that fulfils all the expectations of a mid-19th century musical melodrama while also adding the theme of a people liberated from oppression, addressing […]
Irish-French composer Augusta Holmès’s Au bois dormant from Paysages d’Amour is an uplifting song, full of joys the love-drunk lovers, and was recorded by tenor Thomas Elwin and pianist Lana Bode on the 2025 album […]
Bizet’s perennially popular opera Carmen, a work capable of multiple reinventions, is popping up in two UK regional productions. Northern Ireland Opera has announced cast and creatives for its first-ever production of Carmen which debuts at Belfast’s Grand […]
Designated (in small caps) as “Orchestral and Concertante Works I,” this is a brilliant introduction to the music of “Sweden’s most performed living composer”. Hillborg studied in Stockholm with, among others, Per Lindgren before falling […]
This is surely Sir Antonio Pappano’s “Wagner period”: his recent Siegfried, the latest instrument of an ongoing Ring at RBO revealed, to my ears at least, his finest Wanger to date. He has, of course, […]
This is not he first specifically Haitink Bruckner 7 on Classical Explorer: we did a short post on a DVD of a Vienna performance here. There is something about the gorgeous warmth of found of […]
CBSO at New Street Station as part of CBSO in the City, 2024 (Photo: Hannah Fathers) As part of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)’s 2026 CBSO in the City festival (27 to 31 […]
Meredith Monk Stringsongs: IV. “Phantom Strings” (2004) Clarice Assad Sonic Landscapes: I. “Continuum” (2002) Meredith Monk Backlight (2015) Cassie Kinoshi ARTEFACT/AUTOMATON (2026, World Premiere) Cassandra Miller Perfect Offering (2021) Manchester Collective; Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, […]
After Glyndebourne’s thought-provoking L’Orfeo, it struck me it was a good idea to cover Jordi Savall’s 2000 Barcelona performance, staged by Pauline Bayle, first of all because the staging is a masterpiece of Minimalism (sets […]
Elisabeth Leonskaja In Recital Barbican Hall, London, 24.06.2026 Mozart Piano Sonata No. 18 in D, K 576 (1789) Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (1821/22) Schubert Piano Sonata No. 15 in […]
