Nikola Meeuwsen, 23, from the Netherlands won the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the first Dutch pianist to do so. Second place was the Japanese Wataru Hisasue. Crowd favourite Valère Burnon from Belgium came third. No controversies, […]
The occasional op-ed writer John McWhorter, identified as ‘a Columbia University linguist (who) explores how race and language shape our politics and culture’, has just had a thought that if opera was sung in the […]
The death has been announced of artistic advisor Erich Seitter who advanced the careers of singer Elina Garanca, conductor Philippe Jordan and many more from an agency that he founded in 1986. Seitter was consultant […]
A world record is being claimed by pianist Ruslan Ishdavletov from St. Petersburg, who improvised continuously for 60 hours without eating, drinking or sleeping. Ruslan sat down at the piano at midnight on May 27 […]
Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, has been dismissed by tweet. Ttump said: ‘Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of […]
From my monthly essay in The Critic: A rustling in the record schedules warns me that 2026 will be the Year of Havergal Brian. Never heard of him? Don’t panic. He’s an English composer of 32 symphonies […]
Aziz Shokhakimov’s continuing success with the Strasbourg orchestra is exemplified in this recording. Good timing, too, given the Ravel celebrations this year. Recently, we covered a live performance in Strasbourg of Stravinsky’s Rite could with […]
I have really enjoyed Domingo Hindoyan‘s recordings of less familiar, less over-recorded repertoire. His discs of French ballet music, “Venezuela!”, and the music of Roberto Sierra were really terrific. But then Onyx released his Bruckner 4, and now […]
From our agony aunt: Dear Alma, I have a nosy viola professor! She’s always bringing up dramas and problems she has with university students and co-workers within the music school. It’s getting to the point […]
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week: The second symphony by this unsung French composer has been included in this summer’s BBC Proms and I wanted to get familiar with it before deciding whether to […]
