The venerable Wilhelm Brückner, who built some 350 violins, violas and cellos over seven decades, has died in Erfurt, Thuringia, aged 92. He made his first instrument at 15. The family tradition continues through his […]
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week: The death of composer Alexander Goehr last August reminded obituarists of the vital contributions his refugee father Walter Goehr had made to insular British culture. Walter worked as […]
Message from a frustrated reader: Dear Mr Lebrecht, I recently created a small concert series with my sister, Harriet Mackenzie (https://harrietmackenzie.com/) presenting some legendary pieces of classical repertoire. In order to promote our series we […]
The billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne has promised to give 300 million euros to build a new opera house. The city has allocated a site. But the bureaucrats are dithering over small print and the donor, 87, […]
The New Zealand composer and musicologist Martin Lodge has died, aged 70, of a brain tumour. He advanced the study of Maori music at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Waikato. […]
A real reminder of Massenet’s operatic genius here. This is the story of Salomé, later injected into operatic history books by Richard Strauss, but here set by Jules Massenet in a four-act opera with a […]
Schubert at the Wigmore Hall One of my best Christmas presents this year came from Wigmore Hall which made this beautiful selection of sublime songs available to us, the audience, free, this week. The live […]
In collaboration with Camerata Nuova, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and a jury of esteemed opera professionals, Opera Europa and Slippedisc are delighted to announce the fourteenth edition of the European Opera-directing Prize (EOP). The EOP is […]