classical music

In the 1890s, between symphonies, Gustav Mahler tried his hand ‘improving’ string quartets by Beethoven and Schubert, in adaptations for string orchestra. They don’t get heard much these days. The post A rare chance to […]

The violinist tells David Krauss on Speaking Soundly that he always did everything to the max. Growing up in Siberia, he had to play in gloves. At some point, he punched his teacher… Listen here. […]

The City of London has voted to spend £191m on renewing the Barbican arts centre, having abandoned plans to build a new concerthall eslewhere within its boundaries. But £191m is just 80 percent is what […]

Versailles yesterday witnessed the death of Martial Solal, an epic figure in French jazz and film. A Jewish pianist from Algiers, he mingled in 1950s Paris with Django Reinhardt and Sydney Bechet, forming his own […]

This is the official blessing for the reopening of the great organ of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Not everyone was impressed by the esoteric repertoire, least of all some world leaders. Here’s a reasoned critique. […]

The Bolshoi and Marinsky star Ildar Abdrazakov, banned in the West for his support of Putin’s wars, has been appointed artistic director of the Sebastopol State Opera and Ballet Theatre, currently under construction. Sebastopol, a […]

What were English National Opera chiefs thinking when they approved a run of Instagram posts that reduce the art form to puerile caricature? The posts are neither funny nor intelligent. Several singers are expressing rage. […]

The composer  Michio Mamiya, winner of a grand prix at the 1974 Salzburg Festival with his opera Narukami, has died at the age of 95. He was most widely known for composing anime cartoon films. […]