classical music

A rare chance to see Martha Argerich perform, at 84, one of her lifelong warhorses – the third Prokofiev concerto. She played it in Mannheim two months ago and the video was uploaded this week. […]

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week: Valentin Silvestrov, living in German exile since 2022, defies categorisation. Under Soviet rule, he maintained an aloofness from imposed styles, ignoring political and national pressures. He was twice […]

From the LA Times: Three of Wallis Annenberg’s children accuse Vikki Levine, the sister of their mother’s longtime partner, of exerting control over Annenberg in “likely fatal” ways, isolating her and hastening her decline with […]

From my appreciation of the great pianist in the new issue of The Critic: He worked so hard to appear normal. A tall man, Alfred Brendel cultivated a stoop to meet people at their level. […]

The tenor Nicky Spence, subject of the second Lebrecht Interview at 2145 tomorrow night on BBC Radio, had a turbulent childhood which stabilised only when his mother moved with him to Scotland. He started singing, […]

From our critic in residence, Alastair Macaulay:   One of the most fascinating revelations of the National Ballet of Japan’s debut season at the Covent Garden opera house (July 24-27) was that the Japanese – […]

Contracts between the Metropolitan Opera, its orchestra (AFM Local 802) and stagehands (IATSE Local 1) expire at midnight tonight. Insiders tells us talks have been bogged down on general manager Peter Gelb’s insistence that there’s […]

The Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has been confirmed as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival until 2031. Bartoli, 59, has been in the job since 2012. ‘Cecilia Bartoli and her conceptual farsightedness are a […]

The Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts has extended the contract with General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski until the end of the 2028-29 season. The renewal had been left in abeyance for several […]