Hollywood’s music king is dead
The inimitable Quincy Jones died yesterday, aged 91. A kid off Chicago’s rough South Side, sharing drug fixes with Ray Charles, he won a scholarship to Berklee and wound up studying in Paris with Nadia […]
classical music
Shining a light on the work of women composers & performers: Illuminate Women’s Music’s debut Scottish tour
Established in 2017 by Dr Angela Elizabeth Slater, Illuminate Women’s Music is a touring concert series aim to shine light on the work and creativity of women composers and performers. During December 2024, January and February 2025, […]
Franz Welser-Möst, recovering, withdraws from Beethoven cycle
The Cleveland music director, who has received successful cancer treatment over 15 months, is apparently not quite ready to return for this month’s limelight cycle of Beethoven piano concertos with Igor Levit. The orchestra has […]
What, no doubts about that pretty Chopin waltz?
Last week, the New York Times had a sensational exclusive of a major discovery at the Pierpont Morgan Library. It was an unsuspected last waltz by Frederic Chopin and the joy was so spontaneous that […]
Two violin dealers pull pistols at dawn
The lucrative, secretive business of buying and selling pedigree violins usually keeps its internal disputes well under wraps. Musicians and investors might lose confidence in dealers who slag each other off. But that’s just what’s […]
A critic takes a sledgehammer to a celebrated pianist
The Parisian music critic Alain Lompech (pictured) has a reputation for not respecting reputations. This week, he set his sights on the vastly popular Paris-based pianist Khatia Buniatishvili. Khatia was playing Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto […]
The maestro’s son is also rising
From my latest monthly essay in The Critic magazine. a survey of the many sons of conductors who dream of inheriting the berth: … There is half a football team of son-ofs who are presently […]
A terrific achievement: professionals & amateurs come together at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre performing Jonathan Dove’s The Monster in the Maze in celebration of Music in the Round at 40
Jonathan Dove: The Monster in the Maze – Anthony Flaum & youth chorus – Music in the Round (Photo: Andy Brown) Jonathan Dove: The Monster in the Maze; Anthony Flaum Camille Maalawy, Robert Gildon, Paul […]
REPOST. Stanford: Two String Quintets and Three Intermezzi
This is a unique collaboration between members of the Dante and Endellion Quartets, together with pianist Benjamin Frith. Three members of the Dante Quartet (Krysia Osostowicz, Yuko Inoue and Richard Jenkinson) plus two from the […]
Ruth Leon recommends… Henri Matisse in 60 seconds – Royal Academy of Art
Henri Matisse in 60 seconds This Sunday will mark 70 years since the death of the French Modernist artist, Henri Matisse. His work spanned over half a century and developed from Impressionism to Fauvism and further through Modernism. Matisse […]
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