classical

The magazine of record for musical affairs since 1844 has published its final issue. The MT, jointly owned for the past 30 years by its editor Anthony Bye and by the Tallis Scholars conductor Peter […]

Ex-CAMI partner Dough Sheldon has inked another violinist contract. Days after promising to bring Nigel Kennedy back to America, Sheldon has signed 23 year-old American Kevin Zhu, a former student of Itzhak Perlman and Li […]

On the afternoon of December 20, a young man in black threw two Molotov cocktails at the door and window of the Leningrad Region Military Commissariat on Fontanka Embankment. Tourists on a passing bus filmed […]

The death was made known today of the Amsterdam alto Elsbeth Gerritsen, star of many oratorios. In addition to classical roles, Elsbeth sang in world premieres of Xenakis, Visman and Guy Harries. She was a […]

If you’re spending Christmas in Perth, Australia, take care before attending Roman Catholic Midnight Mass. More than a dozen members of St Mary’s Cathedral choir will be staying away in protest at the dismissal of […]

We have learned of the death of Jaroslav Mihule, noted authority on the life and works of Bohuslav Martinu and artistic administration at leading Czech opera houses. Jaroslav was 90.     The post Czech […]

The Finnish music world has been shocked by the sudden death of Eriikka Maalismaa, a former concertmaster of the Helsinki Philharmonic, at the age of 44. Eriika was more than just a leader of orchestras. […]

From our agony aunt’s seasonal mailbag: Dear Alma, You know the saying ‘two drinks and she’s anyone’s’? That’s me. Year round I’ll take the elderberry juice at post-concert receptions and the mineral water at dinner. […]

Kandinsky He likened abstract art to music, writing, “Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmony, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key […]

There have been some irreparable losses. Germany mourned its two foremost composers, the bust conductors Andrew Davis and Leif Segerstam stopped beating, the world’ foremost Jewish liturgist sang his last and we paused to mourn […]