classical

The former German chancellor, a regular worshipper at the Wagner festival, has let it be known she is taking this year off. No reason given. She has missed only one opening night in 16 years. […]

Sources in and around the New York Philharmonic are filling in some of the gaps around the abrupt departure of Gary Ginstling as president and CEO, just a year after taking office. Ginstling, they say, […]

Paris has announced its annual July 14 concert and it’s much lower key than usual. The event is being moved from its normal venue beside the Eiffel Tower to the  the forecourt of the Hôtel […]

Dear Alma, I have been on the sub list for an excellent summer orchestra and I’ve just had my first week of work. My problem is that I don’t quite know how to behave. My […]

Another day, another dose of media gush for Boston Symphony president Chad Smith, placed in the supine print media by his indefatigable publicist Amanda Ameer (pictured). Having groomed two hacks at the New York Times […]

Among the first recipients of a £100m handout from the estate of the philanthropist Julia Rausing is the ballet company she loved best. The money will go towards upgrades of stage and backstage facilities. Rausing […]

The composer has come out bitterly against the belated first Berlin staging of his 1987 opera. This @deutsche_oper production: painful to even think about. “Nixon in China” is so often mistreated or misunderstood. In 35 […]

It has emerged that the resignation of Francois-Xavier Roth as Generalmusikdirektor of the city of Cologne was secured on two conditions. The first was a payoff for his silence – 200,000 Euros, apparently. The other […]

The country’s pioneering saxophonist, founder of the instrument’s only specialist school, has died in Moscow, at 84. Margarita Shaposhnikova was born in Saratov in 1940 and became professor at the Gnessin school. Her proudest moment […]

Originally conceived by Carlo Collodi, the Pinocchio story has seen adaptations over the eras. Here Polish National Ballet presents a danced version to music by Mieczysław Weinberg, the Polish-born Soviet composer Mieczylaw Weinberg, who has […]