A drawing of Joyce (with eyepatch) by Djuna Barnes from 1922, the year in which Joyce began the 17-year task of writing Finnegans Wake “Finnegans Wake has been ill-used by approaches that attempt to ‘decode’ it […]
Twenty years ago, Blackheath Halls launched an ambitious annual community opera project with a production of Bizet’s Carmen. This September, the project returns to the opera that started it all, celebrating two decades of creativity, […]
The Leeds International Piano Competition launches a bold new chapter with the appointment of one of the world’s most esteemed artists, British pianist Sir Stephen Hough, as Artistic Director and Chair of the Jury for 2027 […]
Dr Aaron McGregor (Photo: Campbell Parker) Advertisements for Handel’s performances in Dublin in 1741 and 1742 (when he premiered Messiah) give the name of his organist as “Mr M’Lean” or “Mr Maclaine” and that is all […]
Music by François Couperin today, a perfect complement to a previous post on the harpsichord music of Louis Couperin at Wigmore Hall by Jean Rondeau (linked in to his monumental box of Louis’ keyboard works […]
You think you know Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin? Wait until you hear this! John Wilson and Sinfonia of London illuminate every bar of the score afresh. In a score I’ve heard a kazillion times, […]
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester is celebrating its 30th birthday! The opening concert was on 11 September 1996 and the hall has just announced a celebratory 2026/27 season. Manchester’s historic concert […]
Back in the late 1990s one of the origins for ideas for new musical works was the moment during mass when I tuned the homily out and my mind went into a sort of free […]
Verdi: La traviata – Christian Joel, Isobel Hughes, Ted Day – St Paul’s Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) Verdi: La traviata; Lizzie Ryder, Christian Joel, Owain Gwynfryn, director: Edwina Strobl, music director: Adrian Salinero, St Paul’s […]
Irish-French composer Augusta Holmès’s Au bois dormant from Paysages d’Amour is an uplifting song, full of joys the love-drunk lovers, and was recorded by tenor Thomas Elwin and pianist Lana Bode on the 2025 album […]
