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Classical music & opera

  • Starkly dramatic … Petr Popelka conducts the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.

    Album review
    Smetana: Má Vlast; Symphonic Works – bristles with energy and vivid intent

  • Sonic devotion … Daniel Pioro and Manchester Camerata.

    Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – Pioro’s ‘ode to the imagination’ of Vivaldi has interest but also indulgence

    The violinist’s rethinking of Vivaldi’s best known work includes four new poems by (and read by) Michael Morpurgo but, placed together at the start of the disc, the music and poetry feels disconnected
  • Elgar Howarth, British Trumpeter, Composer &amp; Conductor<br>British trumpeter, composer and conductor Elgar Howarth, of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, holding his trumpet to his lips, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England, 7th February 1962. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    Elgar Howarth obituary

    Conductor of contemporary opera and and trailblazing force in the tradition-bound world of brass band music
  • The Lost Music Of Auschwitz, Sky Arts

    ‘Why would an orchestra exist in this hell?’ Inside The Lost Music of Auschwitz

  • Love Life, Opera North Dancer Max Westwell and Felicity Moore as a Tot

    Review
    Love Life – surreal Kurt Weill musical skips through the decades with flair

  • Mark Rylance and Claire van Kampen attending the Olivier awards in 2017

    News
    Claire van Kampen, theatre director and composer, dies aged 71

  • Karita Mattila and Nicky Spence in Jenůfa at the Royal Opera House, London.

    Review
    Jenůfa – this opera is in Hrůša’s DNA, his account is not to be missed

Live reviews

  • Sakari Oramo conducting the BBCSO at the Barbican. London.

    BBCSO/Oramo review – Kaija Saariaho’s final work receives poignant UK premiere

  • Martha Argerich at the 2025 Lucerne festival.

    Le Piano Symphonique festival review – high drama with Argerich and friends

  • Jacob Collier and Chris Thile performing with Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican, London, conducted by Suzie Collier. Photo: Shoël Stadlen / Britten Sinfonia

    Jacob Collier/Chris Thile/Britten Sinfonia review – Bach to Beatles and mass harmonies as virtuosic pair delight

  • Mariam Batsashvili performs at Wigmore Hall.

    Mariam Batsashvili review – star pianist takes Romantics to another level without frills

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Album reviews

  • Meryl Streep narrating Lord Byron’s poem Darkness as part of Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem.

    Rufus Wainwright: Dream Requiem album review – a sense of special occasion, all concerned believe in it

  • The Nash Ensemble performing in October 2024

    Debussy: String Quartet & Sonatas album review – the Nash bring warmth and understanding

  • Armonico Consort singing

    Scarlatti: Daniele album review – unearthed oratorio takes listener into the lion’s den

  • The LPO playing Tippett's Piano Concerto.

    Tippett: Piano Concerto; Symphony No 2 album review – the energy of the music is irrepressible

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

People

  • Max Richter, at his studios in his home in Oxfordshire

    Q&A
    Max Richter: ‘I’m a low-key raver! I love all kinds of music’

  • ‘Creating a kind of magic’ … BBC Young Musician 2024 winner Ryan Wang.

    News
    BBC Young Musician competition crowns pianist Ryan Wang

  • Roderick Williams sitting on a bench.

    Q&A
    Baritone Roderick Williams: ‘I once heard a singer at a party say: “No peanuts. I’m singing in three days!”’

  • Jakub Jozef Orlinski at Warner Music Uk, South Kensington, London, for Q&amp;A New Review, 26/06/2024. Sophia Evans for The Observer

    Q&A
    Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński: ‘Breakdancing feeds into my performances – music dictates the way you move on stage’

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

You may have missed

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

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