Classical Features
First Person: Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang on the original Jewish love storyThursday, 12 October 2023
I wouldn’t say that I am super religious, but I am definitely religion-curious. It is a big part of my family background, and, to be honest, a big part of the history of my chosen field, Western classical music. For the past 1000 years, the church has been the most powerful commissioner of Western music, and its most active employer of musicians. Read more... |
First Person: conductor Edward Gardner on some of his questions and obsessions about Mahler's 'Resurrection' SymphonyFriday, 22 September 2023
“If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.” “What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.” Read more... |
First Person: 'America's sweetheart organist' Carol Williams on running the musical gamutThursday, 21 September 2023
I have always had a fascination with concert programmes. I did my Doctorate thesis on this subject. I remember vividly as a youngster attending many uninteresting programmes and thinking “there has to be more exciting, exhilarating, interesting music for the concert goer!” What type of repertoire makes audiences come back to solo organ concerts? Read more... |
First Person: the Bayerisches Staatsorchester's Managing Director Guido Gärtner on its 500th anniversaryTuesday, 19 September 2023
Nine cities in seven countries; all in all, eleven concerts, on top of that, an appearance at home in Munich. Celebrating its 500th anniversary, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester is currently on an extended journey. We have been looking forward with great anticipation to this tour during which we are aiming to present everything from our longstanding tradition that has stood the test of time and share it with a great number of music lovers throughout Europe. Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2023 - small seaside town, biggest roster of top playersSaturday, 05 August 2023
Circumstances matter here. The annual visit to what remains my favourite music festival in the world was going to be kyboshed by the date fixed for a big hospital operation. But the Pärnu Music Festival worked overtime to get me rebooked to the first slice of the 10 days, while my Macmillan nurse fixed up five crucial meetings and tests on the two days before my new departure date. I went, came back the evening before the 12-hour op and still can’t believe it all happened. Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Voces8 Summer School - musical oasis offers opportunities for allSaturday, 05 August 2023
It is a complicated business running a summer school for 170 people in the British countryside. Not only laying on a stimulating programme of musical events, providing pastoral care for the under-18s and interval drinks for the over-18s, but more basic needs. Read more... |
First Person: tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas on recording a queer-themed albumSunday, 09 July 2023
“No one makes money from CDs anymore”; “Remember, once it’s out there it’s out there forever”; “Everyone’s making recordings these days, it’s a very cluttered market”; “You’ll struggle to make a mark…” Read more... |
First Person: composer Lukas Ligeti on how his father György inspired a new approachFriday, 23 June 2023
The music of various African regions and cultures has played a significant role in shaping my own music. My exposure to African traditional music, which started not long after I began my own composition studies, helped me develop my unique artistic voice as a composer, and I owe this influence in part to my father and, indirectly, to his composition class in Hamburg. Read more... |
First Person: pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason on how childhood informs her latest recordingWednesday, 14 June 2023
My entire childhood was punctuated with music. I just can’t remember a time without it being present and I think it’s shaped me enormously. I have varying pieces of music for the different times in my life and they all evoke very powerful memories for me. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Denmark - celebrating Nielsen in high styleSaturday, 10 June 2023
Eight years ago I was privileged to be in Denmark on the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen’s birth, experiencing for the first time live his masterly Saul and David. The return visit was too brief and unexpectedly fraught, including a complicated return to Odense to see work in progress for a new Carl Nielsen Museum. Not a success, but redeemed by an impressive concert in a big series from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and its fine chief conductor Fabio Luisi. Read more... |
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Some 28 years in gestation, Peter Gabriel’s eighth studio album (minus soundtracks) of wholly original songs – his first...
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Dariescu, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Man...
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Mark Rothko, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris review - a show...
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Blu-ray: King and Country
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The Witches, National Theatre review - fun and lively but wh...
The National Theatre these days seems to be...
The Dante Project, Royal Ballet review - brave but flawed ta...
Singular in its variousness, this is a three-act ballet that need some unpicking. No wonder those hooked on first acquaintance in 2021, like t...
CMAT, Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow review - an evening of ex...
There was a moment towards the end of this exuberant evening when Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson compared the show to a pantomime. This was an...
MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio, Lois, Williams, RSNO, M...
It is not every day that a new choral work by a living composer can confidently be labelled a masterpiece. Yet this is what we have here. James...