classical music reviews, news & interviews
Graham Rickson |

Carl Nielsen: The Ultimate Solo Piano Collection Rikke Sandberg (OUR Recordings)

David Nice |

Richard Strauss, who conducted this orchestra and programme to an audience of 7000 in the Royal Albert Hall on 19 October 1947 aged 83, would have shared our mixed feelings about the curious phenomenon that is Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the now-80-year-old Philharmonia's Principal Conductor.

David Nice
If the Wigmore Hall sought perfection in its 125th Anniversary Festival, it found it in the two concerts I've attended this week - in the greater…
David Nice
It's nine years since soprano Lise Davidsen gave a Wigmore Hall audience her first credentials as a recitalist, in true partnership with a pianist to…
Bernard Hughes
Yesterday I travelled through a sweltering London in shorts and sandals to go and hear Schubert’s Winterreise, about a bleak journey through a frozen…

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

Robert Beale
Luxurious sonic experience and tonal beauties in a moving Mahler 6
Graham Rickson
Baroque keyboard music in new colours, a celebration of a great English composer and Russian fairytales
David Nice
Stunning collaboration between actors and musicians typifies this bracing enterprise
Bernard Hughes
Period instruments and voices recreate the glory of a historical investiture
Robert Beale
Rautavaara’s birds, Nielsen’s arguments, and an outstanding Sibelius concerto
David Nice
A celebrated sibling brings style and panache to two brothers
Bernard Hughes
Adventurous programming showcases choir’s versatility and skill
stephen.walsh
Lucid playing with some unwanted appendages
Claire Booth
A very individual singer joins Ensemble 360 for eight days of superb programming
Simon Thompson
Principal cellist plays two concertante works, the orchestra glittering alongside him
Graham Rickson
French baroque music, British orchestral fireworks and an award-winning Dutch pianist
Robert Beale
A Russian programme with intriguing and exciting pathways included
David Nice
Two world-class soloists in perfect teamwork with fellow musicians and a top conductor
Boyd Tonkin
Uplifting celebrations of musical kinship across cultures
Robert Beale
Romantic cornerstones shine alongside Julia Wolfe’s document of trauma
Rachel Halliburton
Circa's acrobatics bracingly express a philosophical idea of the body
Bernard Hughes
Messiaen’s 'Turangalîla' well played, but overwhelmed by a trivialising animation
Graham Rickson
A famous conductor celebrated in box form, plus romantic piano music and English song
Robert Beale
A scenic journey through 20th and 21st century landscapes
David Nice
Fiddly but felt, the interpretations of the ICO's Norwegian violinist-director always compel
Boyd Tonkin
Tenderness, and terror, outshine majesty in Elgar's journey of the soul
Benjamin Baker
At the World's Edge festival travels from mountains to metropolis
Rachel Halliburton
This semi-dramatised evening was as illuminating as it was exhilarating
Boyd Tonkin
Secret handshakes between works that weathered trauma

the future of arts journalism

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing! 

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

latest in today

We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
The first question is always: Don Carlos or Don Carki? Verdi’s opera was originally composed for Paris in 1867, in French, with the…
In a cultural world with no frontiers, French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf has a musical CV that ranges very widely: collaborations…
The Ryland Caravan Festival is an annual festival put together by local musical eccentrics, Independent Country, and held in the outside…
As Metallica have long known, Ennio Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold is a rousing choice of walk on music. Deadletter might not be playing the…
“My Ice Queen” immediately makes its case. A mid-to-low tempo chugging rhythm underpins choppy guitar, a contemplative, distant vocal and a…
Charli xcx’s cinema blitz includes seven acting roles and Wuthering Heights’ soundtrack, reinforcing her cultural ubiquity since 2024’s…
I watched a video online recently of a three-year-old girl being quizzed with questions about her mom (adorable). It was a Mother’s Day…
Carl Nielsen: The Ultimate Solo Piano Collection Rikke Sandberg (OUR Recordings) Image…
Okay, theatre is all about acting, but then so is most porn. Except for amateur stuff. Sort of. And then there is AI, deep fakes and…

Most read

Aptly scheduled for our Great British Heatwave, writer Catherine Shepherd’s eight-part drama whisks us away to a remote Greek island, where…
The first question is always: Don Carlos or Don Carki? Verdi’s opera was originally composed for Paris in 1867, in French, with the…
The Ryland Caravan Festival is an annual festival put together by local musical eccentrics, Independent Country, and held in the outside…
I’m a latecomer to John Robins and Elis James’s hugely popular podcast, having only started to listen during a period of illness last year…
Lizzo used to be fun. For a long time, the now 38-year-old singer-songwriter emitted a vibrant energy but that has lately seeped out of her…
The concept of political rap has always been a slippery fish. Even as hip hop first hit the mainstream, there was a myth perpetuated by…
In a cultural world with no frontiers, French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf has a musical CV that ranges very widely: collaborations…
It's nine years since soprano Lise Davidsen gave a Wigmore Hall audience her first credentials as a recitalist, in true partnership with a…
Admittedly, my journey into the strange world of IDM, electronica and ambient music has not been a complex one. Whilst finding Aphex Twin,…
In a small Appalachian village, where people say “Y’all” and prospectors are still searching for silver in the mountains, Barbara Allen…