wed 21/05/2025

David Nice

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Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

Fung, RPO, Schwarz, Cadogan Hall review - high style from new cellist and conductor on the block

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Mad Rush, Carol Williams, RFH review - a rainbow of organ colours

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Peter Grimes, English National Opera review - not quite the pity or the truth

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Pygmalion, Old Vic review - zappy wit and emotional intelligence

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Brahms Piano Sonatas, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Wigmore Hall review - when giants meet

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Denk, Danish String Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - metaphysical strings, the piano as chameleon

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Das Rheingold, Royal Opera - knotty, riveting route to destruction

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Prom 60: Gerstein, Berlin RSO, Jurowski review - a master conductor returns with his German band

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Prom 55: Thibaudet, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Nelsons review - old-style showmanship

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Prom 42: Cho, Philharmonia, Rouvali review - inflation offset by sweet oases

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Prom 38: Audience Choice, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer 2 review - true democracy or tricksy referendum?

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Prom 31: Dialogues des Carmélites, Glyndebourne, BBC Radio 3 review - full force on air

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Prom 28: Rangwanasha, National Youth Orchestra, Prieto review - playing, and singing, with a swing

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theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2023 - small seaside town, biggest roster of top players

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theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival - invisible cities and possible dreams

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Don Carlo, Royal Opera review - Lise Davidsen soars above routine

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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Code of Silence, ITVX review - inventively presented reality...

In the guided tour of Britain’s cathedral cities that is the primetime TV...

Pygmalion, Early Opera Company, Curnyn, Middle Temple Hall r...

With French baroque opera all but banished from the UK’s major...

Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film

Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points –...

The Fifth Step, Soho Place review - wickedly funny two-hande...

The plays of David Ireland have a tendency to build to an explosion, after long stretches of caustic dialogue and very funny banter....

Josefowicz, LSO, Mälkki, Barbican review - two old favourite...

Every now and then a concert programme comes along that fits like a bespoke suit, and this one could have been specially designed for me. Two...

Mr Swallow: Show Pony, Richmond Theatre review - magic trick...

Nick Mohammed invented his Mr Swallow character – camp, lisping, with an inflated ego and the mistaken belief that he has creative...

The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a feast of...

Photographer Finetime and I have our first pints outside Dalton’s, a bar on...

Parsifal, Glyndebourne review - the music flies up, the dram...

There’s a grail, but it doesn't glow in a mundane if perverted Christian ritual. Three of the main characters have young and old actor versions...

The Bombing of Pan Am 103, BBC One review - new dramatisatio...

The appalling destruction of Pan Am’s flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 was put under the spotlight in January this year in Sky Atlantic’s ...