sun 22/06/2025

David Nice

David Nice's picture
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

Kolesnikov, Tsoy, LSO St Luke’s review - light, air and adventure from two pianos

Read more...

Peter Grimes, Royal Opera review - impressive, not quite devastating

Read more...

CBSO Chorus, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican review - a mass of life

Read more...

Russians and friends play on for Ukraine

Read more...

The Telephone / Miss Fortune, Guildhall School review - brilliantly-executed double bill

Read more...

The Golden Cockerel, English Touring Opera review - no crowing over this henhouse

Read more...

Henry V, Donmar Warehouse review - playing at war

Read more...

‘Slava Ukraini!’: Russian musicians worldwide show solidarity

Read more...

When We Dead Awaken, The Norwegian Ibsen Company, Coronet Theatre review - living death, dying life

Read more...

Rachlin, Oslo PO, Mäkelä, Oslo Konserthus/Perianes, LPO, Berman, RFH review - the best-laid plans…

Read more...

Rigoletto, Royal Opera review - second time lucky

Read more...

The Cunning Little Vixen, English National Opera review - half-realised men and beasts

Read more...

This Is Going To Hurt, BBC One review - hospital drama with a realistic difference

Read more...

Kantorow, Philharmonia, Rouvali, RFH review – a new brilliance on the London concert scene

Read more...

Bajazet, Irish National Opera, Linbury Theatre review – robust but a bit rough

Read more...

Stikhina, Kowaljow, LSO, Noseda, Barbican review - dramatic songs of death, electrifying dances of life

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Music Reissues Weekly: The Sonics - High Time

“Theirs is truly rock in extremis, a précis of the youthful impetuosity and cathartic chaos at the heart of real rock ’n roll.”

This extract...

28 Years Later review - an unsentimental, undead education

The 23 years since 28 Days Later and especially those since Danny Boyle’s soulful encapsulation of Britain’s best spirit at the 2012...

RNCM International Diploma Artists, BBC Philharmonic, MediaC...

Two concerts in the BBC Philharmonic’s series in their own studio form the climax of studies at the Royal Northern College of Music for a small...

Prost, BBC 4 review - life and times of the driver they call...

With Brad Pitt’s much-trumpeted F1 movie about to screech noisily into the multiplexes, it’s not a bad time to be reminded of the career of one of...

Album: Yungblud - Idols

Yungblud has declared his fourth album, Idols, to be a “a project with no limitations”. This is quite a claim.

So, what musical...

Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Suzuki, St Marti...

In the Saxony of 1725 – still in the grip of Europe’s “Little Ice Age” – Bach and his musicians would seldom have had to deal with the sort of...

Patrick Wolf, Rough Trade East review - the Kent-based bard...

After the evening’s second song “The Last of England,” Patrick Wolf cautions “I’ve got nothing left to say.” During the shows leading up to this...

4.48 Psychosis, Royal Court review - powerful but déjà vu

Sarah Kane is the most celebrated new writer of the 1990s. Her work is provocative and innovative. So it seems oddly unimaginative to mark the...