thu 06/11/2025

stephen walsh

Bio
Stephen is a former Observer music critic and a regular contributor to The Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Independent and the BBC. He is the author of a major biography of Stravinsky and other books on Stravinsky, Bartók and Schumann. He holds a chair in music at Cardiff University.

Articles By Stephen Walsh

The Pilgrim's Progress, Three Choirs Festival review - revelatory performance by young musicians

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theartsdesk at The Three Choirs Festival - Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Hammond

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The Bartered Bride, Garsington Opera review - brilliant revival of a comedy of cruelty

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Candide, Welsh National Opera review - vaut le voyage, just for the visual side

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L'elisir d'amore, Longborough Festival review - agreeable nonsense in a semi-modern English village

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Götterdämmerung, Longborough Festival review - from the hieratic to the mundane and back

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Kim, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bancroft, St.David's Hall, Cardiff review - finding a style in the Eighties

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Blaze of Glory!, Welsh National Opera review - sparkling entertainment up the valleys

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The Magic Flute, Welsh National Opera review - Mozart remodelled and remuddled

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BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC NOW, Jeannin, BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff review - competent music-making, interesting choices

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Mahler 9, BBC NOW, Stenz, St David's Hall, Cardiff review - passionate without bloodshed on the rostrum

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The Makropulos Affair, Welsh National Opera review - complexity realised brilliantly on the stage

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Spell Book/La liberazione di Ruggiero dell'isola di Alcina, Longborough Festival review - the pitfalls of diversity

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Quo vadis, Three Choirs Festival review - a hundred minutes of smug serenity and flowing piety

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Alcina, Glyndebourne review - Handel on the strand

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Die tote Stadt, Longborough Festival review - Korngold on the way back

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It’s weird, right? We’ve somehow stumbled into a world where, for all we’re told that algorithms homogenise music, actually more people than ever...

Palestine 36 review - memories of a nation

“Rebellion begins with a breath,” an opening aphorism declares in this first film recounting Palestine’s 1936-39 Arab Revolt, long historically...

The Makropulos Case, Royal Opera - pointless feminist compli...

Janáček described his nature-versus-humanity fable The Cunning Little Vixen as “a merry thing with a sad...

Othello, Theatre Royal, Haymarket review - a surprising mix...

Perspectives on Shakespeare's tragedy have changed over the decades....

Benson Boone, O2 London review - sequins, spectacle and chee...

After cancelling his Birmingham gig an hour before curtain-up due to illness, the anticipatory hype around whether...

Die My Love review - good lovin' gone bad

Directed by Lynne Ramsay and based on the book by Ariana Harwicz, Die My Love is an unsettling dive into the disturbed psyche of...