Featured Today

 Ensemble. A bitter-sweet 'Swallow' - 'La Rondine' at the Puccini Opera Festival impresses Giuseppe Pennisi

Anniversaries: Ruggiero Ricci; Mario Sereni; Ik-Hwan Bae; Robert Farnon; Adolphe Adam; Giuseppe di Stefano; Ernest Bloch; Wilfred Josephs

Festivals, competitions and masterclasses: Verbier Festival (21 July-6 August); Verbier, CH; Opera Holland Park summer opera season (1 June-29 July); London, UK; Ryedale Festival (14-30 July); North Yorkshire, UK; Aspen Music Festival and School (29 June-20 August); Colorado, US; Savonlinna Opera Festival (7 July-4 August); Savonlinna, FI; El Jem International Festival of Symphonic Music (8 July-12 August); Eljem, TN; Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival (21-29 July); Cape Town, ZA; Dubrovnik Summer Festival (10 July-25 August); Dubrovnik, HR; Three Choirs Festival (22-29 July); Worcester, UK; Petworth Festival (12-29 July); West Sussex, UK; Ohrid Summer Festival (12 July-20 August); Ohrid, MK

Recent Articles

Ensemble. Piquant Contrast - Mike Wheeler listens to Schulhoff and Tchaikovsky from members of the Fibonacci Sequence

CD Spotlight. A Relative Newcomer - Temirzhan Yerzhanov plays Prokofiev, heard by the late Howard Smith. '... idiosyncratic, superbly delineated invention and precise harmonic intuition.'

Classical music news - A Three Choirs Romance; more ...

Ensemble. A Free-flowing Style - Mike Wheeler experiences the first professional opera specifically commissioned in Welsh

Ensemble. Asking Better Questions? - Schubert, Barber, Beethoven and Shostakovich from the Brodsky Quartet, heard by Mike Wheeler

Ensemble. A Keen Interest - A new 'Turandot' at the Puccini Festival, reviewed by Giuseppe Pennisi

Ensemble. On the Verge of Greatness - Mozart's 'Lucio Silla' at Buxton, heard by Mike Wheeler

Ensemble. A Renewed International Chigiana Prize - Giuseppe Pennisi was in Siena for the Chigiana Award concert

Ensemble. Social Comedy - Britten's 'Albert Herring' at the Buxton Festival, reviewed by Mike Wheeler

Classical music news - Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini (1929-2017); more ...

Ensemble. Grippingly Staged - Verdi's 'Macbeth' at the Buxton Festival, reviewed by Mike Wheeler

Ask Alice - Classical Music Agony Aunt Alice McVeigh tries out her new electric cello

CD Spotlight. American Flavours - Orchestral music by Aaron Copland impresses Gerald Fenech. 'Splendidly rousing playing from the Detroiters mercurially led by Leonard Slatkin, whose dedication to Copland's creations has a sense of purpose that is unerring throughout.'

Classical music news - Presteigne Festival 2017; BISYOC Intercultural Youth Orchestra Exchange; Seiji Yokoyama (1935-2017); more ...

Classical music news - Pierre Henry (1927-2017); more ...

Classical music news - Egil Monn-Iversen (1928-2017); more ...

CD Spotlight. Absolutely Superb - Choral music by Jan Jirásek, recommended by Geoff Pearce. 'There are some absolutely ravishing vocal passages, and I can't say I have ever heard music quite like this before.'

CD Spotlight. A Treasure Trove - Music for Palaeolithic bone flutes fascinates Gerald Fenech. '... the oldest evidence of musical creation anywhere in the world.'

Ensemble. Sensual and Immoral - A new production of 'Carmen' stirs a mini-International Controversy, by Giuseppe Pennisi

Ensemble. Britten and Owen - A double bill from Sinfonia Viva and The Lost Boys, reviewed by Mike Wheeler

CD Spotlight. Demons or Angels? - Death and the Maiden for orchestra, heard by the late Howard Smith. '... Falletta and her Buffalo team cannot be faulted ...'

Ensemble. 1917 and Dante's 'Divine Comedy' - Giuseppe Pennisi samples the two themes at this summer's Ravenna Festival

CD Spotlight. The Bad Boy of Music? - Orchestral music by George Antheil, enjoyed by Gerald Fenech. 'Karl-Heinz Steffens and his German troops are passionate advocates of Antheil's cause, and performances are full of engaging expressiveness and technical finesse.'

Classical music news - Russell Thomas; Karunamoy Goswami (1942-2017); Songs and Visions of Joy; more ...

Classical music news - Spotlight on Germany - July 2017 Newsletter (PDF, 920kb); Isadora Werkstatt 2017; more ...

Ensemble. Sex and Blood in Jerusalem - Giuseppe Pennisi reports on the new production of 'Salome' in Leipzig

CD Spotlight. Quite Haunting - American orchestral music impresses Geoff Pearce. '... impassioned and committed performances.'

Ensemble. Women's Voices - 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' at the Strauss Festival in Leipzig, reviewed by Giuseppe Pennisi

A Sure Hand - Beate Toyka plays Schubert's last piano sonata, reviewed by Mike Wheeler

Ensemble. A Bitter-sweet Lyric Comedy - 'Arabella' from Festival Strauss in Leipzig, reviewed by Giuseppe Pennisi

Classical music news - Ludger Rémy (1949-2017); Jacques Charpentier (1933-2017); more ...

CD Spotlight. Superb Compositions - Chamber sonatas by Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli, heard by Gerald Fenech. 'Performances abound in real vitality, rhythmic verve and dramatic engagement, and Carbonelli's genius is allowed to shine in all its exuberance.'

CD Spotlight. Colourful Palette - Villa-Lobos symphonies, heard by Gerald Fenech. 'The São Paulo players respond with joyous enthusiasm to the rhythmic vitality and ingenious orchestration of these scores ...'