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Classical music & opera

  • Man with index fingers raised in air in front of yellow/blue background

    News
    John Eliot Gardiner starts new orchestra and choir after 2023 assault apology

  • Vilde Frang.

    Album of the week
    Elgar: Violin Concerto album – Vilde Frang’s exceptional performance makes this one of the finest to appear on disc

    In a startling, authoritative performance of Elgar’s demanding masterpiece, the Norwegian violinist and Robin Ticciati are utterly convincing
  • Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Orchestre de Paris at the BBC Proms, September 2024.

    Prom 58 review
    Orchestre de Paris/Mäkelä – electrifying music-making from an elite team

    A Parisian-flavoured programme of narrative works by Debussy, Stravinsky and Berlioz was played with precision and panache, full of relishable and memorable moments
  • Subterfuges and mistaken identities … Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Opera House.

    Royal Opera House
    The Marriage of Figaro review – revival sparkles with young cast

  • Berliner Philharmoniker
31.8.2024
London<br>Prom 55 Kirill Petrenko Cr. Stephan Rabold (1)

    Review
    Proms 55 and 56: Berlin Philharmonic/Petrenko – spellbinding magic

  • An original … Imogen Holst, conducting.

    Album review
    Imogen Holst: Discovering Imogen album – expressive works from composer hiding in plain sight

  • Autumn Preview Film

    Autumn arts preview 2024
    From Charli XCX and Van Gogh to Gladiator 2: the best culture to go out and see this autumn

Live reviews

  • Mahogany Opera’s production of Rolf Hind’s Sky in a Small Cage at the Barbican, London.

    Sky in a Small Cage review – beauty and bafflement in opera inspired by Sufi mystic Rumi

  • The Sixteen … or should that be The 26?

    Proms 63-65: Choral Day review – classy choirs firing on all cyclinders

  • Glen Cunningham and Susan Bullock in Albert Herring.

    Albert Herring review – Britten’s postwar comic opera sits surprisingly well in the 21st century

  • The marriage of figaro at the royal opera house

    The week in classical: The Marriage of Figaro; Proms 53, 54, 55 & 56 – review

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Album reviews

  • Mao Fujita - publicity handout image

    72 Preludes: Chopin, Scriabin, Yashiro album review – Fujita’s no-frills approach brings care and clarity

  • The opera and conductor taking a bow

    Meyerbeer: Le prophète review – wild operatic oddity is given a breathless ride

  • Heartbreakingly engaging as Britten’s Billy Budd … Huw Montague Rendall.

    Huw Montague Rendall: Contemplation album review – young opera star justifies the buzz

  • Full-blooded … Trio Bohémo

    Smetana & Schubert: Piano Trios album review – immensely promising debut

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People

  • Jakub Jozef Orlinski at Warner Music Uk, South Kensington, London, for Q&amp;A New Review, 26/06/2024. Sophia Evans for The Observer

    Q&A
    Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński: ‘Breakdancing feeds into my performances – music dictates the way you move on stage’

  • Roger Wright, CEO of Britten Pears Arts

    ‘I’ve always been a glass half full person’
    Aldeburgh festival’s outgoing CEO Roger Wright

  • Jerrold Northrop Moore began his Elgar researches as a student by interviewing people who had known the composer.

    Obituary
    Jerrold Northrop Moore

  • Actor and writer Paterson Joseph

    ‘I was told I was stupid’
    Peep Show’s Paterson Joseph on his debut novel – and writing three operas

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You may have missed

  • Antonio Vivaldi.

    Feature
    Vivaldi taught Venetian orphan girls – did they help write his music in return?

  • People seemed to be conscious, judging from strawberries consumed … Glastonbury 2024.

    Radio 3's Georgia Mann
    I’ll take your brain to another dimension … my classical DJ set at Glastonbury

  • Backstage during dress rehearsals

    The Guardian picture essay
    Love, laughs and lavish designs: The Merry Widow at Glyndebourne

  • ‘Our first time’ … Gemma New will conduct the world premiere of City of Floating Sounds.

    In the key of 5G
    The ‘dimensionalist’ who wrote a symphony for 1,000 phones

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Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

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