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Classical music & opera

  • A scene from The Sound Voice Project @ Linbury Theatre. Composed by Hannah Conway. Libretto, Hazel Gould. Video Designer Luke Halls. Sound Design, David Sheppard. (Opening 14-11-2024) ©Tristram Kenton 11-24 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

    Royal Opera House
    ‘Take anything, but please not my voice!’: the Royal Opera’s Sound Voice Project

  • Channelling the music from head to toe … Klaus Mäkelä conducting the LSO at the Barbican, 10 November 2024

    Review
    LSO/Mäkelä – dazzle and drama, but backed by exceptional musicality

    A turbo-charged performance from the young conductor, carefully paced and full of bold choices, brought out the beauty and the terror of Stravinsky’s score
  • Impressive debut … Olga Pudova as Olympia (right), in The Tales of Hoffmann at the Royal Opera House, London.

    Review
    The Tales of Hoffmann – fun, carnivalesque staging goes to the dark side

    Damiano Michieletto’s production of Offenbach’s opéra fantastique is full of warped wit and devilish touches with a fine cast bringing this colourful fever-dream to life
  • Fooled … Haydn scholar, HC Robbins Landon with the fake sonatas he verified.

    What are you Haydn? The hoaxers who fooled the classical music world

  • Linda Richardson and Carolyn Dobbin in Verdi’s Falstaff at Opera Holland Park in 2012.

    ‘A shot of adrenaline for tired ears’: our writers on the music that energises them

  • Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott at the Barbican, London.

    Review
    Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott – an exuberant final hurrah

  • Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

    Review
    Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson – an unforgettable night with two star pianists

Live reviews

  • Juan Diego Flórez (Hoffmann) and Marina Costa-Jackson (Giulietta) in The Tales of Hoffmann.

    The week in classical: The Tales of Hoffmann; Philharmonia/ Salonen; Berlin Philharmonic/ Petrenko – review

  • Superlative … the Takács Quartet.

    Takács Quartet review – a superlative performance in which the music never sits still

  • Philharmonia Orchestra Salonen conducts Sibelius and Lindberg. Royal Festival Hall

    Lawrence Power/Philharmonia/Salonen review – commitment and virtuosity in works old and brand new

  • The Monster in the Maze at the Crucible, Sheffield.

    The week in classical: The Monster in the Maze; Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson; Rigoletto – review

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Album reviews

  • Pure quality … Bruce Liu.

    Tchaikovsky: The Seasons album review – exquisite care and ego-free piano playing

  • Linda Catlin Smith

    Linda Catlin Smith: Flowers of Emptiness album review – compelling beauty and quiet intensity

  • Rachel Farago

    Distant Voices, New Worlds review – avant-garde vision of Albion by bright British composers

  • Lucie Horsch.

    The Frans Brüggen Project album review – Horsch’s fascinating recorder review

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People

  • ‘Creating a kind of magic’ … BBC Young Musician 2024 winner Ryan Wang.

    News
    BBC Young Musician competition crowns pianist Ryan Wang

  • Roderick Williams sitting on a bench.

    Q&A
    Baritone Roderick Williams: ‘I once heard a singer at a party say: “No peanuts. I’m singing in three days!”’

  • Jakub Jozef Orlinski at Warner Music Uk, South Kensington, London, for Q&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

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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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