Classical Features
First Person: The Henschel Quartet at 30Tuesday, 11 June 2024
We vividly remember the image of Martin Lovett, the cellist of the legendary Amadeus Quartet, bursting out laughing. He tells his favourite true travel story. Read more... |
Remembering conductor Andrew Davis (1944-2024)Saturday, 04 May 2024
As a human being of immense warmth, humour and erudition, Andrew Davis made it all too easy to forget what towering, incandescent performances he inspired. Now is a good time to recall those properly to mind, to listen to his huge discography, and to assess his proper place among the top conductors – again, as one of such versatility and range that, to adapt what Danny Meyer writes below, he might have been labelled a jack of all trades when he was a master of all. Read more... |
First Persons: composers Colin Alexander and Héloïse Werner on fantasy in guided improvisationWednesday, 17 April 2024
For tonight’s performance at Milton Court, the nuanced and delicate tones of strings, voices, harmonium and chamber organ will merge and mingle together to tell tales of a rain-speckled landscape, luck and misfortune, forgotten valour, daily creative rituals and memories slowly vanishing into flames. Read more... |
First Person: Leeds Lieder Festival director and pianist Joseph Middleton on a beloved organisation back from the brinkSaturday, 13 April 2024
Everyone needs friends and everything is connected. As we throw the doors open on to the 2024 Leeds Lieder Festival I am struck by just how remarkable classical music can be for a community, particularly when it is looked after and invested in by its own community. Read more... |
First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming full circle with the Monteverdi Choir and OrchestraSunday, 17 March 2024
There's something undeniable about the way music can weave itself into the fabric of our lives, shaping our passions and leaving an indelible mark on our journeys. For me, this magic has been particularly intertwined with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra. My first encounter with them, back in 1992, wasn't live in a concert hall, but rather through the flickering screen of a television. |
First Person: Laurence Cummings on his 25th and final year as Musical Director of the London Handel FestivalWednesday, 13 March 2024
At the time of writing, rehearsals are well under way for the London Handel Festival 2024. It’s a big year for me as it’s my 25th and final year as Musical Director. Read more... |
First Person: violinist Tom Greed on breaking down barriers in the presentation of chamber musicSaturday, 02 March 2024
For musicians, the period from early 2020 to mid-2021 was one of great reflection, with so many questions to puzzle over. Could we satisfy the basic need to interact with others and express ourselves? What on earth was Zoom, and how, as performers, could we learn to use technology to provide live experiences? Would things ever go back to the way they were? And should they? Read more... |
First Person: contralto Hilary Summers on going beyond her baroque and contemporary comfort zonesMonday, 15 January 2024
Back in the summer of 2020 when the arts industry was largely dormant and many professional singers were either moodily knocking back the gin or uploading poor quality phone videos of themselves bellowing Puccini arias from their doorsteps, I received an email. Read more... |
Best of 2023: Classical music concertsThursday, 28 December 2023
However dark the future may seem for UK arts funding, each year begins with a beacon of light, passed on to shine twice more, in the Easter and summer holidays: the ever more resourceful and generous concertgiving of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, always among the highlights of the classical music scene. Read more... |
First Person: Natalia Franklin Pierce, Executive Director of Nonclassical, on 'creating a sense of belonging'Monday, 04 December 2023
Despite my double-barrelled surname (my parents weren't married when I was born – so I was given both their names), a career within contemporary classical music definitely wasn't on the cards for me as a child. My Dad was a self-made man from a North London council estate, and while my parents loved music, classical music didn’t feature much and they regretted not being able to play any instruments. Read more... |
Pages
inside classical music
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Music Reissues Weekly: John Cale - The Academy in Peril, Par...
The return to shops of a consecutive sequence of five of John Cale's Seventies albums through different labels is undoubtedly coincidental. All...
Conclave review - secrets and lies in the Vatican's inn...
“You either got faith or you got unbelief, and there ain’t no neutral ground,” as Bob Dylan sang, but Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) isn’t...
Twelfth Night, Orange Tree Theatre review - perfectly pitche...
It's all too easy to underplay the melancholy of ...
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, The Other Pa...
Percy Jackson is neither the missing one from Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, nor an Australian Test cricketer of the...
Album: Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles from Abbey Road
When first I clicked on the stream for this album, I really wasn’t sure about it. In fact, I thought I wasn’t going to like it, much as I had...
Expendable, Royal Court review - intensely felt family drama
British theatre excels in presenting social issues: at its best, it shines a bright light on the controversial subjects that people are thinking,...
Senna, Netflix review - the life and legend of Brazil's...
Brazilian Formula One triple-champion Ayrton Senna was already...
The Purists, Kiln Theatre review - warm, witty, thoughtful a...
Watching Dan McCabe’s 2019 play, older folk might be reminded of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s indelible lyrics, “Can blue men sing the...