mon 04/08/2025

David Nice

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Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera - the bad, the good and the glorious

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Vaughan Williams Anniversary Concert, Wigmore Hall review - choices, choices

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La bohème, Glyndebourne Tour review - Death and the Parisienne doing the rounds

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Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller, Barbican review - a feast of sagas and psychic masterpieces

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Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall review - power and grace in elegies and monuments

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Only an Octave Apart, Wilton's Music Hall review - instant charm, infinite variety

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Tosca, English National Opera review - a tale of two eras

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Purcell's Playhouse, Bevan, Barokksolistene, Eike, Purcell Room review - kaleidoscopic delights

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Aida, Royal Opera review - dour but disciplined

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Gurrelieder, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - everything in place, but still something’s missing

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theartsdesk at Musikfest Berlin - orchestral and choral rainbows around the clock

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Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall review - Brahms the chameleon

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BBC Proms 2022 - silence after Mass

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Prom 69, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Monteverdi Choir, ORR, Gardiner review - shock, fervour and total focus

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The Goldberg Variations, De Keersmaeker, Kolesnikov, Sadler's Wells review - keyboard harmony and atonal dance

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Prom 62, Mahler's Seventh Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Petrenko review - hallucinogenic night's journey into day

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