The harpsichord is an instrument of proud, historical contradictions. When treated with theatrical flair, its plucked metal strings can evoke an entire lost world of Baroque opulence; when starved of imagination, however, it risks transforming the concert hall into a

The highly anticipated finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition for cello took place Monday, May 25, through Saturday, May 30, at the Salle Henry Le Boeuf (Centre for Fine Arts) in Brussels. Each evening, two finalists played the compulsory piece

Harrogate International Festivals is celebrating its 60th anniversary in style by bringing some of the biggest names and brightest emerging stars in classical music to Harrogate this summer – from the boundary-pushing stars such as Abel Selaocoe and Aurora Orchestra to legendary

Bilbao, the largest city and economic capital of the Basque Country, isn’t usually on opera lovers’ circuits. But a promising cast occasioned this trip to see Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, a coproduction between ABAO Bilbao (Asociación Bilbaína de Amigos de

During my long career as a professional cellist, I have seen the popularity of the cello dramatically increase. Audiences love the cello, and so do performers, and the level of playing is extraordinarily high. This is exemplified in this year’s

Baroque instruments meeting electronic techno? While “crossover” has become a buzzword, the audience’s threshold for surprise is higher than ever. Yet, the Belgian B’Rock Orchestra recently managed to shatter the last remnants of their “early music” label. In their production

In 1875, the English lawyer Arthur Duke Coleridge, an amateur musician with influential connections, spent some time in Leipzig studying music alongside the young Charles Villiers Stanford. He became acquainted with Bach‘s B-minor Mass, a work that had received its

Georges Bizet (1838–1875) never had the success he wanted in his lifetime. He had two hits in the operas Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth, but both operas came in for criticism. The Pearl Fishers for