Once again, it is time for the annual pick of the most promising opera singers of the new year. But first, like any good stock picker, we need to take account of how last year’s winners fared. Stock pickers would

The great pianist Artur Schnabel famously spoke of his interest in music which was “better than it can be performed”, in particular the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. In this quote, he expresses why the sonatas of Beethoven, for

The job of a conductor has evolved greatly over the years. From a simple timekeeper, to rehearsal director, to full-blown interpreter, the conductor’s role has no doubt grown in prominence. But how do they do what they do? What’s all

Glenn Gould is my favourite pianist. There, I said it. The reason I like him is because he is unconventional; unconventional in his approach to the stuffy world of classical music, unconventional in his interpretations, and unconventional in his mannerisms.

Universal Beauty I chatted to composer Paul K. Joyce back in 2017, when he was in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to create a set of songs set to words by then-7-year-old Johnnie Douglas-Pennant, who died in a tragic

In 1871, the loss of Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) led to a musical movement in France to strive for a real “Frenchness” of music. Under the leadership of Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent d’Indy, Société Nationale de Musique adopted the motto “Ars

A comprehensive course for piano teachers Following on from the success of her award-winning book, The Complete Pianist: from healthy technique to natural artistry (Peters Edition, 2020), renowned pedagogue Penelope Roskell has now produced a nine-hour series of videos which

If you’ve ever spoken to an orchestral musician, it is almost without doubt that you will have experienced at some point or another an (often strong) opinion on a conductor they recently worked with. It’s like British people with the