During the last two years of his life, in a compressed timeframe between 1824 and 1826, Ludwig van Beethoven completed his final set of five string quartets. Fractured, deeply personal, and introspective, these works mirror the very essence of contemporaneity,

As the autumn mist rolls across the ancient tors of Dartmoor and the wild, windswept cliffs of Exmoor, the Two Moors Festival becomes the musical heartbeat of this rugged corner of southwest England. For 25 years, the festival has transformed

In the autumn of 2001, a quiet initiative took root in the remote expanses of Devon and Somerset. The rural economy, battered by quarantines and travel bans, teetered on the edge of stagnation, and those vast, undulating blankets of heather

If the directors of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro intended to set the fox among the chickens and shake up their audience this year, they certainly succeeded. Just the mention of controversial director Calixto Bieito set tongues wagging and

With much fanfare, the Salzburg Festival announced Ulrich Rasche as director of Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. A proponent of “perpetual stage movement and intense lighting to create visceral experiences,” the German director’s vision was of two queens, each stuck in

The Sitkovetsky Trio started Day 4 with a concert of Schubert and Beethoven’s piano trios. Opening with Schubert’s Trio (Sonata in 1 movt) in B♭ major, D 28, a work written when Schubert was only 15, we heard a work

Glorious summer weather set the perfect tone for Day 3 of the July Schubertiade in Hohenems, promising a day rich in excitement and artistry; and the audience was not disappointed. The afternoon session featured the Dutch piano duo of Lucas

Day 2 of the Schubertiade was a day of piano and lieder. Pianist William Youn had planned a concert of Schubert piano sonatas, in keeping with earlier Schubertiade programmes. Instead, one piano sonata was omitted, and he played the Three