The Work What a Production! Over seven hours of music, twenty singers, dozens of roles, and a bewildering succession of scenes: Antonio Cesti’s 1660s festa teatrale, Il pomo d’oro, was unambiguously the most fitting birthday present imaginable for the 50th

The renowned Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins (b. 1937) reveals a new facet to his talent with the release of his orchestral album, Life is a Dream on Decca. The CD has a mix of music, some of it sentimental

Pianist Rasa Vitkauskaitė and violinist Ilya Kaler began recording all of Beethoven‘s violin sonatas to mark the 200th anniversary of his death in 2027. They wanted to create a standout recording of this important chamber music cycle, but one sonata

Spanish composer Víctor Morales transforms Castilla–La Mancha into a richly evocative musical landscape in Entre El Greco y Cervantes. Drawing inspiration from the region’s scenery, history, and literary heritage, he combines the spiritual intensity of El Greco’s paintings with the

In winning the XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021, Canadian pianist Bruce Liu (b. 1997) scored the highest marks in the first three stages and was the only competitor the jury unanimously selected to progress from each round. From

One of the most important pieces of musical life that we have to take for granted is improvisation. It’s not written down, it’s not preserved, it’s kept solely in the mind of the performer. We get some hints of this

When we’re usually presented with a Fado concert in a classical setting, it’s often an imitation of a café setting: singer at the centre and players gathered ‘round. A guitarist with a high-sounding Portuguese guitar, other guitarists, a bit of

Do you feel like you’ve encountered too many classical music programs that seem like the “greatest hits?” Or those that comprise the “same ole same ole” trendy works with a dose of contemporary commissions without regard for how the works