Music lovers often wonder how a 19th century audience would experience an opera during its absolute first performance, without the benefit of extensive written plot summaries, YouTube videos and CDs to prepare for the music, or Wikipedia guides to pinpoint

When I had sufficiently advanced in my piano studies, my teacher introduced me to the “French Suites” by Johann Sebastian Bach. I was told that “Suites” generally consisted of a series of stylized dance movements, with the name of the

For the music obsessed, no visit to la Serenissima would be complete without an evening at the opera. Venice’s legendary Teatro La Fenice opera house, reopened in 2004 after the catastrophic fire of 1996, was resplendent with its riotously colourful

“Uchida has breathed new life into this work[Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations] with immense passion and focus” Well known for her interpretations of the Austro-German repertoire, Mitsuko Uchida recorded Beethoven Diabelli Variations in the studio for the first time, although it has

British director John Bridcut has made a striking new film of Winterreise, Schubert’s great song cycle, with baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu. It’s all the more remarkable because it was made during the first year of the pandemic,

In keeping with Sokolov’s insistence on releasing live recordings only, this newly released album was taken from his recital in Haydnsaal, Esterházy Palace in 2018, consisting of three sonatas by Haydn, Schubert’s Impromptus D. 935 and, as expected, a generous

“A very welcome addition to recordings of Ruth Gipps’ music” A very welcome addition to recordings of Ruth Gipps’ music, this new disc, released at the end of 2021 to coincide with the centenary of Gipps’ birth (1921), contains no

The Trio Aries, founded in Belgium and active since 2018, just released their first album, the fruit of their winning the Supernova chamber music competitions in February 2020. One of the special prizes that came with being declared Supernovas was