Just when we think the world is saturated with a profuse presence of piano competitions, a new one has sprung up in a unique format, promoting classical music in a most unexpected location. Judging from its immense operational scope, vast

A new book by Richard Beaudoin published in 2024 by Oxford University Press, Oxford Studies in Music Theory division, came to our attention recently. Sounds As They Are is a beautiful-looking hardback of 240 dense pages with musical examples, an

The second part of Richard Wagner’s great opera tetralogy, Die Walküre, had its debut at the Green National Opera (GNO) in March 2024. It was a joint production with the Royal Danish Theatre and was the first Ring Cycle production

A perfect prelude to Spring, this delightful new release from British pianist Leon McCawley presents solo piano music inspired by the natural world. Nature and the seasons provide eternal inspiration for composers, and here we have ‘the best of the

She Played and Sang by Australian author and musician Gillian Dooley is an exploration of the music most closely associated with English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) and her musical connections with family and friends, which reveal the intricate ties between

Following on from her splendid ‘The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces’, celebrated pianist and writer Susan Tomes now turns her attention to that oft-neglected corner of classical music history – women pianists. Focusing on 50 women pianists – some

Published in December 2023 to coincide with the centenary of opera singer and diva Maria Callas’ birth, ‘The Callas Imprint’ is a weighty, impressive biography, the result of 12 years of research by British novelist and music critic Sophia Lambton.

Cellist Roger Morelló Ros pays homage to Pau Casals with his new album The Voice of Casals. Pablo (Pau) Casals (1876-1973), arguably the person who propelled the cello to prominence, was one of the most renowned performers of the 20th