Published in 1741, J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, stand as any keyboardist’s Everest. Bach’s 70+ minutes of continuous variations were supposedly designed to be forgotten, music to be played to amuse a patron’s fight with sleep. Now, of course,

Schubert’s Winterreise, published in 1828, the year of the composer’s death at the age of 31, is often described as the greatest song-cycle ever written. Its central themes and preoccupations – love and loss, life and death – resonate through

When you think of a violin recording, particularly with an artist as vibrant as Nicola Benedetti, you’re probably thinking of violin and piano or violin and orchestra, but in Violin Café, Benedetti turns the tables on our expectations. The accompanying

Reaching the end of a multi-year project, Inventa Records presents a six-volume recording of the music of the 17th century Portuguese composer Manuel Rodrigues Coelho. Born in 1555 in Elvas, in the south of Portugal, he died in Lisbon in

In the UK, classical music, and opera in particular, is seen as “the most elitist” of all the arts. Myths and perceptions surrounding opera – that it is expensive, intellectual, foreign, requires dressing up in formal clothes to attend, and

As an homage to their long-time designer Nikos S. Petropoulos, Greek National Opera staged a revival of his 1998 Tosca. Set in 1944 Rome, the opera opened as if it were a film, with the opening credits running on a

It has become increasingly rare to hear Krystian Zimerman live – and to listen to him in person is always something to remember. This winter in Japan, Zimerman ventured into a rather experimental programme, featuring Schubert Impromptus Op. 90, Debussy

The impulse to complete an unfinished work by a composer such as Schubert arises from a blend of artistic curiosity, historical empathy and creative challenge. For many musicians and scholars, an incomplete score feels like a fragment of a larger,