Decca’s partnership with Sir Anthony Hopkins sees film-score sentiment rather than concert-hall risk doing a lot of marketing heavy lifting…

independent writing about classical music, books, and tv
Season coverage — previews and reviews as the season unfolds

Yunchan Lim opens the BBC Proms 2026 with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G — plus Gershwin, Copland, a Finzi rarity, and a world premiere from Josephine Stephenson.
The Spanish National Orchestra and guitarist Rafael Aguirre bring Ravel’s BolĂ©ro, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, and Falla to the Royal Albert Hall.
Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Ninth, with a UK premiere from Jessie Montgomery and cello soloist Abel Selaocoe.
John StorgĂĄrds conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra — with violinist Sueye Park in the Sibelius Concerto and a new work from Betsy Jolas.
Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler’s Sixth Symphony — one of the most unrelenting works in the repertoire — alongside György Kurtág’s Stele.
John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London perform all three of Respighi’s Roman works — plus Verdi and Walton’s Cello Concerto with Jonathan Aasgaard.
Concerts, albums, and video reviews. Familiar, unfamiliar, plus stuff fresh out of the packaging.
Decca’s partnership with Sir Anthony Hopkins sees film-score sentiment rather than concert-hall risk doing a lot of marketing heavy lifting…
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre isn’t a name many will recognise — despite an opera that reached the Paris stage…
From a signature Mendelssohn to Janáček’s fevered final quartet, Opus13 play like a group with little to prove and everything…
A performer drawing her advocates close in to make the case for an escape to the country….
A touching memoir from Katia de Peyer about her life with the internationally renowned clarinettist…
Art. Likely. Subversive? Probably….
The Carducci Quartet brought Kurtág, Reich, Clarke and Debussy to the Britten Studio for a programme spanning a century of…
The idea of hearing any Schubert piano music on a modern piano now feels like a shameful act of betrayal…
We came for Schubert. What we got was something rarer….
Interviews with composers, musicians and producers about the music they love.