Category: Review
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Edinburgh International Festival 2026: there’s more to this creative risk than meets the eye
The 2026 Edinburgh International Festival programme is bold, substantial, and confident. And it poses a big uncomfortable question.
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News – Classical Music Magazine to shut down
Mark Allen Group – the publishing house behind many of the UK’s trade and consumer publications in the classical music, opera and music education world – announced today that Classical Music Magazine is shutting down after publication of its Spring 2026 edition.
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An International Piano Competition. In Hastings.
Rachmaninov played in Hastings twice. What the Hastings International Piano Competition does that legacy is a more complicated question.
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Review – Ronnie Scott’s Classical All Stars, Upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s
Ronnie Scott’s Classical All Stars: classical music stripped of its safety net. Deliciously so.
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Review – Pekka Kuusisto and Sam Amidon play Willows at King’s Place
Opportunities to hear Pekka Kuusisto at close range are rare. In the comparatively small auditorium of Kings Place, the qualities that make him such a compelling presence — candour, quick intelligence, and an eagerness to connect — made this a must-attend.
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Review – Owen Wingrave (Britten) – Guildhall School of Music and Drama
GSMD’s staging of Britten’s Owen Wingrave shifts the opera from pacifist tract to generational fable, led by a persuasive central performance from Sonny Fielding.
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Review – Songs of Love and War with Academy of Ancient Music
A searching performance of Monteverdi’s Eighth Book revealed the volatile contrast between externalised war and internally suspended love, culminating in a Lament whose harmonic inevitability restored dramatic pressure.
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From authority to visibility: the new Official Classical Chart
Charts don’t so much lead taste as reflect visibility. The new Official Classical Chart makes that shift explicit and further underlines the ongoing rebrand of classical in the UK.
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Review – Eurovision Classical Concerts
A selective tour of Europe’s radio orchestras — persuasive in parts, over-engineered in others
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Review – Britten Sinfonia and Stevens & Pound at Milton Court
Britten Sinfonia at Milton Court: inventive collaboration, strong musicianship, and a Holst reworking where ideas occasionally outran focus.