CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

Polyphony lives ! This is one of Charles and Ira Louvin's greatest hits. Their close harmony is so tight, it's almost symbiotic, as ...

Q Earlier this week an academic in North Texas announced a new book he's about to launch, which claims Sibelius had ties to the Nazis....

The Sacred made Real at the National Gallery was an exhibition I wanted to escape because the subject matter is distressing. But I'm gl...

"Beauty isn't prettiness. It isn't even attractiveness on the surface. If something is truly beautiful, it will attract, out of...

Enid Blyton's towns full of gollies represent one response to West Indian immigration. So hearing about things from a West Indian point...

Benjamin Britten was uncommonly precocious as a boy. He kept hundreds of early compositions, meticulously ordered, almost like an old man in...

There's a long article about Rilke HERE The picture is by Paula Modersohn-Becker, from whose work I first learned of Rilke's existe...

Why shouldn't Handel's Messiah be fully staged? If ever there was a subject with dramatic potential, this is it. A living faith nee...

It’s Christmas and the bells on tills are jingling! Deborah Warner’s Messiah at the ENO is a Christmas card writ large, designed to corner ...

Cajuns and Cantonese! Jambalaya sung in Chinese by San Ma Tsai, in the 1950's. San Ma Tsai translates as "New Horse Boy", I ...

Readers in the US, enjoy a good holiday! The values of Thanksgiving are good, lots to be grateful for. Brits have Enid Blyton. Last week a r...

Make up your own risqué comments. This ad just begs for them. It comes off a great blog I follow called Musty Moments . "Scouring hist...

Three more days to watch the full performance of the original (2008) Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House. Villazon, Keenlyside. Poplavskaya. ...

Wolfgang Rihm's Et Lux had its UK premiere last weekend at Huddersfield ( for more on the Huddersfield Festival which continues this we...

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