CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

After the depressingly superficial ENO Gilliam The Damnation of Faust at ENO last night, I need to hear the piece as music again.  First an...

It's painful for me to write this.  Lord knows my tolerance for unorthodox productions is higher than most. I don't get off on orgie...

Dream concert - Berliner Philharmoniker, Thomas Hampson, Renée Fleming, lesser known Strauss songs and Strauss orchestral party pieces.  Li...

O Weh! O Weh! sighs Werther. If I can't get what I want, I'll kill myself and you'll be sorreeeee! What do you expect from wan y...

What would you say about a conductor who declares "Bach ("too much counterpoint - and what is worse, Protestant counterpoint"...

This year's Wexford Opera Festival brings The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti. It's a scream! A man wants to propose to his girlfri...

Sumer is icumen in is perhaps the earliest song preserved in manuscript.  It dates from about 1260 and is associated with Reading Abbey (fou...

Arbeiter, Bauern, nehmt die Gewehre nehmt die Gewehre zur Hand! Zerschlagt die faschistischen Räuberheere, setzt alle Herzen in Brand. La...

T Please see here for my more detailed review of Brittens Ballad For Heroes, Ivor Gurney's Glouycestershire Rhapsody and Arthur Bliss ...

Real reason to celebrate! The Berliner Philharmoniker is streaming in full one of last year's finest Proms - the "mega symphony...

Many thanks to Brendan Carroll for these clips from Erich Korngold's last opera Kathrin.  They come from an extremely rare recording is...

Interesting things happening at the South Bank 2011 and 2012, once you get past the "Festival of Britain" and Olympics hype that...

Summer is a-coming in, everything coming in to bloom at once. Time to switch perfumes too. In with Lys méditerranée, and my winter signature...

" Life's a swindle, life is short but greed's always in season" Mischa Spoliansky (1898-1985) wrote hits for Weimar cabar...

Peter Lieberson died on April 23 2011, aged only 64. He had an eventful life, but perhaps some of his best years were those spent with Lorra...