CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

Never underestimate Oxford Lieder, whose 10th anniversary Festival started yesterday. The Festival started with Schubert part-songs in  Radc...

"Kleenex at the ready… one goes from the critics to the music, knowing that if one should dare to disagree with ‘practically eve...

We've all seen the current production of Verdi La Traviata at the Royal Opera House. It runs til February 2012 if you want to catch it a...

For those who missed it live and those who want to keep listening again, Claudio Abbado's concert with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (M...

Politicans dare not say what many economists feel in their hearts. This present "recession" is something that cannot be solved ...

Last week BBC Radio 3 featured composer was William Schuman (one n). This week focuses on  Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937). Five hours, Monday...

In just ten years, the Oxford Lieder Festival has become Britain's most important Lieder festival, with an international following. It b...

On 10th October 1911, the outbreak of the Chinese Revolution. A revolution that happened almost by accident, evolving from what seemed t...

£700 million worth of cuts to the BBC from the last year's £3.5 billion expenditure (about 20%) because the licence fee is being frozen....

That Within Our Gates should exist at all is pretty remarkable. How did a film like this come to be made at the time it did (1920)? And s...

October 10th is the 100th anniversary of the uprising that led to the collapse of the Emperor system in China, and the foundation of the Re...

Who was Heinrich Kaminski (1886-1946)? Admired by Arnold Schoenberg and a leading figure in German music circles, he's largely forgotten...

How to get a bigger, better organ? Pull out all the stops and sponsor a Pipe. The South Bank needs £1 million to restore the organ at the Ro...

Philippe Jordan has been named new Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, from 2014/15 when Fabio Luisi steps down. Jordan is the...

Pierre Boulez conducted Pli selon Pli at the Royal Festival Hall with Barbara Hannigan and Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Lucerne Festi...