Classical Features
‘Slava Ukraini!’: Russian musicians worldwide show solidarityFriday, 04 March 2022
“You are told that we hate Russian culture,” President Zelenskyy of Ukraine informed Russians, using their language, in a speech for the ages just before the invasion, “But how can a culture be hated? Any culture? Neighbours are always enriching each other culturally. But that does not make them one entity, and does not separate people into ‘us’ and ‘them’ “. Read more...
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‘Let me be your main course’: composer Jimmy López on why new music needs time and spaceTuesday, 22 February 2022
No, not your aperitif – and certainly not your digestif; your bona fide main dish, the one your audience yearns for, dresses up for, and looks forward to. Read more... |
First Person: Pavel Šporcl on Paganini and the Czech violin traditionSaturday, 29 January 2022
It is taken for granted today that Paganini is almost a God-like figure for violinists. After all, he epitomises the ultimate virtuoso figure, both as someone whose technique outshone (so we are told!) every other player of his time, and who oozed charisma. Read more... |
First Person: young composer Nicola Perikhanyan on a new immersive reality experience at London WallWednesday, 22 December 2021
There's something really moving about standing in the centre of London Wall's Roman ruins and looking up at the city that has grown around it. Thinking about our past, present and future simultaneously. More than 2000 years have passed since the Romans created our city, and while much has changed there's still so much consistency in how our society exists, both the beauty and the flaws. Read more... |
First Person: composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad on a musical love letter to the natural worldWednesday, 24 November 2021
In the darkness my dreams are interrupted I see the blackbird in my mind and the whirring of my brain begins Read more... |
First Person: composer Conor Mitchell on challenging religious orthodoxy from a queer perspective in MASSWednesday, 17 November 2021
A mass, in its simplest form, is the order of prayers that are said in a religious service. It is standardised and has been for centuries, in order to create a theatrical journey that takes us through a service. Composers have always been drawn to the mass as a structure because it has an inherent drama. It draws on themes of rebirth, change, redemption. Read more... |
Judith van Driel of the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam: 'the more we played Brahms, the more freedom we found'Saturday, 13 November 2021
In every life there are moments of great significance. Experiences that stick with us and define our own personal story. Read more... |
'Everyone who played for him always gave their very best': remembering Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)Tuesday, 02 November 2021
Few musicians get to stage-manage a dignified departure from the world. Read more... |
First Person: ethnomusicologist Shumaila Hemani on global musical traditions and Concert for AfghanistanFriday, 22 October 2021
In early 2020, the year that soon saw COVID-19 lockdown, I served on the music faculty for Semester at Sea, Spring 2020 voyage, where I taught self-designed courses on global music cultures as well as a course called Soundscapes. Read more... |
First Person: pianist Filippo Gorini on head, heart and the contemporary in Bach's 'The Art of Fugue'Saturday, 11 September 2021
A past work of art either still speaks to us in the present, or it is dead. To try and understand a masterpiece, we tend to look at its past: we study it, analyse it, read biographies of the artist behind it and chronicles of its historical background. But it is even more interesting to see what happened to the work after it was finished. What did it mean to the following generations, and, more critically, what does it mean to us today? Read more... |
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The first season of Blue Nights was so close to ...