Classical Interviews
theartsdesk Q&A: Donald RunniclesSaturday, 20 March 2010
Who's the greatest living British exponent of the late Romantic repertoire? Many would say Edinburgh-born conductor Donald Runnicles (b. 1954). Runnicles has spent the last 30 years quietly forging a formidable name for himself abroad, first, as a repetiteur in Mannheim, then as an assistant to Sir Georg Solti at Bayreuth, as guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera and, for the past two decades, musical director of San Francisco Opera. In 2007 the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra...
Read more...
|
theartsdesk Q&A: Actor Simon Russell BealeSaturday, 06 March 2010
The career of Simon Russell Beale (b. 1961) needs little introduction. Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer George CrumbSunday, 29 November 2009
George Crumb (b.1929) is one of the great American experimental composers of the 20th century. His delicate scores are characterised by a child-like sense of wonder and an array of instrumentation that appears to have hitched a ride from outer space. Crumb first came to the fore in the 1960s with Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death (1968), Night of the Four Moons (1969), inspired by and...
Read more...
|
theartsdesk Q&A: Sir Charles MackerrasThursday, 22 October 2009
At 84 years of age, Sir Charles Mackerras is one of the best-respected and best-loved operatic conductors working in the world today. He conducts Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw for the English National Opera tonight and, despite bouts of ill health, found time to talk about his friendship - and falling out - with Britten, his time conducting the opera under Britten's watchful eye, his experiences in Prague... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Sir Peter Maxwell DaviesSaturday, 03 October 2009
There is no more extraordinary musical journey than that of Britain's leading living composer, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934). In the 1960s, he was Britain's Stravinsky, at the heart and head of the modernist musical rebellion, provoking audience walkouts, outraging the musical powers that be and occasionally even hitting the news headlines. Today, as a Knight of the realm and a Master of the Queen’s Music, he finds himself in the very bosom of the British establishment. Read more... |
Meeting Katherine JenkinsFriday, 04 September 2009
It’s pretty well understood that talent, good looks and hard work are not enough to guarantee you safe passage through the celebrity jungle nowadays. But for five years it looked as though they might be enough for Katherine Jenkins. Until recently the general view of Jenkins held that she was a nice, polite, touchingly naive, and unaffected young woman from Neath in South Wales, who just happened to be the most popular classically trained singer to emerge here in this century. Read more... |
Pages
inside classical music
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Music Reissues Weekly: Too Far Out - Beat, Mod & R&B...
The thrill of hearing “Crawdaddy Simone” never wears off. As the September 1965 B-side of the third single by North London R&B band The...
Naumov, SCO, Egarr, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - or...
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has had to put up with its fair share of artist cancellations over the last month, and the ensuing games of musical...
Brief History of a Family review - glossy Chinese psychologi...
Brief History of a Family is a psychological thriller with a story familiar to anyone who has seen Ripley, ...
Album: Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco - I Said I Love You Fir...
Selena Gomez is the enormously successful Disney child star who grew up to be a Hollywood actor and global pop sensation. As notably, she’s the...
Die Zauberflöte, Royal Academy of Music review - first-rate...
Tamino in the operating theatre hallucinating serpents? Sarastro’s acolytes wheeling lit-up plasma packs? From the central part of the Overture...
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other review - a portr...
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other is a documentary portrait of photographer Joel Meyerowitz, acclaimed for his...
The Alto Knights review - double dose of De Niro doesn'...
The power struggle between New York crime bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello is one of the foundational stories of the American Mafia, though...
Album: The Horrors - Night Life
For fans of The Horrors, the headline here is that, 20 years into the career, for their sixth album, the band have lost two of their founding...