mon 21/07/2025

David Nice

David Nice's picture
Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

City of London Sinfonia, Southwark Cathedral / Kanneh-Masons, Barbican review - soaring teamwork

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London Symphony Orchestra, Hasan, LSO St Luke's review - dances great and small

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4/4, Royal Opera review – desire, loss and lunacy in four surprising acts

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Baker, Ridout, LaFollette, Schwizgebel, Fidelio Orchestra Cafe review - fun and ferocity

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Ragged Music Festival review - musical utopia in an East End schoolroom

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Viktoria Mullova, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Fidelio Orchestra Cafe review - a rainbow of brilliant artistry

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Bach’s The Art of Fugue, Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall – the many voices of humanity

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Academy of St Martin in the Fields review - from solo meditations to collective celebrations

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Castalian Quartet/Elizabeth Llewellyn, Simon Lepper, Wigmore Hall review - out of this world

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Finley, LPO, Gardner, Royal Festival Hall (p)review - special magic ready for streaming

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A London Saturday with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy and friends - review

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Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - heart of darkness, light-filled liberation

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Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall/Hill Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Festival review – seamlessness inside and out

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Eavesdropping on Rattle, the LSO and Bartók’s Bluebeard

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Alban Gerhardt, Markus Becker, Wigmore Hall review - long shadows and rich sounds

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Maggini Quartet/Friend, Solem Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Festival review - in harmony with nature

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'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Bookish, U&Alibi review - sleuthing and skulduggery in a...

As a sometime writer of Poirot, Sherlock and Christmas ghost stories,...

Album: Spafford Campbell - Tomorrow Held

Guitarist Louis Campbell and fiddle player Owen Spafford started playing together as teenagers in the National Youth Folk Ensemble when Sam...

The Estate, National Theatre review - hugely entertaining, b...

The first rule for brown people, says the main character – played by BAFTA-winner Adeel Akhtar – in this highly entertaining dramedy, is not to...

Music Reissues Weekly: Mike Taylor - Pendulum, Trio

Wheels of Fire was Cream’s third album. Issued in the US in June 1968 and in the UK two months later, it was a double LP. One record was...

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire review - a mysterious silence

A glamorous black woman sits in a Forties bar under a Vichy cop’s gaze, cigarette tilted at an angle, till two male companions join her in...

Youssou N'Dour and Super Étoile de Dakar, Roundhouse re...

There is a freshness about a show by Youssou N’Dour that never seems to lose its glow. He still has one of the great voices of Africa, a versatile...

BBC Proms: First Night, Batiashvili, BBCSO, Oramo review - g...

The auditorium and arena were packed – and the stage even more so, bursting at the seams with players and singers: the perfect set-up for a First...

Album: Bonnie Dobson & The Hanging Stars - Dreams

What a great album – and what a great story to lift the heart in these fetid times. A story that crosses oceans and decades and brings together a...

Harvest review - blood, barley and adaptation

Lovers of a particular novel, when it’s adapted as a movie, often want book and movie to fit together as a hand in a glove. You want it to be like...