Anguished arias and Anna Nicole Smith: Antonio Pappano’s heart-stopping Royal Opera highs
Rock on, Shostakovich, Handel, Ravel: lives of great composers hit the screens
October 2023
Shostakovich: Symphonies 2, 3, 12 and 13 album review – Nelsons ends his cycle as convincingly as it began
Although for some of these performances revolutionary zeal is replaced by routine, the 13th stands apart
December 2022
Silencing Russian music plays into Putin’s hands
Letters: Readers on the Ukrainian culture minister’s call for a boycott of Russian culture, in protest at the invasion of Ukraine
October 2022
Cherry Town, Moscow review – Shostakovich’s operetta becomes a zany romp but outstays its welcome
Welsh National Youth Opera attack the subversive satire with verve and enthusiasm, maximising the theatricality and cheerfully taking the Mikhail out of it all
August 2022
Prom 25: BBCPhil/Storgårds/Eyck review – Aho’s theremin casts a spell
Carolina Eyck was mesmerising in Kalevi Aho’s theremin concerto, while Kaija Saariaho’s Vista and Shostakovich’s 15th symphony were superbly played by the BBC Philharmonic
March 2022
The week in classical: Peter Grimes; Emerson Quartet; RPO/Petrenko
An all-star production of Britten’s opera thrilled; Soviet-era melancholy flowed through Shostakovich’s quartets; and the RPO rose to their game-changing new conductor
February 2022
Time to face up to the fusion illusion?
Brief letters: No such thing as time | Cushioning the blow | Out for the count | Reclaiming San Serriffe | Marine disaster
November 2021
The week in classical: Life, Letters & Friendship; Bluebeard’s Castle – review
The Carducci Quartet get to the heart of Shostakovich, while two very different interpretations of Bartók’s only opera enthral
September 2021
On DSCH: Works by Shostakovich and Stevenson review – Levit’s spectacular wild ride
Pairing Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH with Shostakovich’s equally epic 24 Preludes is a unique combination of rarity and virtuosity
Proms Festival Orch/Wigglesworth review – freelance orchestra’s Mahler brings hope and celebration
A jubilant and light-on-its-feet performance of Mahler’s monumental 5th symphony made this Prom an emotionally charged occasion
Igor Oistrakh obituary
Violinist who followed in the steps of his celebrated father David, and joined him in works by Bach and Mozart
June 2021
Online concerts need more audience support
Letters: Mick Murray shares the response he got from the director of English Touring Opera on the need for the public to connect with artists
March 2021
Lockdown culture
The week in classical: Classical Vauxhall; L'Heure Espagnole – review
Fresh performances of Shostakovich and Beethoven open Classical Vauxhall’s mini-festival, while GPO turns its hand to Ravel’s clock-shop comedy
February 2021
Reverberate
Reverberate, episode 4: the bloody symphony of Leningrad – podcast
Crippled by Hitler’s forces during history’s deadliest siege, Leningrad rallied under the most unlikely of anthems – Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony
September 2020
Know the score
Shostakovich: where to start with his music
In the eye of Russia’s revolutionary storm, he wrote some of the most powerful – and cryptic – music of the 20th century. Whether he is judged a Soviet lackey or heroic dissident, the wealth of his musical legacy is beyond doubt
May 2020
‘Rockers and spies’ – how the CIA used culture to shred the iron curtain
Musicians and artists were all enlisted to assert US power in the cold war. A new podcast explores the part the agency played
September 2019
Rebels with a cause: the friendship of Britten and Shostakovich
The two composers were separated by the Iron Curtain and language but united by their art and their deep admiration for each others’ music. A new bi-cultural orchestra inspired by their friendship pays tribute to their common cause
May 2019
Ballet legend Alexei Ratmansky: how Shostakovich shook me up
Belcea Quartet review – fierce and fearsome Shostakovich
