Other lives: Organ-builder who made an important contribution to his craft and to early music
March 2024
Home listening
Classical home listening: Michael Spyres and Les Talens Lyriques: In the Shadows; Nicola LeFanu: The Path Above the Dunes
Home listening
Classical home listening: Má vlast with the Czech Phil; Andreas Scholl revisits Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater
January 2024
Anna Prohaska/Phantasm review – her tone is a mixture of silk and silver
Music by William Byrd and his Renaissance contemporaries was exquisitely performed by the viol group, with the versatile and sensitive soprano matching their quiet intensity
December 2023
Apollo’s Cabinet: Musical Wanderlust album review – a freewheeling musical story
Historian Charles Burney’s surveys of the state of 18th-century European music link this spirited anthology from the period performance group
July 2023
Home listening
Classical home listening: Rachmaninov Symphonies 2 & 3; Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices
Home listening
Classical home listening: Marin Marais, Madeleine Mitchell and Byrdsong
June 2023
Home listening
Classical home listening: new releases from the Dudok Quartet and Choir of Merton College, Oxford
The Dutch string quartet span Pérotin to Reich in a thoughtful recital, while anthems by Dyson, Howells, Elgar and Finzi get the full orchestral treatment
May 2023
The future of work
The best childcare in the world? Maybe so, but new parents in Iceland are holding out for better
Even in forward-thinking Reykjavik, finding a preschool place for the youngest infants is tough. Parents explain why
April 2023
James Bowman obituary
Countertenor with a clean, focused and lyrical approach to both early and new music, including roles in two Britten operas
February 2023
‘Haunting and poignant’: long-lost mass by Shirley Collins’ sister Dolly finally makes its debut
A school-gate chat led to the rediscovery of the late composer Dolly Collins’ Missa Humana, as her folk star sister, the writer Maureen Duffy and medieval academic Lawrence Warner explain
January 2023
Home listening
Classical home listening: Das Lied von der Erde for piano; The Splendour of Florence with Gothic Voices
The Observer's January cultural diet
Feed your soul: the 31-day classical music diet for January
November 2022
The week in classical: The Rape of Lucretia; Solomon’s Knot – review
A shocking update of Britten’s chamber opera feels wearily relevant. And one of the UK’s finest vocal ensembles probes the musical kinship of JS Bach and his uncle
May 2022
The week in classical: Mavra/Pierrot lunaire; LSO/ Tilson Thomas; Gabrieli/ McCreesh
Covent Garden’s future stars make the most of a tricky double bill
March 2022
Groundbreaking female composer’s lost madrigals to be heard for first time in 400 years
Maddalena Casulana’s newly discovered songs will feature on BBC Radio 3 to mark International Women’s Day
December 2021
Other lives
Andrew Garrett obituary
From wassails to Wexford: the best classical Christmas albums of 2021
November 2021
Crowe/Byrne/Nordberg review – enchantment, engagement and swagger
Lucy Crowe, Liam Byrne and Jonas Nordberg performed music from the 17th and 18th centuries, and revelled in the graciousness of Errollyn Wallen’s brand new Angel Waters
October 2021
Classical home listening: Quatuor Ébène and the Gesualdo Six
The French quartet play late-night Schoenberg, jazz and more, while Josquin is the springboard for Owain Park and his crack vocal ensemble
