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Classical music & opera

  • Compelling … percussionists playing Boulez at the Proms.

    Proms 2025
    BBCSO/Lintu – ​there’s a good reason these Boulez and Mahler works aren’t often performed

    Despite eye-catching percussion and deluxe orchestral playing, these strange, overlong pieces are for die-hards only
  • Káťa Kabanová at Glyndebourne, July 2025.

    Opera review
    Káťa Kabanová – furtive groping and a wing-bloodied angel stalk flawed staging of Janáček’s opera

  • Kahchun Wong.

    Proms 2025
    Hallé/Wong – new conductor commands an utterly gripping performance

  • The Veil of the Temple performed at Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

    Edinburgh international festival
    The Veil of the Temple – powerful expressive talents on display in eight-hour choral epic

  • Yunchan Lim - piano BBC Singers City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Kazuki Yamada - conductor The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers conducted by Kazuki Yamada perform John Adams: The Chairman Dances, Sergey Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor (pianist Yunchan Lim) and Luciano Berio: Sinfonia as part of the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall on Friday, 1 Aug. 2025 Photo by Mark Allan

    Proms 2025
    Lim/CBSO/Yamada – wonderful Rachmaninov and a swirling Sinfonia

  • BBC Proms Royal Albert Hall, London, UK; Credit: Chris Christodoulou/BBC Artists: Martin Fröst clarinet BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Joshua Weilerstein conductor. WARNING: All pictures are rights free exclusively for promotional purposes of the concert specified. Any images attached to this email are solely intended for the recipient organisation and may not be forwarded to any third party without the prior written consent of BBC Pictures. Any broadcast, publication or other use, in any medium, for any purpose whatsoever, of the images attached to this email will require the prior written consent of BBC Pictures. You will be considered to have accepted these terms unless you raise any queries regarding them on receipt of the images.

    Proms 2025
    BBCPhil/Weilerstein/Fröst; Arvo Pärt at 90 – star clarinettist captivates and delights

  • Robert Wilson - (c) Lucie Jansch 2011

    News
    Robert Wilson, theatre director and visual artist, dies aged 83

Live reviews

  • Spotless orchestral balance … Ryan Wigglesworth conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s Symphony No 7 at the Royal Albert Hall.

    BBCSSO/Wigglesworth/Batsashvili review – detailed and monumental Bruckner

  • BBC Proms, Boulez and Berio Royal Albert Hall, London, UK; Credit: Chris Christodoulou/BBC

    Ensemble Intercontemporain/ Bleuse review – from a clown to a clarinet and Cathy Berberian

  • Anja Bihlmaier, left, conducts the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra alongside Sean Shibe on electric guitar.

    Shibe/BBCPhil/Bihlmaier review – vivid, vibrant and exuberant virtuosity

Recordings

  1. some of the members of Exaudi.

    Chromatic Renaissance album review – Exaudi negotiate these writhing lines with exemplary precision

  2. Andrew Davis.

    King of Kings: Orchestral Transcriptions of Bach by Andrew Davis album review – the late conductor’s first love

  3. Miró Quartet.

    Ginastera: String Quartets album review – compelling and colourful

  4. Chloe Chua.

    Chloe Chua: Mozart Violin Concertos album review – teenage prodigy’s interpretations are balanced and mature

People

  • Sir Roger Norrington c. Manfred Esser press image supplied by Katy Bell reviews15feb16

    Roger Norrington: a maverick, an irresistible firebrand and a musical visionary

  • Alfred Brendel, the Austrian pianist, at his home in Hampstead Heath, London, 29/09/2010 photographed for the Observer by Sophia Evans

    ‘It is impossible to recall him without smiling’: Simon Rattle on Alfred Brendel

  • ‘It’s how I met Benedict Cumberbatch’ … Lapwood with the Albert Hall organ, which she sometimes plays till 6am.

    Interview
    ‘I gave Tom Cruise an impromptu organ lesson!’ Anna Lapwood on her classical mashups – and her all-night Prom

  • David Watkin with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2012.

    David Watkin obituary

You may have missed

  1. Nicholas McCarthy, left-hand-only pianist, press, publicity photo

    Left turns: How a terrible war injury led to the birth of one-handed piano music

  2. Berlin - Staatsoper PARSIFAL<br>(GERMANY OUT) Deutschland, BerlinOrt: Staatsoper Berlin. Festival: Festtage 2005. Titel: Parsifal. Autor: Richard Wagner. Musikal. Leitung: Daniel Barenboim. Insz.: Bernd Eichinger. Buehne: Jens Kilian. Kostueme: Andrea Schmidt-Futterer. Premiere: 19. Maerz 2005Darst.: Hanno Mueller-Brachmann (M), Christof Fischesser. (o.) (Photo by Lieberenz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

    From the sacred to the profane: the Wagners, Bayreuth and Parsifal

  3. ‘We try for perfection’: the Black Dyke Brass Band practise at their historic band room in Queensbury, West Yorkshire.

    ‘My players are Olympians’: meet Bradford legends the Black Dyke Brass Band

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