Pianist

7 min read

Cécile Chaminade was born in Paris on 8 August 1857. Her interest in music was first kindled by her mother, from whom she received preliminary instruction before pursuing studies under Félix Le Couppey for piano and Benjamin Godard for composition. A

Pianist

7 min read

Cécile Chaminade was born in Paris on 8 August 1857. Her interest in music was first kindled by her mother, from whom she received preliminary instruction before pursuing studies under Félix Le Couppey for piano and Benjamin Godard for composition. A

BBC Music Magazine

5 min read

Emerge from Leicester Square Tube Station in the centre of London, and you will see rising above you at one of the four corners of the crossroads a substantial building, on top of which stands an enormous iron statue depicting a Roman charioteer, swo

BBC Music Magazine

1 min read

1. Whose Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major is rounded off by a wellknown rondo ‘Alla turca’? 2. Who wrote the play Peer Gynt for which Grieg composed his incidental music in 1875? 3. An early version of which famous work was first heard in public at the

Country Life

6 min read

THE composer picks out a melody on the piano. It’s stirring—and sweetly sultry. ‘What do you think?’ he calls over his shoulder to the music journalist. ‘Awful,’ says the critic. Giuseppe Verdi smiles, scribbling the excerpt onto the manuscript. ‘Exc

BBC Music Magazine

6 min read

Between 2001 and ’22, I was tasked with finding a ‘rarely performed’ opera on an annual basis for University College Opera’s yearly production in March. The invitation to take down a piece from the shelf that few, if any, had ever seen, then putting

The Guardian

13 min read

With respect to the Herrey’s – three clean-cut brothers and one rogue apostrophe – Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley sounds like the result of an experiment to deliberately synthesise an abysmal Eurovision entry. Antiseptic sound, meaningless title, mind-boggling

BBC Music Magazine

6 min read

The year is 1794. The Reign of Terror is in full swing in Revolutionary France, with thousands being executed at the guillotine. The latest imprisoned aristocrat appears before the Committee of Public Safety who will decide her fate. She is not alone

BBC Music Magazine

16 min read

When, in 1904, the German critic Oscar Schmitz described Britain as ‘Das Land ohne Musik’ (The land without music), he was possibly trying to stir. However, he did have a bit of a point – for all the efforts of Parry, Sullivan and co, Britain’s outpu

BBC Music Magazine

5 min read

When we think of Haydn, what comes to mind? Maybe the two late, great oratorios: The Creation and The Seasons. Or his vast number of symphonies, or his string quartets, or the masses. Not, perhaps, the baryton trios (of which there are more than 125)

Opera Canada

4 min read

On Nov. 15th, the Opera Canada Awards—‘The Rubies’ took place at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in a welcome return to a live celebration….one of the first in-person live opera events in Toronto since the beginning of the pande

BBC Music Magazine

3 min read

When writing Rigoletto, the 37-year-old Verdi was on the cusp of hitting the really big time. Though he had had 15 operas premiered at theatres across Italy plus Paris and London, of those only Nabucco (1842) and Macbeth (1847) are ranked among his m

Opera Canada

6 min read

D.W-P.: What is your advice to young directors? RC: First of all, to ask themselves, what is directing? Directing most of the time is telling someone else’s story. The director must keep in mind that they did not write the story, but rather as a team

BBC Music Magazine

6 min read

Where do musicals come from? The simplest answer is: The Beggar’s Opera. None of its initial proponents, least of all its author John Gay, anticipated this legacy. Gay wrote the The Beggar’s Opera to needle complacent high-end consumers. His work inv

Opera Canada

5 min read

BEING A SINGER DURING THE PANDEMIC doesn’t always mean being without a job. Canadian soprano Ambur Braid still managed to have a conflict between a freelance gig and her work as a full-time ensemble member at Oper Frankfurt. Called to jump-in on two-

BBC Music Magazine

5 min read

When Handel died at his London home in 1759, the whole nation mourned. Three thousand people turned out for his full state funeral and to see him buried in Westminster Abbey. Unlike JS Bach, Handel’s music remained in circulation, a staple of coronat

Los Angeles Times

5 min read

Summer, when it comes to the performing arts in America, was already over by mid-spring. All major festivals and nearly all events had been canceled. Last week brought depressing daily reports of fall closures. In New York, there will be no business

The Oldie

3 min read

This year provided as fine a start to the summer season of privately funded ‘country-house’ opera as any I can remember. Glyndebourne’s artistically adventurous and theatrically thrilling revival of Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers launched the season. The

Guitar World

14 min read

GEORGE ORWELL’S NOVEL 1984 envisioned a dystopian future where totalitarian governments ruled the world, and the average person’s attempts to enjoy even the slightest personal pleasure were patrolled and punished by the Thought Police in service of B

BBC Music Magazine

6 min read

Sometime around 1907 the Duchess of Manchester gave a soirée in London in honour of the King and Queen. The music chosen for the occasion was Le Bal de Béatrice d’Este for wind band by the 33-year-old French composer Reynaldo Hahn and conducted by hi

Future Music

2 min read

With the release of his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music For Airports, Brian Eno defined a new genre. Wholly unsurprising, we’d add, from a man who has dedicated most of his career to the pursuit of the original. Eno never claimed to be the first artist t

Opera Canada

8 min read

Developed by its first director, Arnold Walter, the Opera School, now the Opera Division of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, has had an enormous influence on the musical life of Toronto, of Canada and the world at large. As Pegler noted

BBC Music Magazine

3 min read

Jakub Hrůša has been named as the new music director of the Royal Opera House. The highly rated Czech conductor will begin in post in 2024, taking over from Antonio Pappano, who has led the way at Covent Garden for 20 years. For the 2024/25 season, H

Opera Canada

15 min read

THAÏS MASSENET Chandos CHSA 5258(2) Massenet’s 1894 opera about the Egyptian courtesan, Thaïs, who is converted to Christianity by the monk Athanaël, has a storied recording history. Three of the earliest feature great French sopranos of the 1950s: G

Pianist

3 min read

What does heaven sound like? We’ll never know until it’s too late, but if there are angels and harps involved, they will surely be playing ‘the’ Ave Maria. Lifting my gaze into the blue yonder I see poor Gounod sitting on a cloud and cursing his luck

The Oldie

3 min read

FESTIVALS IN 2022 ‘Normal service has been resumed,’ rejoices pianist Iain Burnside, artistic director of Ludlow’s annual English Song Weekend (8th-10th April). Being a prudent soul, he adds, ‘As I type these words with one hand, I cross the fingers

Opera Canada

4 min read

Grand Palais, Paris, decorated with Lagerfeld portraits, Jun. 20th, 2019 “A funeral? I’d rather die” declared Karl Lagerfeld. Robert Carsen’s magnificent homage to the famous designer at Paris’ Grand Palais on Jun. 20th was, rather, an anti-funeral—a

Prog

11 min read

Karl Bartos might always primarily be associated with Kraftwerk, but he’s been no slouch outside of the group. As well as reliving his experiences as the second robot from left in his new book The Sound Of The Machine, Bartos explores his time as a c

Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

5 min read

THE YEAR: 1841 THE PLACE: Exposition de L’Industrie Belge (The Belgium Industrial Fair) Adolphe Sax stands over the wreckage, running a hand down his thick beard. His prototype is ruined. It was no accident. A boot kick from some rival competitor h

Future Music

3 min read

Daft Punk were the French filtering duo who introduced genres to the world, pioneered production techniques still used to this day, mixed orchestral and analogue synth like no one else, and, more importantly than all of the above, produced some of th