The Guardian

Britten’s comic hero Albert Herring: the only virgin in the village

How many operas feature a man who is crowned May Queen because no one can vouch for the virginity of the village girls? Andrew Mellor on Britten’s comic gem, Albert Herring.

The Telegraph

Sally Beamish: “There’s a dark, brooding quality in Britten’s work. It’s almost sinister.”

Ivan Hewett talks to composer Sally Beamish about giving up the viola, bumping into Peter Pears and her new work, Variations on a Theme of Benjamin Britten.

London Evening Standard

Pick of the Proms 2013

Booking opens on May 11 for the world’s largest classical music festival — from Barenboim to Bryan Ferry, our critics have the lowdown on the line-up.

BBC News

Nazi-themed Wagner opera cancelled in Dusseldorf

A controversial production of a Wagner opera at one of the major German opera houses has been cancelled because of harrowing scenes involving Nazis.

Classic FM

Dario Marianelli’s thoughts on the Quartet soundtrack

(Written on May 9, 2013 )

The Guardian

Tod Machover: how to crowdsource a symphony

Can music repair damaged tissue? Is it possible to hear it through another person’s ears? If anyone knows, it’s Tod Machover. As he prepares to create an innovative symphony for Edinburgh, Charlotte Higgins meets the music professor

The Guardian

Tine Thing Helseth, trumpet player interview: ‘I was a crazy Spice Girls fan

Norwegian trumpet virtuoso Tine Thing Helseth tells Adam Sweeting how she plays everything from Bach to the Beach Boys, and looks at the strange rituals of classical music with an inquiring eye.

The New York Times

A Challenge Grant From Weills to Spur Carnegie Hall Renovation

Carnegie Hall has received a $10 million challenge grant from its chairman, Sanford I. Weill, and his wife, Joan, and their Weill Family Foundation toward the completion of its $230 million renovation.

Classic FM

Mice play lullabies by Mozart, Brahms and Schubert

Lullabies by Mozart, Brahms and Schubert were performed by mice in a performance installation by the experimental musical duo Quiet Ensemble.

Music Week

IFPI slams EU piracy study as ‘flawed and misleading’

The IFPI has slammed the recent report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre which concluded that piracy has no effect on legal digital music purchases.

Classical Music Magazine

RSNO announces 2013/14 season

Britten’s War Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No 8 and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie are among the musical monoliths that the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has announced for its ambitious 2013/14 season, its second with Peter Oundjian as music director.

Classical Music Magazine

(Written on March 21, 2013 )

The Guardian

Tom Service on catchy contemporary opera

Anyone want to hear me hum Nixon in China?

The Observer

Don’t mourn HMV: there are far better places to browse for music now

Fan sites and online stores still provide the thrill of a voyage of discovery that the high street lost long ago

The Telegraph

Britten: the composer who had the last laugh

In the centenary year of Benjamin Britten, the reputation of the ‘difficult’ composer may be about to change, says Rupert Christiansen.

How we fell out of tune with the piano

Thousands of pianos are being sent to the scrap-heap despite having the ability to still tug at our heartstrings, Paul Kendall discovers.

Classic FM

Lang Lang sells out Royal Albert Hall in 48 hours

The pianist is performing an extra solo recital on November 17 2013 after selling 5000 tickets to his concert in two days.

BBC News

Les Miserables soundtrack tops UK album chart

The soundtrack to Tom Hooper’s Oscar-nominated Les Miserables has become the first cast recording to top the UK and Ireland album chart in 16 years.

Slipped Disc

European churches pay homage to John Tavener

The British composer, 68, has been announced as the 2013 winner of the Prize for European Church Music.

Music Week

PRS for Music Foundation to run new music talent development fund

The PRS For Music Foundation is to run a new Music Industry Talent Development Fund being launched by Arts Council England.

Generator

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Copyright

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), and the Music Managers’ Forum (MMF), have responded with disappointment to Government proposals on copyright extensions, referring to them as a “massive windfall” for large labels but a “mixed bag” for artists.

The Telegraph

(Written on January 21, 2013 )

Tomorrow, the fourth annual International Wimbledon Music Festival opens with The Purcell Paegent at St John’s, Spencer Hill. The festival boasts ‘A World Music Fair’, with musicians and repertoire from around the globe. With a feast  of performances at venues across SW19, the festival promises to be the best yet.

Featuring works from Messiaen by the Nash Ensemble, the festival this week announced a second performance of Jessica Duchen’s much anticipated sold out play ‘A Walk Through The End of Time’, which describes how Messaien’s Quatour pour la Fin du Temps was composed and performed by him and three other prisoners in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Joining Henry Goodman and Harriet Walter in the play, is Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who tells the extraordinary story of The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. Another celebrated performance is the production of ‘Petrushka’, with Russian virtuoso Mikhail Rudy on the piano, alongside a cast of intricate puppets and ballet dancers from leading companies. Watch a preview of Petrushka here. 

Celebrating its global repute, another highlight of the International Wimbledon Music Festival is the newly comissioned piece by British composer Benjamin Wallfisch, which will receive its European premiere at the festival’s gala concert on November 24th. With close links to the Martinu Festival in Basel, Pro Musica Festival in El Paso, Texas, along with the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and the Sitka Summer Music Festival in Alaska, the Wimbledon festival is able to share the commission of works along with musicians, such as cellist Zuill Bailey, Artistic Director of both the El Paso Pro Musica and the Sitka Summer Music Festival, who with play alongside Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in a celebrity cello recital on Friday 23rd November. 

The festival also recently announced that actor Benedict Cumberbatch will join oboist Nicholas Daniel to narrate a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid on November 18th.

For more information on the festival, and to purchase tickets to any of the events, please visit their website: http://www.wimbledonmusicfestival.co.uk/ 

(Written on November 9, 2012 )

The International Wimbledon Music Festival is pleased to announce that actor Benedict Cumberbatch will join oboist Nicholas Daniel to narrate a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid on November 18th at Trinity Church in Wimbledon.

The concert is a celebration of music for the oboe, and also features works by Mozart and Elisabeth Lutyens. Daniel was awarded the Queens Medal for Music in 2011 and will also be joined by the Britten Oboe Quartet for this exciting concert.

Dedicated to programming international artists of the highest calibre, this year’s festival also features a performance from Patricia Routledge accompanied by pianist Piers Lane;  as well as world-class musicians including Christine Brewer, Mikhail Rudy, Alina Ibragimova, Mark Padmore, Xuefei Yang and more.

The festival opens on November 10th with A Purcell Pageant and runs until November 25th.

For more information visit www.wimbledonmusicfestival.co.uk

(Written on November 1, 2012 )

The New York Times

Spotlight on Safety for Shows Outdoors

Jim Digby, the tour manager for Linkin Park, knows better than most how dangerous a rock ’n’ roll show can be, after a piece of equipment he was operating came off a faulty overhead track, plummeted toward the floor and killed a young woman standing just a few feet from him. During the past year he has organized a campaign to improve safety at outdoor events.

Gramophone

Britten’s Peter Grimes to be performed on Aldeburgh beach

Special Aldeburgh Festival production celebrates composer’s 100th birthday in 2013.

Classic FM

Hazlewood’s British Paraorchestra appear in Paralympics ceremony

The Paralympic Closing Ceremony featured a performance from Charles Hazlewood’s British Paraorchestra, who played alongside Coldplay.

NPR Music: Deceptive cadence

Atlanta Symphony Locked Out

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its musicians are at an impasse, pushing the musicians to go on strike. The symphony is facing a $20M budget deficit, and it’s seeking millions in concessions from the musicians. Both sides say they want to reach an agreement, but they’ve left the bargaining table putting the orchestra’s 68th season in jeopardy.

Classical Music

Concern over budget cuts as music education hubs launch

Regional music education hubs, the new infrastructure for music education in England prescribed by the government’s National Plan for Music Education, have come into operation.

Limelight magazine

Classical music for September 11: a tribute to the victims

Five American composers respond to the tragedy of 9/11 in different ways.

BBC Music Magazine

BBC announces Britten centenary celebrations

The BBC dedicates 2013 to the life and work of Benjamin Britten.

The New York Times

(Written on September 11, 2012 )

Arts Journal: Slipped Disc

Watch Out You Slackers, Solti’s Back.

There are two Solti bio-documentaries in the making for television.

New York Times

North Korean Orchestra Performs In France.

The Unhasu Orchestra of North Korea, one of the country’s foremost musical institutions, joined the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra on Wednesday night in a concert at the Salle Pleyel.

LA Times

LA Phil’s Borda And Bohnett To Attend White House Dinner.

David Bohnett, the technology entrepreneur, philanthropist and chairman of the L.A. Philharmonic, with his guest Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the L.A. Phil, will be attending a White House state dinner honoring British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha Cameron.

The Times

David McVicar Beats His Demons With The Rake’s Progress.

Magnus Linklater interviews David McVicar.

The Telegraph

Why Royal Opera Is Abuzz.

Although its enemies like to think of it as an impregnable bastion of privilege, the Royal Opera House has been feeling the pinch of the financial crisis as sharply as the rest of us.

BBC News

Gloriana Opera To Be Revived For Coronation Anniversary.

An opera written for the Queen’s coronation will be revived to mark its 60th anniversary.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17368509

(Written on March 15, 2012 )

Arts Journal: Slipped Disc

CT Family Bequests $20m To New Haven Charities.

A prominent New Haven family has endowed $20 million to fund five New Haven charitable and cultural organizations including the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

Arts Journal: Slipped Disc

Former York, PA Symphony Orchestra Manager Charged With Stealing More Than $200,000.

York, Pennsylvania - A woman told police she stole more than $200,000 from the York Symphony Orchestra to support her gambling addiction while she was the orchestra’s office manager, according to charging documents.

Classical Music Magazine

OAE Appoints Reiland As Apprentice Conductor For 2012.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has appointed 31-year-old Belgian conductor David Reiland as its apprentice conductor for 2012.

Telegraph

Why Britten’s Saint Nicholas Had Me Reaching For A Handkerchief In Smith Square.

Michael White is moved to tears at a performance of Saint Nicholas.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/michaelwhite/100058902/why-brittens-st-nicolas-had-me-reaching-for-a-handkerchief-in-smith-square/santa-finland-460_1207505c/

(Written on December 21, 2011 )

Every day the WildKat team scan the newspapers and blogs online to bring you a digested list of the day’s classical music news.

The Independent

Street Scene, Young Vic

John Fulljames’s award-winning Opera Group production of ‘Street Scene’ reflects the brilliance and power of Kurt Weill’s ‘American’ style, says Michael Church. Rated 4/5.

The Guardian

War and the pity of war

Stravinsky sneered but the public loved it, and, nearly 50 years on, Britten’s War Requiem has lost none of its power to move us, writes Ian Bostridge

Pierre Boulez: Rebel with a cause

Pierre Boulez’s mission to change classical music has been entirely successful, but not perhaps in the way his younger self had envisaged, writes Tom Service

LPO/Jurowski – review

The real controversy last night was Vladimir Jurowski’s championship of post-Soviet Russian music – and the first half, at least, was wonderful, writes Tim Ashley

Financial Times

Weather strikes a chord with composers

Research shows that weather may have made British composers twice as likely to write music with a climate theme as their counterparts abroad. Pilita Clark reports.

The Arts Desk

Paganini’s Daemon

Christopher Nupen’s film about the first Romantic virtuoso is released on DVD. By Hilary Whitney.

(Written on September 23, 2011 )

Every day the WildKat team scan the newspapers and blogs online to bring you a digested list of the day’s classical music news.

LA Times

L.A. Phil Live schedule announced

The three Los Angeles Philharmonic concert simulcasts will include a performance of Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ from Caracas, Venezuela.

The Guardian

Gok Wan: ‘Opera takes you on a journey’ – video

Gok Wan talks from Glyndebourne about what opera means to him – and why greater access to the art form means you can now enjoy it at home in your pyjamas. ‘For me, that’s exactly what opera should be,’ he says

The Guardian

Viktoria Mullova: from Russia in a blond wig

Viktoria Mullova fled the USSR because she hated it. The violinist tells Erica Jeal what finally returning to her homeland has meant for her music.

Tom Service: The Guardian

Why Arnold Bax will make it a Prom night to remember

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s rare performance of Bax’s work will thrill you. All you have to do is park your prejudices at the door.

The Times

Review – Simon Rattle: Schoenberg

“A mellow and warm sound, but sometimes Schoenberg’s glitter effects fail to come through as they should.”

The Times

My haunting relationship with Benjamin Britten

Janette Heffernan was the first girl to sing in the composer’s ghost opera; the start of a haunting relationship, she says.

(Written on August 19, 2011 )