The Guardian

Sound and Music: A new era dawns

Sound and Music has gone back to basics. Is it time to call for an end to hostilities and get behind the new-model institution?

Epoch Times

Music and Life in Oneness: An Interview With Burt Bacharach

May marks an important month for Burt Bacharach, recipient of three Academy Awards and eight Grammys, and a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.

Gramophone

A new way to experience The Rite of Spring

Animated, graphical score helps makes sense of Stravinsky’s revolutionary work.

Classic FM

(Written on May 1, 2013 )

The Telegraph

Handel’s ‘unknown’ collaborator who was vital to his Messiah, letters show

Handel’s Messiah, one of the most recognisable pieces of classical music in the world, could have been named Jennens’ Messiah, it has been emerged, after letters from the composer himself gave credit to his “utterly unknown” collaborator.

When classical music is for adults only 

The starched suit of the concert hall is being ripped open to reveal the X-rated passions beneath, says Ivan Hewett

Classical Music Magazine

Universal bolsters classical credentials with new appointment

Universal Music Group International’s recruitment of Chaz Jenkins from LSO Live continues the company’s efforts to restore its reputation in the core classical market.

Gramophone

Polish tenor Piotr Beczala signs to Deutsche Grammophon

First release under the new agreement will be a tribute album to tenor Richard Tauber

Classic FM

Katherine Jenkins and Placido Domingo duet at Royal Variety

Mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins and tenor Placido Domingo teamed up last night for the Royal Variety Performance 2012, celebrating the show’s 100th anniversary.

Slipped Disc

Variety: London is now Hollywood’s music studio

The entertainment industry gazette has published an article on the flight of soundtrack and videogame recordings from Hollywood to Europe.

LA Times

‘Chasing Ice’ film composer J. Ralph sees climate change up close

Upon reentering his recording studio in New York’s waterlogged Lower East Side neighborhood two days after Superstorm Sandy, musician and film composer J.  Ralph was struck by how quickly the 250-gallon fish tank he keeps filled with about three dozen parrot fish had become completely fouled when the tank’s electric air pump shut off.

The New York Times – Arts Beat

Patrick Stewart to Co-Host an Evening of Very Light Opera

Patrick Stewart will bring some serious acting chops to an evening of light entertainment at the Lyric Opera of Chicago featuring the Second City sketch comedy and improv group.

The Telegraph

(Written on November 21, 2012 )

LA Times

L.A. Phil’s Lionel Bringuier lands conducting gig in Zurich

Lionel Bringuier, resident conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has been made the chief conductor and music director of Switzerland’s Zurich Tonhalle. His post will begin with the 2014-15 season and will run for four years.

Gramophone

Michael Nyman complete chamber works to be released – hear an excerpt from the first recording!

First release includes two world premiere recordings of piano trios

Classic FM

Plácido Domingo announces new pop album featuring Groban, Boyle, Jenkins

Legendary tenor Plácido Domingo has announced details of his new album, due for UK release on December 3rd.

Child prodigy surprises shoppers with Liszt

Pianos have popped up all over Cambridge for members of the public to play – and an 11-year-old boy is impressing the crowds with his interpretations of virtuosic pieces.

Video game music hits the UK: Nobuo Uematsu and Arnie Roth interviewed

Classic FM spoke to Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu and conductor Arnie Roth before their ‘Distant Worlds’ concert.

Slipped Disc

Breaking: Two classical agencies are expelled by professional body

The International Artist Managers Association has taken the unusual step of expelling two of its members, both based in Vienna.

Sad news from Russia: Lyubimov is in a coma

The legendary director Yuri Lyubimov turned 95 a month ago and was working on a new Bolshoi production of Prince Igor.

The Independent

(Written on November 2, 2012 )

Gramophone

(Written on October 30, 2012 )

Gramophone

(Written on October 25, 2012 )

Classic FM 

Esa-Pekka Salonen carries Olympic torch

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen swaps his baton for the Olympic torch.

Katherine Jenkins is Team GB Ambassador

Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins cheers on the UK athletes.

Bach Flashmob stuns Californian plaza 

Musicians from the Carmel Bach Festival perform Bach Flashmob to the shock of crowds of shoppers.

Arts Journal- Slipped Disc

Just in: London Orchestra surrenders player control 

The London Philharmonic has appointed a new chair who is not a player.

Solti’s concertmaster is no more 

Victor Aitay dies at age 91.

BBC Music Magazine- Blog

Solti Accademia 

Helen Wallace joins students of the prestigious summer school conceived by Georg Solti.

Gramophone Blog

Filming Barenboim and the Beethoven Symphonies 

Michael Waldman gives an account of following Daniel Barenboim and the West- Eastern Divan Orchestra on their tour of China and South Korea and the performance of the Nine Beethoven Symphonies.

Gramophone 

Winner of the inaugural Delius Composition Prize announced  

US Composer Michael Djupstrom’s piece Walimai wins Delius Composition prize.

(Written on July 26, 2012 )

Classic FM 

Joseph Calleja on tackling Mario Lanza

Maltese Tenor Joseph Calleja talks to Classic FM about his new tribute album to Mario Lanza.

New Classical App makes music theory fun 

‘Singsmash’ a new app for iPhone and iPad promises to make learning scales and music theory fun for musicians.

Arts Journal- Slipped Disc 

A public protest at Katherine Jenkins

‘Real’ Opera Singer Donal Byrne protests after BBC Television introduces Katherine Jenkins as ‘the opera singer’ on breakfast television.

Sad News: A trail- blazing horn is gone, too soon

Mary Knepper, an American horn player in the English Chamber Orchestra has died at the age of 63.

Dallas plucks its new boss from the boondocks

Jonathan Martin is announced as the new president of Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Gramophone Blog 

The Great and the Good 

Mark Wigglesworth discusses if it is possible to define truly great performances from merely very good ones.

FT Music

‘You have to be strong’ 

Conductor Marin Alsop shares how she is trying to help women make it to the top in a male-dominated profession.

The Guardian 

How we made: Franco Zeffirelli and John Tooley on Tosca (1964)

The director and assistant general administrator of the 1964 production of Tosca in which Maria Callas and Renato Cioni starred talk to The Guardian’s Anna Tims.

(Written on July 24, 2012 )

The Guardian

Portrait Of The Artist: James MacMillan

‘My high point? Writing a piece for Celtic FC: my heart filled with pride’.

Schubert: Ferocious, Tender, Sublime

Schubert’s short, prolific career changed history. As Radio 3 devotes a season to him, musicians and artists reveal the one work they can’t live without.

The Rest Is Noise

The Real Mitt Romney

A Presidential election year is again upon us, bringing with it more politically inflected speech-music videos.

BBC Music Magazine

English National Opera Dominates Opera Categories At The Oliver Awards

Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage also nominated for his opera Anna Nicole at the Royal Opera House

Gramophone

Classical Music Gets A Raw Deal At South By Southwest

The music festival in Austin, Texas, hosts its third nonclassical record label night – with mixed results.

BBC Four To Broadcast Angelic Voices

Documentary examining the lives of Salisbury Cathedral choristers.

Composer Heiner Goebbels Receives 2012 Ibsen Award

Goebbels will speak at Birmingham’s Frontiers + festival.

LA Times

Esa-Pekka Salonen To Carry Olympic Torch For London Games

Esa-Pekka Salonen is pretty good at wielding a conductor’s baton, but how will he fare wielding an Olympic torch?

The 100 Cellos Of The Piatigorsky International Cello Festival

There goes the Disney Hall stage.

Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music Blog

Everyone’s Going To…Classical:NEXT

It’s the big news in the classical music world: a new trade fair for the industry, to be held at the Gasteig in Munich at the end of May, organised by the same team that does WOMEX.

The Telegraph

Katherine Jenkins Hasn’t Got The Voice Or Technique To Sing Opera – So Why Does She Pretend She Can?

Is it not ironic that the woman complaining in the tabloid press about being bullied via a fake Twitter account is, when all is said and done, essentially faking the art of singing opera? Steve Silverman writes

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stevesilverman/100061641/katherine-jenkins-hasnt-got-the-voice-or-the-technique-to-sing-opera-so-why-does-she-pretend-that-she-can/

(Written on March 21, 2012 )

The Telegraph 

English National Opera faces protest over ‘pro-terrorist’ hijacking opera 

It is one of the most controversial musical works ever written, described by critics as “anti-Semitic” and “romanticising terrorism”.

Mackenzie Crook takes on orchestral role

Actor Mackenzie Crook will narrate the Prokofiev children’s classic Peter And The Wolf with the Aurora Orchestra.

Katherine Jenkins to omit Gethin Jones from memoirs

Katherine Jenkins, the Classical singer, reveals she has no intention of giving her former fiancé Gethin Jones a mention in her memoirs.

Conducting with kisses and fluttering eyelashes

What the orchestra sees, or ‘The Dancing Conductor’.

Gramophone 

Sir Mark Elder on his Gramophone Hall of Fame choices

There’s still time – just! – to cast your own votes

The Guardian

String quartets: ’til death us do part?

Many of the most successful string quartets play together with the same lineup for decades. But what happens when one of the four moves on?

BBC to screen Joyce Hatto biopic penned by Victoria Wood

British pianist had dozens of recordings by other artists passed off as her own by husband William Barrington-Coupe

Elizabeth Connell obituary

South African born dramatic soprano hugely popular with audiences worldwide

FT 

Instruments of change 

Aurora Orchestra’s daring cross-arts programme takes classical music out of its comfort zone

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/89d2d458-564c-11e1-8dfa-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1muqCgSzB

(Written on February 20, 2012 )

The Times

LSO/Järvi at Barbican

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/classical/article3197065.ece

Steve Reich, appeared for his 75^th-birthday concert with the London symphony orchestra, was the highlight of the show.

BBC News

Italian Conducter Muti receives $1 million prize

Italian conductor Riccardo Muti has collected the $1 million Brigit Nilsson Prize- the biggest prize in classical music.

The guardian

Katherine Jenkins: Confessions of a choirgirl

Katherine Jenkins is glad her squeaky-clean image is behind her. The singer talks about drugs, classical snobbery-and why she dreams of singing Carmen.

The Independent

Don Pasquale, Glyndebourne, East Sussex Abbado/Uchida, Royal Festival Hall, London.

Only dynamic Bruckner and joyous Schumann in expert hands can match a Donizetti sparkler.

The Telegraph

Steve Reich at 75, London symphony orchestra, Barbican.

The London Symphony Orchestra’s 75^th Birthday tribute to Steve Reich was a lavish affair, writes Ivan Hewett.

(Written on October 19, 2011 )