Classic FM

James Mottram International Piano Comp winners announced

Three pianists have been named as winners in the RNCM James Mottram International Piano Competition after a week of heats and concerts.

Jonathan Harvey dies aged 73

British composer Jonathan Harvey has died, it has been confirmed by his publisher. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease.

Classical Music Magazine

Lancaster University suspends music degree course

Lancaster University is planning to suspend its undergraduate music course for a year, following a drop in student applications.

Slipped Disc

Australian arts bow their heads as Rupert Murdoch’s mother dies

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch died today, aged 103.

One German household in three has a musical instrument in the living room

But many sit there idle and do not get played, according to a new survey.

New York Times

Met’s Technology to Get With the Program

The Met’s technology has fallen behind European opera houses, where many of the directors bringing new productions to New York are used to computerized controls that produce precise results for increasingly spectacular shows.

BBC News

National Youth Orchestra awarded Queen’s Medal for Music

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO) has been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Medal for Music at a London gala.

The Telegraph

The 19th century’s equivalent of Phantom of the Opera

It was once the biggest hit in town, but will Meyerbeer’s opera ‘Robert le Diable’ work for the Royal Opera, asks Rupert Christiansen

Evening Standard

Don’t cut the arts in schools

You have until Monday to take part in the Ebacc consultation — the exam threatens the creativity of our nation, says the Barbican’s Nicholas Kenyon

The New York Times

(Written on December 6, 2012 )

Gramophone

Covent Garden withdraws soprano three days before starring debut

Jennifer Rowley replaced by Patrizia Ciofi in Royal Opera’s new Robert le diable

Classic FM

Tine Thing Helseth announces new smartphone app

A new smartphone app from Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth has been announced, with Helseth playing a launch concert in New York.

The Guardian

Handel and me

Louis de Bernières on how finding a wooden flute in a car boot sale led to his new play about the composer’s life and works

Slipped Disc

Exclusive: top maestro warns of Asianisation and tabloidisation of classical music

Franz Welser-Möst, music director of the Vienna Opera and the Cleveland Orchestra, used the bicentennary of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde to deliver a reasoned, well-rounded and altogether scathing analysis of the state of classical music in 2012.

Franz Welser-Möst part 2: We must shun cultural ‘superiority’

Here’s the second part of FW-M’s keynote on the state of classical music 2012.

Classical Music Magazine

British Composer Awards announced

The British Composer Awards 2012 ceremony was held at the Goldsmith’s Hall in the City of London last night, with some familiar and some new names in among the winners.

Andrew Dixon stands down from Creative Scotland

Creative Scotland today announces that Andrew Dixon has taken the decision to stand down from the post of Chief Executive at Creative Scotland and make way for a new Chief Executive to lead the organisation through an important period of change.

The Telegraph

Dress up for the theatre – it’s a matter of good manners

Rupert Christiansen explains why he is broadly on Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani’s side over the question of Britain’s poorly-dressed theatre audiences.

LA Times

Carrie Underwood will play Maria in NBC’s ‘Sound of Music’ remake

If you’ve been wondering how Carrie Underwood looks in a nun’s habit, you’ll find out soon enough

The Guardian

(Written on December 4, 2012 )

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

Gramophone

BBC 4 explores the symphony

Four documentaries to be broadcast throughout November

The Times (£)

Joan of Arc at the Stake, at the Barbican, EC2

The conductor Marin Alsop has been unafraid to answer the obvious question about her weekend with the London Symphony Orchestra devoted to Joan of Arc. “Being a woman in a field typically without a lot of women I feel a connection,” she told The Times, a reminder that while Alsop has blazed a trail for woman conductors, a new generation has hardly rushed to follow.

The Telegraph

Kate Middleton and Prince Charles pay visits to the opera together

The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, has been making series of visits to the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden to watch ballet and opera productions with her father-in-law Prince Charles.

The Financial Times

Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, London

Infernal Dance”, the year-long survey of Bartók from Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra, left the best to last….

Classical Music Online

Dudamel and Bolivar Orchestra coming to Raploch for London 2012

Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra will take up a four-day residency at Sistema Scotland in Raploch, Stirling in June next year. The residency will culminate in an outdoor concert on 21 June, one of the opening events in the UK-wide London 2012 Festival for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.

(Written on November 7, 2011 )

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

The Telegraph

Die Schöne Müllerin/Christian Gerhaher, Wigmore Hall, review

Gerhaher’s presence on the platform is quiet and modest and by being the music’s servant, he also became its master.

 The Independent

How the Royal Opera House helped a suburb find its voice

Rob Sharp visits a community choir as it takes the stage at Covent Garden

Gramophone Magazine

Nikolai Lugansky signs to Naïve

Russian pianist begins deal with a Liszt recital

Jessica Duchen Blog Spot

Its Myra Hess Day

It’s wonderful when they name a day after your musical heroine and make it an annual event. Today at the National Gallery it is Myra Hess Day.

Norman Lebrecht Slipped Disk

Tubular Bells man has died

His biggest impact was with the Mike Oldfield album that launched the Virgin label in 1973.  David Bedford orchestrated and conducted the richer-sounding album that followed two years later.

 The Guardian

How the great symphonies became our soundtrack to a changing world

This autumn the BBC will present a landmark season of TV and radio programmes to show how music has provided a rousing accompaniment to the march of history for 250 years

(Written on October 4, 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

Cultural Exchange: The diplomatic view of classical music

US State Department cables released by WikiLeaks offer sometimes-vivid glimpses into cultural diplomacy involving musical performances abroad. By Marcia Adair.

Gramophone

The conductor Kurt Sanderling has died

Born September 19, 1912; September 17, 2011

BBC Proms celebrates ticket sales success

More than two-thirds of events sold out.

The Telegraph

Berlin Staatskapelle/Barenboim, Lucerne Festival, review

On its final weekend the Lucerne festival made an extravagant flourish with three concerts by Daniel Barenboim and his Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra. Ivan Hewett Reports.

Don Giovanni, WNO, Wales Millenium Centre, review

John Caird’s new production for Welsh National Opera seems devoid of any thoughtfulness at all, says Rupert Christiansen.

The Arts Desk

Faust, Royal Opera House

Simple but stunning McVicar production achieves a level of profundity that almost had reviewer Igor Toronyi-Lalic in tears.

(Written on September 19, 2011 )