How Elwes met Britten: ‘I was a bit of a thug, but I could sing’The tenor John Elwes met Benjamin Britten as a young chorister at Westminster Cathedral, the two sharing a penchant for schoolboy humourThu Nov 28 2013 - 01:00
Key players: a feast for piano fans in Lucerne and DublinIn a single week, it was possible to hear two Dublin International Piano Competition winners playing Chopin’s ‘Études’Wed Nov 27 2013 - 01:00
Bloch: Violin Sonata No 2; Janacek: Violin Sonata; Shostakovich: Violin SonataFri Nov 22 2013 - 00:00
John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony; Short Ride in a Fast Machine; HarmonielehreFri Nov 22 2013 - 00:00
Leif Ove Andsnes: ‘the greatest pianist in the world’ gets to know BeethovenThe great Norwegian pianist is focusing on Beethoven rather belatedly. ‘I haven’t been avoiding him,’ he saysThu Nov 21 2013 - 01:00
Fill the vacuum: concerts without context leave listeners none the wiserProgramme notes – or the lack thereof – at recent concerts have me lamenting sins of omissionWed Nov 20 2013 - 01:00
No excuses for Music Network grants debacleWhy has Music Network allowed applicants for grants it is overseeing to sit on its judging panel?Tue Nov 12 2013 - 18:48
Kaija Saariaho: the Finnish composer who lets others play with her workThe composer’s attitude to combining her ballet, which is coming to Dublin, with a video she hasn’t seen was ‘why not?’Fri Nov 08 2013 - 01:00
When composers talk about music, it’s well worth listeningPresentations by composers help to normalise what can often seem like the arcane world of new musicWed Nov 06 2013 - 01:00
Prokofiev: Complete Works for Violin James Ehnes (violin), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda, Andrew Armstrong (piano)Fri Nov 01 2013 - 00:00
Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No 2 Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir JurowskiFri Nov 01 2013 - 00:00
Mahler’s masterpiece finally gets the reception it deservesHis First Symphony felt alien to 19th-century listeners, but Saturday’s audience lapped it upWed Oct 30 2013 - 01:00
Thérèse/La NavarraiseWexford Festival Opera’s love affair with Massenet continuesFri Oct 25 2013 - 15:40
Il cappello di paglia di FirenzeThis new production of Nino Rota’s farce won’t sit still for a momentThu Oct 24 2013 - 15:30
Marin Alsop: a conductor with a beat that musicians want to play forAhead of her performance in Dublin on Saturday, the conductor tells how she was inspired by Leonard BernsteinThu Oct 24 2013 - 01:00
Premature concert clappers: let’s give them all a round of applauseThere’s not much point in frowning on ‘ill-timed’ applause. What’s unusual today used to be the normWed Oct 23 2013 - 01:00
The way to Wexford: a strange beauty behind the scenes at the operaAttending rehearsals of a Massenet double bill ahead of the Wexford Festival Opera was a deja vu experienceWed Oct 16 2013 - 01:00
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in D Minor; Concerto in D Minor for Violin and PianoFri Sept 20 2013 - 00:00
One small step for man, one giant leap of a musical kindHow to soundtrack Felix Baumgartner’s extraordinary near-space skydive? Ed Bennett has an explosive ideaWed Sept 18 2013 - 01:00
Raymond Deane’s new opera is based on an artist who had a life-like doll made of his former loverWhen Alma Mahler, the widow of composer Gustav Mahler, broke up with the artist Oskar Kokoschka, he made an anatomically accurate doll of her, and that's inspired Raymond Deane's third operaMon Sept 16 2013 - 01:00
