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Classical music & opera

  • Fooled … Haydn scholar, HC Robbins Landon with the fake sonatas he verified.

    What are you Haydn? The hoaxers who fooled the classical music world

  • Linda Richardson and Carolyn Dobbin in Verdi’s Falstaff at Opera Holland Park in 2012.

    ‘A shot of adrenaline for tired ears’: our writers on the music that energises them

    On the day that Radio 3 launches Unwind, a station dedicated to calming and restorative music, we choose instead the pieces we go to to excite, motivate and thrill us
  • Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott at the Barbican, London.

    Review
    Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott – an exuberant final hurrah

    With Stott announcing her retirement as a concert pianist, there was some sadness at the ending of a 40-year-old musical partnership. But their playing was exquisite
  • Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

    Review
    Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson – an unforgettable night with two star pianists

  • Royal Opera House/Richard Wagner/Das Rheingold/11.09.2023/Conductor:Antonio Pappano/Director:Barrie Kosky/Set Designer:Rufus Didwiszus/Costume Designer:Victoria Behr/Lighting Designer:Alessandro Carletti//Wotan:Christopher Maltman, Alberich:Christopher Purves, Loge:Sean Panikkar, Fricka:Marina Prudenskaya, Freia:Kiandra Howarth, Voice of Erda:Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Donner:Kostas Smoriginas, Froh:Rodrick Dixon, Mime: Brenton Ryan, Fasolt:Insung Sim, Fafner:Soloman Howard, Woglinde:Katharina Konradi, Wellgunde:Niamh O'Sullivan, Flosshilde:Marvic Monreal, Erda:Rose Knox-Peebles// Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

    Groping, greed and the lust for great power: what Wagner’s Ring Cycle tells us about Trump v Harris

  • A tour guide sheltering with umbrellas adorned with Frederic Chopin’s image in Warsaw, Poland

    News
    Unknown waltz by Chopin found in library vault after nearly 200 years

  • Gabriel Prokofiev performing -Dark Lights onClassical: 20th birthday celebration LSO at Hackney Empire In Hackney, London 26/10/24 Photographer Sonja Horsman

    Review
    Nonclassical at 20 review – synths, screams and bubble wrap as record label celebrates with the LSO

Live reviews

  • The Monster in the Maze at the Crucible, Sheffield.

    The week in classical: The Monster in the Maze; Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson; Rigoletto – review

  • Impressive debut … Olga Pudova as Olympia (right), in The Tales of Hoffmann at the Royal Opera House, London.

    The Tales of Hoffmann review – fun, carnivalesque staging goes to the dark side

  • The OAE performing the Brandenburg Concertos at Bridgewater Hall earlier this week.

    The Brandenburg Concertos on tour review – OAE and Bach lift the spirits

  • Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

    LPO/Gardner/Ólafsson review – fierce Brahms and a rich Waley-Cohen premiere

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Album reviews

  • Rachel Farago

    Distant Voices, New Worlds review – avant-garde vision of Albion by bright British composers

  • Lucie Horsch.

    The Frans Brüggen Project album review – Horsch’s fascinating recorder review

  • Alexandre Kantorow.

    Brahms: Piano Sonata No 1; Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy, D760 album review – beautifully shaped works and a bravura performance

  • Siri Karoline Thornhill is Sāvitri

    Holst: Sāvitri album review – underrated jewel of 20th-century British music

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

People

  • ‘Creating a kind of magic’ … BBC Young Musician 2024 winner Ryan Wang.

    News
    BBC Young Musician competition crowns pianist Ryan Wang

  • Roderick Williams sitting on a bench.

    Q&A
    Baritone Roderick Williams: ‘I once heard a singer at a party say: “No peanuts. I’m singing in three days!”’

  • Jakub Jozef Orlinski at Warner Music Uk, South Kensington, London, for Q&A New Review, 26/06/2024. Sophia Evans for The Observer

    Q&A
    Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński: ‘Breakdancing feeds into my performances – music dictates the way you move on stage’

  • Roger Wright, CEO of Britten Pears Arts

    ‘I’ve always been a glass half full person’
    Aldeburgh festival’s outgoing CEO Roger Wright

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

You may have missed

  • Antonio Vivaldi.

    Feature
    Vivaldi taught Venetian orphan girls – did they help write his music in return?

  • People seemed to be conscious, judging from strawberries consumed … Glastonbury 2024.

    Radio 3's Georgia Mann
    I’ll take your brain to another dimension … my classical DJ set at Glastonbury

  • Backstage during dress rehearsals

    The Guardian picture essay
    Love, laughs and lavish designs: The Merry Widow at Glyndebourne

  • ‘Our first time’ … Gemma New will conduct the world premiere of City of Floating Sounds.

    In the key of 5G
    The ‘dimensionalist’ who wrote a symphony for 1,000 phones

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

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