It was Richard Hickox who, with a characteristically ebullient phone call in 2008, just three days before his untimely death, commissioned Colin Matthews's latest piece from him... more
For the first time in 100 years, the French capital is attracting the best conductors and most exciting talents and threatens to rival London’s music scene...... more
English National Opera's first ever staging of Britten's last opera, Death in Venice, is a typically thoughtful treatment by Deborah Warner and exquisitely designed by Tom Pye.... more
Thomas Adès's first full-scale opera, The Tempest, returns to Covent Garden as an assured, fully matured work with many of the reservations evident on first hearing banished.... more
Ian Bostridge, a late replacement for the indisposed Philip Langridge, offered an intense account of some Schubert songs, says Barry Millington. ... more
In recital, Ian Bostridge expects his pianists to express themselves as forcefully as he does. Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, knows a thing or two about singers and vocal drama.... more
Christina Aguilera goes Back to Basics with her latest album, Lambchop's Kurt Wagner is on verbose, melancholy form and jazz diva Etta Jones' has been remastered by Rudy Van Gelder... more