The unlikely friendship between French and English composers Maurice Ravel and Ralph Vaughan Williams has inspired a tender and generous novelIn 1907, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams confided to the critic Edwin Evans that he...
Read MoreHow does it feel to be locked into a venue notorious for its unpadded seating to experience a full-throttle Ring cycle and more? Our critic found out at the 150th anniversary of the mighty Bayreuth festivalLiszt and Bruckner...
Read MoreWe go behind the scenes at rehearsals for William Kentridge’s new staging of Monteverdi’s 1607 opera l’Orfeo‘L’Orfeo is an opera about opera. It’s an opera about the power of music. It’s about the power of art to construct the...
Read MoreAs she prepares to mark 70 with a birthday concert, the musician talks about her destructive mindset – and the steps she took to finally make sense of her life and music’s part in itIt was 2023. The holiday of a lifetime, in...
Read MorePlaying a piano tuner with super sensitive hearing, Woodall’s relationship with Hoffman is a tender highlight in this unforced crime dramaLeo Woodall’s breakout TV roles in The White Lotus and One Day offered a megawatt...
Read MoreAfter years of upheaval, English National Opera is staging its first new opera in its northern base: the Pulitzer-winning Angel’s Bone, about two angels brutally exploited by human traffickers. We talk to its creatorsI’m peering...
Read MoreBlending minimalism, ambient and folk music in the former Czechoslovakia, the couple made pilgrim-like tours around Europe, beguiling everyone they met. Fans including the National’s Bryce Dessner explain their allureThe Czech...
Read MoreFrom soundtracking the silent era, via 50s rock’n’roll and the ‘symphonic pop’ of Henry Mancini to iconic works by John Williams and Hans Zimmer, movies are unimaginable without music. Ahead of the London soundtrack festival its...
Read MoreBudgets have been slashed, morale is through the floor and the company has been forced to find a second base in Manchester. But the new musical director is up for a challenge. We meet the man with the hardest job in musicAndré...
Read MoreCarey was the big draw at Milan’s San Siro, but she was outweighed by pop-classical artists – and a sizeable dollop of kitschThe Winter Oympics opening ceremony arrived shrouded in mystery. There wasn’t a lot of advance...
Read MoreRaye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and the classical world gears up to celebrate Hungarian composer György Kurtág at 100• More from the 2026 culture previewSeventeen years on from the...
Read MoreLebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with mournful minimalism, Mohinder Kaur Bhamra’s 1982 album of Punjabi disco makes a comeback and Guatemalan duo Titanic serve up ecstatic tracks• The 50 best albums of 2025•...
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