Skip to main contentSkip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Newsletters
Sign in
  • Paraorchestra, Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, 27th Sept 2026

    Tom Service on music
    double quotation markOnly connect: two composers who put humans at the heart of their music, and the conductor who didn’t

    Tom Service
    This week, from Reich to Kendall and Celibidache, three musicians who prove there is no such thing as “pure music”, whether we’re talking about a technique, a mode of musical expression or a musician’s legacy.
  • Choristers in white robes holding lit candles sing inside St Paul's Cathedral

    double quotation markAbide with me: English choral music is a living part of our cultural heritage – we should cherish it

    Jonathan Davies
  • Celibidache, Sergiu, 28.6.1912 - 14.8.1996, Romanian conductor, half length, conducting, circa 1982,BHDA06 Celibidache, Sergiu, 28.6.1912 - 14.8.1996, Romanian conductor, half length, conducting, circa 1982, Sergiu Celibidache

    Film
    Celibidache was a musical visionary, an uncompromising perfectionist – and my father

  • Anne-Catherine Gillet, Valerie Eickhoff and Alistair McGowan in Barkouf.

    Review
    Barkouf – Offenbach’s lost operetta is a quirky shaggy dog story

  • In Parsifal, a dishevelled, barefoot man cries out atop a mechanical stage structure as hooded figures watch

    Review
    Parsifal – bunkers, CCTV and fembots in elusive vision of Wagner’s mystical masterpiece

  • Classical singer Beth Taylor smiles softly with arms crossed, against a green backdrop

    Album review
    Beth Taylor: The Deeps Have Music – seamless legato and a gift for storytelling

  • Geneva Lewis plays the violin, eyes closed, against a plain backdrop

    Album review
    Geneva Lewis: Barber, Zorn, Glass – virtuosity and warmth

  • A conductor plays violin energetically while leading the Scottish Ensemble and singers on stage

    Scottish Ensemble review – singular sounds from an ever-adventurous string orchestra

  • Paraorchestra performance: two dancers move on a wooden floor as a seated crowd watches under stage lights

    Paraorchestra; Sinfonietta/Jonny Greenwood review – Reich’s kaleidoscopic music bursts into life

  • Conductor Edward Gardner raises a baton, leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra

    LPO/Edward Gardner review – Britten’s pacifist War Requiem lands with a bitterness and snarling irony

  • Aerial view of Hallé orchestra performing, with musicians and percussion arranged in sections

    Hallé/Wong review – MacMillan’s new symphony centres a great concert hall’s birthday celebrations

  • The Frankfurt Radio Symphony stand, each with their instrument, in a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows

    Shostakovich Symphony No 8 album review – composer’s cry of despair in a remarkable and resonant new recording

  • Susan Tomes, a woman with short grey hair and wearing a purple shirt, sits at a grand piano and smiles at the camera

    Women and the Piano album review – Tomes brings her poetic instincts to a rewarding compilation

  • Sébastien Dutrieux, Audrey Bonnet and Lukáš Vasilek pose together for a portrait

    Honegger: Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher album review – faultless recording of an eclectic masterpiece

  • Himari Yoshimura smiles gently while holding a violin close to her face

    Himari: Debut album review – teenage prodigy’s playing has depth and feeling

People

  • Composer Steve Reich, wearing glasses and a black cap, stands before bookshelves

    Interview
    ‘Good music is good music, and most music is not!’ As he hits 90, master minimalist Steve Reich looks back

  • Bruno Schrecker playing the cello

    Obituary
    Bruno Schrecker

  • Wynton Marsalis in a navy suit holds a trumpet while looking at the camera against a grey background

    Interview
    ‘Trumpeters? We think we’re the kings of the orchestra’: Wynton Marsalis prepares to blow the Edinburgh festival away

  • Benjamin Britten with raised baton stands before an orchestra and choir in a brick concert hall

    Philippe Sands
    The experience that coloured everything Britten went on to write

You may have missed

  • Emily D'Angelo (Ruggiero), left, photographed from the wings during rehearsals for Alcina by Handel @ Royal Opera House. A Royal Ballet and Opera production. Directed by Richard Jones. Designed by Antony McDonald. (Opening 15-09-26) ©Tristram Kenton 09-2026

    In pictures
    The lion, the witch and the warblers: behind the scenes of Handel’s Alcina at the RBO

    Gallery19
  • Stephen Hough sits at a grand piano with sheet music open in his studio

    Dazzling, delightful – and unfairly dismissed: Stephen Hough on the art of the transcription

  • Cheung stands in front of an unseen orchestra with crowd applauding behind him as he indicates to the orchestra to stand for applause

    double quotation markShould a tech tycoon be able to pay his way into conducting a world-class orchestra? And should they really sell tickets?

    Tom Service

Most viewed