Articles

Her Natural Self: Miah Persson [Royal Opera’s Don Giovanni: 10 September-4 October]
The Swedish soprano who appears in the production of Don Giovanni, which opens the new season at Covent Garden, talks to Mansel Stimpson… Many of us can point to some...
Slaves Don’t Choose Their Own Music
Of all the side-effects of central funding, the most dismal is its failure to cope with the multiple strands of human endeavour that emerge from nowhere, enjoy their time in...
Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony: Andante–Scherzo or Scherzo–Andante?
Musicologists love an argument. Perhaps it gives some purpose to their lives, but a great deal of energy is expounded in setting out, or defending, an aspect of music around...
Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise – An Interview with Ingo Metzmacher [BBC Proms 7 September 2008]
A principal theme of BBC Proms 2008 is the music of Olivier Messiaen in the centenary his birth, The eighteen performances incorporated within the festival range from compressed works such...
We’re off to see the Wizard… [The Wizard of Oz – Royal Festival Hall 23 July – 31 August]
For its summer show, the Southbank Centre transforms the Royal Festival Hall into the Emerald City to present a new stage version of the classic film and perennial favourite, The...
East Side – West Side: The Story of a Musical [West Side Story at Sadler’s Wells 22 July-31 August]
As the 50th-anniversary production of West Side Story prepares to open at Sadler’s Wells, Michael Darvell traces the history of this eternally popular musical… When West Side Story opened at...
An Interview with Simon Preston [Bach Day BBC Proms 24 August 2008]
When considering English organists from the second half of the last century, no conversation can realistically be held without mention at least of Simon Preston. This interview took place midway...
Progressions: An Interview with Gwilym Simcock [BBC Proms 9 August 2008]
By his own admission, Gwilym Simcock sits at the meeting point of classical and jazz music – wherever the listener perceives that to be. As if to stress that fact...
An Interview with Lorin Maazel – Conducting, Composing … Casablanca!
On the eve of his final season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel brings this eminent Orchestra to BBC Proms 2008 for two concerts. The 2008-09...
He Who Is Dared Wins: Jacques Imbrailo [Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Concert, 20 July at The Royal Opera]
As the South African baritone ends his two-year period as one of Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists he prepares for its end-of-season concert and talks to Mansel Stimpson about...
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