classical music & opera
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BBCSO/Davis – vivid depictions of natural illusionsAnthony Payne’s 80th birthday commission is a substantial, beautifully crafted symphonic poem and choral work in the tradition of Bax and Bridge -
'I'm against music being handed down from on high'No vibrato, principal violinists facing each other, audiences encouraged to applaud between movements … the great conductor celebrates the unorthodox at the Proms this week
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LPO/Jurowski – lush Lindberg partners BeethovenVladimir Jurowski oversaw a cerebral performance of the Ninth symphony, after the debut of Magnus Lindberg’s prequel Two Episodes -
Thomas Adès on his new never-ending operaThe Exterminating Angel is a surreal classic about the dinner party from hell. Now Thomas Adès has turned Buñuel’s film into an opera stuffed with stars – and live sheep
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'One is glad to have his exquisite art as part of the world’s music'From the classical archive, 22 October 1928: a review of a performance in London by the composer and pianist who ‘transcends his limitations’
facing the music
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Violinist Pekka KuusistoThe Finnish musician on formative Eurovision experiences, wanting to play the ondes Martenot with Radiohead, and his plans to flood London with polka
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Paul Appleby: 'I stood in Piazza Navona and busked a few songs'The US tenor, singing Bénédict at Glyndebourne, loves Berlioz, Bob Dylan and William Balcom, warms up with Radiohead and works a room with Otis Redding
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Alberto Ginastera’s Spanish connectionArtists around the world have been seduced by the Alhambra. In the centenary year of Alberto Ginastera’s birth, Juanjo Mena explores the composer’s Andalucían influences
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Composers seek a new definition of greatness in a digital ageAs a champion of new music, Susanna Eastburn takes exception to the claim that the age of great composers is dead. Instead, we must open our ears to more diverse, shape-shifting and connected times
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you may have missed
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David Lang: anthems for doomed youthFrom writing the ultimate tearjerker for Paolo Sorrentino to commemorating the bloodiest day in British military history, David Lang takes it all in his stride. He tells Kate Molleson about the power of repetition and his mechanised co-writer
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Philip Glass on David Bowie: 'He was a master unto himself'In a spectacular tribute to David Bowie, the US composer’s Heroes symphony is being performed at midnight on Saturday at Glastonbury’s Park stage. Ahead of the set, he discusses his longstanding friendship with the late musician
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This is the 1.17 to nirvana: how a Yorkshire commute became a work of artBouquets beneath the Humber bridge, the mayor of Gibraltar in his trunks, windfarms and mudflats … the train ride from Goole to Hull has become a symphony of stories
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Patricia Kopatchinskaja in praise of minimalism – less is much, much moreMinimalist music is far from a modern invention. The violinist picks her favourite works that prove that you can get something out of nothing
guides
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Tom Service's survey of the 50 symphonies that changed musical historyTom Service's survey of the 50 symphonies that changed classical music
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A guide to contemporary classical musicTom Service introduces 50 composers from the contemporary classical music scene
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Album of the week Kodály: Duo; Ravel: Sonata, etc – brilliant string duos from Fischer and Müller-Schott