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The classical music website

Opera's current power couple carry off with excellence a mixed programme of opera in an outstandingly beautiful outdoor location.

Gidon Kremer and András Keller take their longstanding friendship to a new level as they join the ensembles they respectively lead -- Kremerata Baltica and Concerto Budapest -- into a dream orchestra for a tour of Asia. Where politics is floundering, could music show the way towards the benefits of international cooperation?

Aleksandra Kurzak tells us about making ten role debuts in a year as her voice shifts from bel canto to the dramatic repertoire she has been dreaming about since childhood.

Winner of the 2016 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Nikita Mndoyants spoke enthusiastically on his musical development, influences, and experiences in advance of his upcoming Carnegie Hall debut.

As part of our film and game music month, we go deep into the work of Joe Hisaishi, the composer behind Studio Ghibli's best-loved scores.

Franz Waxman is known for his film scores, yet he also composed classical music. In the year of the 50th anniversary of his death, we look back on his work.

A brief examination of the partly forgotten musical seeds that led to Williams’ distinctive cinematic soundworld

In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the RSNO is bringing swathes of new audience into the concert hall to hear a live orchestra for the first time. 

Christopher Tin has worked in a whole range of fields, producing works that span film, video games and epic song cycles. Just don't call him a “video game composer”.

Assassin's Creed takes us to the Borgias' Florence and we stroll along streets and palaces, churches and galleries, with such detail that it seems we are, in fact, in the city. Accompanied by the music that Jesper Kyd brilliantly composed to the saga, we take part in a plot of revenge and disloyalty.

A brief chat with Ennio Morricone – one of the most ground-breaking and prolific film composers alive – and an introduction to his music.

Italy has such an abundance of la dolce vita musicale it can be overwhelming, especially in the long, languid summer months when music-lovers, culture-cognoscenti and garrulous gourmands alike can savour the best of what this extraordinary country has to offer.

In July and August, Parisians flee the city to the provinces, where stunning landscapes and hundreds of music festivals await them. We explore the rich diversity.

Opera with the stars or under the stars? Country house picnics or rare repertoire in smaller venues? Our 2017 opera festivals guide has something for everyone!

Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, Artistic Director of BRQ Vantaa Festival, gives us a taste of the 2017 Festival; David gives you a taste of travelling to Vantaa and Helsinki.

This year's festival opens with the most lavish work of an exceptionally important composer. So why has it languished unperformed for so long?

Now in its 45th year, the Istanbul Music Festival embraces and celebrates an extraordinary city, bringing together Turkey’s musical heritage with music from around the world.

Michael Chance tells us about planned improvements to the festival-going experience and tells us about the operas that will form part of the new festival.

Summer sends audiences scurrying all over Europe for their operatic fix. Glyndebourne and a whole host of imitators dominate the English country house scene, or you may head for Savonlinna’s Finnish castle, or the glitz and glamour of Salzburg. But one destination in South France draws the connoisseurs: Aix-en-Provence.

Four of the world's great orchestras are all set to celebrate cornerstones of their repertoire in the fabled acoustic of the recently renovated Suntory Hall.

Read our wide-ranging interview about Monteverdi's operas, their cultural context, performing them today and why they remain as contemporary and fresh as when they were written four centuries ago.

The prolific recording artist and founder of Concerto Italiano answers our questions about Monteverdi and other music of the period.

Whether you're looking for Handel, Bach, Monteverdi, Telemann or mix of all of these; whether you like your Baroque music in a grand palace, an intimate chapel or a state-of-the-art concert hall, our 2017 roundup has something for you.

Following the example of Rebecca Lentjes’ January feature “Top Ten Living Women Composers”, I have made my pick of women composers of the Baroque period in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Feast your eyes on this marvellous collection of Europe's surviving baroque theatres.

Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais shot to international fame in 2010 in Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Bavarian State Opera. She talks to us having recently performed the role in Mary Zimmerman’s much anticipated new production at The Met.

Ahead of Vienna's première of Il trovatore, the tenor who crosses borders between France and Italy, opera and popular song, spoke to us about the roles of Manrico and Cyrano, being a gypsy, a hero, returning to Italy, about family and more.

The Australian Heldentenor shares his preparations for learning Tristan, his thoughts on opera productions and his passionate views about the current state of Opera Australia and ENO.

Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho is renowned for heartfelt performances as some of opera's most tortured soprano roles, especially Violetta in La traviata, the opera in which she sprang to fame in London when she jumped in for an indisposed Anna Netrebko. 

With two new role creations in progress, baritone Stéphane Degout will be back this summer to the Aix Festival for the world première of Pinocchio. He talks to us about the process of creating new opera roles.

For mezzo-sopranos, playing boys comes with the job. Kate Lindsey is no different, but it's the –very feminine – role of Dorabella we spend much time discussing. 

“Music is a multi-dimensional, dynamic process unfolding as a relationship between an individual or a group of individuals, and sound vibrations.

Taking time out from working on his new opera, Girls of the Golden West, which premières in San Francisco later this year, we spoke to John Adams about politics, Scheherazade.2 and where he sees the future for classical music.

The Holland Festival has always celebrated and promoted new work and takes its 70th anniversary to both look forward, with plenty of world premières, but also to reflect on its past. 

There are plenty of occasions to hear Beethoven's symphonies or Mozart's operas throughout the year. But what about the 21st century repertoire? Contemporary music lovers often find it hard to quench their thirst for new music. Thankfully, some festivals specialise in contemporary music, giving to everyone the opportunity to drink their fill.

Daniel Barenboim inaugurated last month the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin. The most interesting feature of the hall lies not in its flowing architecture, but rather in its name: the Pierre Boulez Saal. One year after the French composer death, what is his legacy?

According to online showcase/podcast Listening to Ladies, during the 2015–2016 season, the top 89 symphony orchestras in the US dedicated only 2% of their programs to music composed by women. 

During his five seasons at the helm, Jaap van Zweden has raised the Hong Kong Phil’s international profile, particularly through his ongoing Ring Cycle in concert which reaches its conclusion in the new season.