Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky: Master and Pupil

Vasily Petrenko

Vladimir Jurowski

Tamara Karsavina and Mikhail Fokine in The Firebird (1910)

By Mark Pullinger, 23 March 2021

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“Rimsky deserved the right to be radical... Stravinsky set out to be radical from the very beginning”

Peter Quantrill, 7th April

The Austrian conductor reflects on his seven year tenure with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, work and life, returning to old scores, and why a musical ensemble is like a giant human body.

The magical world of composers’ handwriting

Lawrence Dunn, 17th December

From Buxtehude, Bach and Handel, to contemporary composer Liza Lim, we take a tour of the myriad forms of composers’ handwriting and calligraphy – and how music makes itself on the page.

Classical composers with no ‘formal’ training

Danny Riley, 2nd October

A look at some major composers who did not receive any formal musical training and followed their own non-traditional paths into Western classical music.

Decoding Shostakovich and Prokofiev: Gianandrea Noseda

Roy Westbrook, 22nd July

The LSO’s Principal Guest Conductor talks about his passion for two titans of Russian and Soviet music – and how to decode Shostakovich’s more cryptic and troublesome symphonies.

Anarchy and utopia: Calixto Bieito on directing Mussorgsky

Richard Bratby, 24th February

The iconoclastic Spanish director talks about a new production of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina in Geneva – and the messy, anarchic, utopian struggle of directing opera.

Symphonic metamorphoses: Tokyo Philharmonic in 2025

Bachtrack, 15th January

With concerts featuring Myung-whun Chung at the piano, Pinchas Zukerman leading from the podium, and inventive programming from Chief Conductor Andrea Battistoni, the Tokyo Philharmonic’s 2025 season straddles many divides.

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.