Patricia Kopatchinskaja on new music and innovation

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

By Mark Pullinger, 08 March 2018

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“it’s sometimes difficult to resist the urge to tickle or provoke”

Lawrence Dunn, 1st May

Brett Dean, Heather Betts and Lotte Betts-Dean sit down to discuss their work on Of One Blood, a new opera dramatising the lives of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots – affairs of the family all round.

The giving of gifts: Pierre-Laurent Aimard on György Kurtág

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, 16th February

As the idiosyncratic, laconic Hungarian composer approaches his 100th birthday, we talk to Pierre-Laurent Aimard about his decades-long relationship with György Kurtág, on his unique playfulness and gift-giving.

Dinosaurs of the Baroque: discovering Les Dinos et l’Arche

Lawrence Dunn, 2nd January

Thomas Leininger’s Baroque-inspired children’s opera at Geneva’s La Cité Bleue is a unique stylistic departure, which asks the essential question: what happened to the dinosaurs left off Noah’s Ark?

A political composer? John Adams revisits Nixon in China

Thomas May, 30th September

Returning to conduct Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia this November, John Adams reflects on the situation of music in the US – and why he has so often been labelled a ‘political’ composer.

Opera premieres 2025–26: visions and fairy tales

Bachtrack, 1st September

Contemporary music theatre seems to be in a state of rude health, and we preview several new stage works soon to hit the boards this coming season at venues and opera houses around the world.

Lightness and connection: the music of Jo Kondo

Tim Rutherford-Johnson, 29th July

The enigmatic Japanese composer, recently awarded the 55th Suntory Music Award, talks about his uniquely intuitive compositional style.

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.

“There are rewards in taking risks”: Patricia Kopatchinskaja on new music and innovation