Grant Llewellyn with harp and kora in Liverpool

Grant Llewellyn celebrates the soundworlds of the harp and the kora with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and two great soloists, his compatriot the harpist Catrin Finch and the Senegalese master of the kora Seckou Keita.  The concert features newly scored arrangements of pieces from Catrin and Seckou’s two albums Clychau Dibon (2013) and SOARRead more ›

Benjamin debuts in Toulouse

Benjamin Grosvenor made his long-anticipated debut with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse last weekend to the delight of audiences there. He performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Cornelius Meister followed by a thrilling encore of Liszt’s Gnomenreigen. You can watch the performance in full for the next 45 days here.Read more ›

Viviane Hagner in Prague

Viviane Hagner joins Karl-Heinz Steffens and the Orchestra of the Prague State Opera for a Gala concert for the survivors of Nazi persecution.  Entitled As If It All Happened Yesterday, the concert forms part of Steffens’ continuing Musica Non Grata series and features works by Pavel Haas and Viktor Ullmann as well as the Mendelssohn’sRead more ›

Sensational Schumann at the Wigmore Hall

Benjamin Grosvenor and Hyeyoon Park concluded their European Tour with fellow Quartet members Timothy Ridout and Kian Soltani to a packed Wigmore Hall on Saturday evening. Fresh from two back-to-back performances at the Concertgebouw, the Quartet also performed the same programme in Madrid, Hohenmens, Trento, Turin and Gent before giving a finale performance in London’sRead more ›

Laura van der Heijden signs exclusive contract with Chandos Records

The BBC Young Musician winner’s first release for the label explores the rich folk melodies of Kodály, Dvořák and Janáček, together with pianist Jâms Coleman (due for release February 2022). Laura van der Heijden comments: “I am so excited to be joining such a wonderful roster of artists at Chandos. It is an honour toRead more ›

Steffens’ Zemlinsky 150 Festival in Prague

Karl-Heinz Steffens embarks upon a weekend of performances in Prague to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Alexander Zemlinsky’s birth; these concerts form part of the Musica Non Grata series that he has initiated in his post of Music Director at the Prague State Opera.   In addition to well-known works such as the Lyric Symphony,Read more ›

The Tallis Scholars win Gramophone Award

Marking the end of a 34 -year journey, The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips receive this year’s Early Music Award for their ninth and final volume of Josquin Masses. Beginning in 1987 when their album of the Pange lingua and La sol fa re mi Masses was voted Gramophone’s ‘Recording of the Year’, they areRead more ›

New release: Francesca Dego

Francesca Dego’s new release on CHANDOS of the first volume of Mozart Violin Concerti has been widely praised for its fresh approach and first-class musicianship. Recorded with Sir Roger Norrington and the RSNO, Francesca’s latest disc recently received a glowing four star review in The Times: “For singing beauties of an instrumental kind, look noRead more ›

Llewellyn: Beethoven Celtique in Brittany

Grant Llewellyn, together with his compatriot Bryn Terfel and the Galician multi-instrumentalist Carlos Nunez, opens the season with the Orchestre National de Bretagne this week with a typically enterprising programme entitled Beethoven Celtique. The movements of Beethoven Symphony no.7 will be interspersed by a number of Beethoven’s Irish, Scottish and Welsh songs which have beenRead more ›

Karl-Heinz Steffens season opening in Norrkӧping

This week Karl-Heinz Steffens embarks upon his 2nd season as Music Director of the Norrkӧping Symphony Orchestra. The concerts include Sibelius’ atmospheric Oceanides and Symphony no.2; to complete the programme, the American violinist Esther Yoo joins them to perform Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto. Details HERE.