A slave no more

The BBC Proms changed the face of classical music when ‘the people’s festival’ was launched in 1895. The perennially popular event features some of the nation’s favourite tunes from composers inspired by the countryside of the British Isles. Here Kitty Corrigan selects her top ten

What did he think he was doing? The dazzling keyboard virtuoso Franz Liszt, toast of musical Europe, embarking on first one, then another, energy-sapping concert tour across swathes of Britain in 1840

‘I’ve never been a particularly esoteric person,’ Nicola Benedetti tells me as we sit down to talk following the press launch of her third Edinburgh Festival. And yet, as she explains the theme of thi

shouting forever into the receiver Anne Denholm (harp), Louise McMonagle (cello), Jonathan Morton (violin) et al NMC NMC D285 61:56 mins Tackling social themes and reckoning with history is part of wh

The Critic Books

Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’; Souvenir de Florence Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Domingo Hindoyan Onyx ONYX4259 81:54 mins In 1890, Tchaikovsky returned home from a spell in Italy with the ske