Life at the front

Keep calm and carry on is Ukraine’s mantra this winter. The nation has been at war for nearly four years and its list of problems is growing almost as rapidly as its exhaustion, but people are determi

In the British Isles, one of the strongest examples of community music making can be found in brass bands. Their proud tradition goes back almost 200 years, and their survival has never been more nece

Peace talks took place in Miami just before Christmas, described as “productive and constructive” in a joint US and Ukrainian statement, but there is still no major breakthrough in ending the war in U

‘I felt that I should like to kiss the hands that had awakened a new world of music for me.’ The year was 1888, the occasion was the Paris debut of a 27-year-old pianist named Ignacy Jan Paderewski. A

The Russian threat Controversy of the week “The ...

Yet, given the dark and often introverted nature of the concerto, it’s hardly surprising that Shostakovich kept the work under wraps for so long, feeling that programming it was inadvisable until the