Life at the front

Ukraine’s president: treading the path of the autocrat? ...

The year was 1987. The Soviet Union, under leader Mikhail Gorbachev, was approaching its final chapters. As if to catch the dying embers of the USSR, recently graduated pianist James Kirby left his li

The mayor of Fort Worth officially renamed it Piano City for the three-week duration of the Van Cliburn competition in June. A slick piece of marketing, you might think. When I arrived for the week-lo

The BBC Singers have announced that Owain Park is to be their next chief conductor. Park, 32, who will be taking over from Sofi Jeannin in autumn 2026, is already very familiar with the renowned ensem

Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMM902752 49:20 mins Those of us lucky, as I was at both their Ragged Music Festival and

As Robert Hausmann played Dvořák’s Cello Concerto through, Johannes Brahms turned round to the composer and said, ‘If I had known that it was possible to write a cello concerto like this, I would have