Life at the front

Why we need orchestras

Kahchun Wong remembers vividly the moment it happened. ‘With an orchestra, you know it when it clicks, when there is a chemistry,’ he recalls. ‘I went to the first rehearsal without any expectation. I

In a prisoner-of-war camp in western Ukraine, a former miner from the east is being interviewed about how he ended up fighting for Russia. His speech is slurred and one arm paralysed: the results not

National Symphony Orchestra/ Gianandrea Noseda NSO NSO0022 75:12 mins Mahler’s mad-cap Seventh is the toughest of his symphonies to conceptualise and to execute. Lacking any explicit programme, two of

It’s generally accepted that provision for music in the UK’s state schools is patchy, varying hugely from one local borough to another and one school to another, according to the importance placed on

‘A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don’t mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play