Antonio salieri

Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari Mirco Palazzi, Marie Lys et al; Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset Aparté AP379 159 mins (2CD) A rival to Mozart – and in many ways enjoying a more successful internat

Much about Henriëtte Bosmans’s life and music is remarkable. But one event stands out as emblematic of her character and strength. Our scene is Amsterdam in 1944, when the Nazis’ grip was on the Dutch

It was the Viennese critic Hermann Bahr who likened Mahler’s arrival in a hotel lobby to a gust of wind forcing open a window, or water bursting from a pipe. There’s something similarly elemental abou

THE last specks of rain of the previous night’s storm pattered against the widow of the drawing-room. Meryl Stewart sat at the keyboard of her baby grand, working her way through the piano arrangement

Male readers may want to look away now, or at least cross their legs. We are, you see, going to begin by explaining how to make a castrato. It’s an uncomfortable subject, for sure, so if you’re of a n

A tribute to Mario Vargas Llosa, chronicler of failed utopias