🎹 Plenty of treats – some unscheduled – in Martha Argerich's recital with Dong Hyek Lim at the RFH last night. My review for @thetimes.com 👇 www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

A double Royal Opera House visit today: Rigoletto followed by Mayerling!

🎹 Plenty of treats – some unscheduled – in Martha Argerich's recital with Dong Hyek Lim at the RFH last night. My review for @thetimes.com 👇 www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...

Rachmaninov (born OTD and described by Stravinsky as “a six-and-a-half foot tall scowl”) and the Dies irae... bachtrack.com/feature-rach...

Ballo balls-up in Berlin. But still... Netrebko: bachtrack.com/review-ballo...

Young stars shine as Rosenkavalier opens Staatsoper Unter den Linden’s Festtage bachtrack.com/review-rosen...

Tonight’s entertainment

Still swooning after that final Rosenkavalier trio/duet… 🌹 😭

Handel with panache, but must every despot or tyrant in opera productions these days be depicted as Donald Trump? My review from the London Handel Festival: bachtrack.com/review-tamer...

What an exquisite programme from Marianne Crebassa and Joseph Middleton: from the depths of Kindertotenlieder to Ravel’s Mélodies populaires grecques. Gorgeous Duparc encore before a little Carmen! 💃🏻

My piece on navigating the Orientalism of Turandot, for @nytimes.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

Saw this blurb on Presto and I had to crack the BBC mag open to check because I could not believe my eyes. Brès-Feuillet is of course a dude and a countertenor. literally it's in his website's header!

“If Gelb believes Yuval Sharon’s production is groundbreaking, he’s self-delusional.” No… it is Propaganda!

It's been quite the Wagnerian week... some post-HD thoughts on the Met's new Tristan und Isolde: canzonetta.substack.com/p/review-tri...

That thing where you're chuffed at getting Wordle in just two attempts and the bot turns around and says, “Yeah, I'd have got it in two as well.”

🍊🍊🍊 A new Love for Three Oranges (d Laurent Pelly) and Rimsky's May Night (Christof Loy) among the 2026-27 season highlights at Opéra de Lyon.

Cover story time! The April issue of Gramophone has arrived, featuring my interview with conductor John Wilson: www.gramophone.co.uk/content/feat...

Just remembered it's Rimsky-Korsakov's birthday today, so here are some of my favourite R-K operatic highlights: canzonetta.substack.com/p/rimsky-kor...

Great to catch up with conductor Speranza Scappucci for a wide-ranging interview: bachtrack.com/interview-sp...

Barrie Kosky and Antonio Pappano continue to forge a magnificent Ring at The Royal Opera My Opera Now review 👇 www.opera-now.com/content/news...

“Siegfried wants to have fun, kill the dragon, meet the girl”: Andreas Schager talks to @alexandracoghlan.bsky.social in this enjoyable interview about Wagner’s young bully www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

The “decision not to renew Andris’ tenure is a form of artistic suicide”. Insights from The Boston Globe on the Boston Symphony power struggle that led to Andris Nelsons’ fall www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/13/a...

Friday evening gallery visit (not too crowded) to Tate Britain to see the Turner Constable exhibition which pits their very different landscapes against each other.

New post at On a Pacific Aisle, with thoughts on "The Music Critic," the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and Handel's "Hercules." pacificaisle.substack.com/p/crrrritic

Enjoying the musical side of things in this new Staatsoper Clemenza, not least because of Emily D'Angelo and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller © Marcella Ruiz Cruz | Wiener Staatsoper Watch live: play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/20c98e...

Having just published our overnight review from New York, I am looking forward to the Met in HD relay of this new Tristan und Isolde, starring Lise Davidsen and Michael Spyres bachtrack.com/review-trist...

A reminder, for anyone who may have forgotten, that online public booking for the Glyndebourne Festival opens in a few minutes. (And that the cheapest tickets - restricted-view and standing - go freshly on sale to general public, without first dibs for paid-up members.)

Spring has sprung in my garden…

For Norman Lebrecht, freshly canned from the BBC after Yuja Wang called him out for “misogynistic bullying,” any music director candidate for the Boston Symphony who wasn’t a white man would only be hired for ‘diversity’ reasons

“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.” Maurice Ravel was born 151 years ago today. Here's my Gramophone cover story from last year's 150th celebrations! www.gramophone.co.uk/content/feat...

News: Andris Nelsons’ tenure at Boston Symphony will end in 2027. The board declined to renew Nelsons’s contract because “beyond our shared desire to ensure our orchestra continues to perform at the highest levels, the BSO and Andris Nelsons were not aligned on future vision.”

A lovely tribute to José van Dam on La Monnaie’s website: www.lamonnaiedemunt.be/en/magazine/...

While I acknowledge that the qualifying criteria for the Olivier Awards basically exclude everyone except ENO and the Royal Opera, I’m quite depressed that the remaining pickings were so slim for Best New Opera Production that the Katie Mitchell Makropulos Case made the shortlist 😬

News: Paavo Järvi appointed as new Chief Conductor & Artistic Advisor of the @LPOrchestra

Kudos to Yuja Wang for championing the rarely heard Rautavaara First Piano Concerto. Then she offered three encores, including Brahms piano four-hands with conductor Tarmo Peltokoski… @londonsymphony.bsky.social

Now spinning: early Martha Argerich Chopin discs, including three Third Piano Sonatas 💿

Frédéric Chopin was born OTD in 1810. Selecting a top ten was not an easy task, but waltzes, polonaises, mazurkas, études and more are all represented... bachtrack.com/playlist-top...

Mozartian masterclass: Marianne Crebassa wears the trousers at @wigmore-hall.org.uk with @themozartists.bsky.social Review 👇 bachtrack.com/review-creba...

Marianne Crebassa and @themozartists.bsky.social in – appropriately enough – Mozart 🥰 at @wigmore-hall.org.uk

Exclusive: BBC Radio 3 has ended its relationship with Norman Lebrecht following an email to Yuja Wang the pianist described on Instagram as "derogatory misogynistic bullying."

Back to @wigmore-hall.org.uk this evening for Marianne Crebassa, guesting with @themozartists.bsky.social

Wordle 1,713 2/6 😱 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Progress: tonight’s devastating Schöne Müllerin was made all the more so because @wigmore-hall.org.uk displayed English surtitles onto the back wall. That didn’t stop the page rustlers who were determined to rustle, but still…progress

So sad to learn of Joshua Robison's death. What a mensch he was — always cheerful, always gregarious. Gonna miss him terribly.

Ahead of his Die schöne Müllerin at @wigmore-hall.org.uk tomorrow, Konstantin Krimmel chats to me about Schubert Lieder in the latest issue of The Score (Friends' mag): www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/support-us/m...

Wow... the five “new” productions at the Met next season include the Royal Opera's Jenůfa (2021) and ENO's La fanciulla del West (2014). Cutting edge.

Farewell to the fine Belgian bass-baritone José van Dam, my first Philippe in Don Carlos 🌹 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsuc...

Very special Tchaikovsky from Anne-Sophie Mutter, keeping this concerto fresh after all these years – the Canzonetta was so hushed one daren’t breathe. And a classy performer, refusing to take a bow before Karina Canellakis has brought the @lporchestra.bsky.social woodwind principals to their feet.

I cracked and started a Substack. Welcome to TWANGLE: MUSIC AND WORDS. The first post is about Kurt Weill. jessicaduchen.substack.com/p/weill-the-...