What do a 16th-century Pope, a former Prime Minister of India, a hit singer from the 1940s and the composer of one of classical music's top tunes have in common? The tie that binds Pope Paul III, ...

François Couperin was one of the baroque era’s greatest keyboard composers. Did he write any orchestral music? Er, no. Though listen to a few minutes of Hugo Reyne’s version of his trio sonata “La ...

Amid reports of insolvent symphony orchestras, lackluster box-office receipts and sagging CD sales, classical music is still very much alive. Classical blogs, social-media sites and listservs are only ...

Sofia Fomina in 'Guillaume Tell' at Covent Garden in London. Rossini's five act grand opera Guilliaume Tell is having a controversial run of performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in ...

Classical music struck me as a chore when I was a kid. It’s not that I didn’t like the way it sounded; I was just too restless to sit through the concerts my mother would drag me to, or even to make ...

Many directors today choose to set operas in the 1960s, and the reasons why are not hard to find. The period is still recent enough to retain an air of familiarity, but also sufficiently long ago to ...

What makes a piece of music consoling? Not just sweetly tender melodies and soft harmonies. Music which is genuinely consoling has something extra. It catches at the heart because it shows an ...

Moving away from their usual period heartland, Monteverdi Choir are joined by Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and soloists under Jakob Lehmann for a programme of Italian Romanticism. There ...