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Twangle: Music and Words, with Jessica Duchen

"Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about mine ears..." Author, librettist and critic Jessica Duchen on classical music and writing

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“Isn’t it a gorgeous world?”

A staggeringly amazing performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 by the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer crowned a musical feast at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival...

Glitter!

Tonight Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina comes to the Proms!

Celebrating Graceland

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In which Robert Schumann is totally upstaged by...

...his wife, playing two-piano music with musical Europe's favourite pin-up, Franz Liszt. Did Robert's new symphony stand a hope in hell?

What if every concert was like this?

The Sinfonia of London and John Wilson are always in a class of their own - but even so, this Prom was almost ludicrously extraordinary...

A shot of Strauss on the rocks with a twist: Ariadne auf Glyndebourne

A splendid evening in Sussex offers a fresh staging and a fabulous cast

Here comes the sun...

How the climate breakdown is affecting musical instruments, musicians and concert halls. Plus weekly roundup and Sundaynightis

In praise of personal sound

How and why do (some) musicians develop a sound of their own that you can recognise at once?

It's in the small print

What do Prince Harry, an Australian pianist and a supremely witty poet have in common? Plus three of this week's upcoming events for Sundaynightis

Music, bereavement and healing

I wrote this article 22 years ago, but in the wake of a friend's death I've felt moved to salvage it and put it out there again as it could still be helpful