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  • A scene from Spinal Tap: The End Continues

    Tom Service on music
    double quotation markFrom strads to shreds and Vivaldi to Van Halen, classical and heavy metal are a natural pairing

    Tom Service
    With ear-splitting excess, flamboyant virtuosity and a talent for transgression, where classical music has led, metal has followed. Let’s hope the Philharmonia’s Metal Orchestrated concert turns it up to 11
  • The Royal Opera’s new production of Siegfried, 2026

    Interview
    ‘We want people on the edge of their seats’: Royal Opera boss Oliver Mears on the new season – and the controversies of the last

  • Dido and Aeneas, Mid Wales Orchestra, Brecon Cathedral, April 11th 2026

    Review
    Dido and Aeneas – young Welsh talent shines bright in Purcell

  • an engraving of 16th-century religious reformer Martin Luther playing the lute.

    ‘If Martin Luther hadn’t been a musician, the course of music history might have been very different’

  • Luca Guadagnino.

    News
    Luca Guadagnino defends Timothée Chalamet over opera and ballet remarks: ‘How can one comment become a planetary polemic?’

  • Conductor Semyon Bychkov leads a performance of Mahler with expressive gestures.

    Album review
    Mahler Symphonies 1–9 – Bychkov’s set earns a place in a starry pantheon

  • the Earth sets behind the moon in a view captured by the crew of Artemis II on 6 April.

    Tom Service on music
    double quotation markWhat does the dark side of the moon sound like? Nasa’s sonifications are helping us imagine

    Tom Service
  • Atmospheric … the Brodsky Quartet with didgeridoo player William Barton at Temple church, London

    Brodsky Quartet / William Barton review – two hemispheres meet in winning didgeridoo collaboration

  • Iain Burnside and Roderick Williams at the Leeds song festival

    Leeds Song festival review – from haiku to hauntings in evening that thinks outside the box

  • Alpesh Chauhan conducts the National Youth Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall, London

    National Youth Orchestra/ Chauhan: Collide review – surging energy and remarkable intensity

  • Disturbing as it gets … Kirsty Taylor-Stokes as a persuasive Salome. The player kneels and kisses the severed head of Jochanaan

    Salome review – righteous fury and dynamic clarity give Regents Opera its head

  • Two men posing against a grey backround

    Samuel Hasselhorn: Schubert Hoffnung review – timbral and emotional flexibility is in ample supply

  • Colin Currie Group - press handout image

    Reich: The Sextets album review – Colin Currie celebrates the minimalist master’s joy of six

  • Conductor John Storgards in a press publicity portrait against rustic backdrop.

    Shostakovich: Symphonies No 2 and 5 album review – early experiment meets mature power

  • Irish Baroque Orchestra members posing with their instruments in formal concert attire.

    Messiah album review – Whelan takes Handel’s oratorio back to its beginnings

People

  • Paavo Järvi conducting the Deutsche Kammerphilarmonie Bremen in 2021.

    News
    Paavo Järvi to succeed Edward Gardner at helm of London Philharmonic

  • Davóne Tines, opera singer, press image

    Anthems, agency and arias: baritone Davóne Tines on rewriting his role – and the rules

  • In glasses, a white shirt and black jacket, Max Richter stands onstage while behind him, in softer focus, sit the musicians who have performed his score for Hamnet

    Max Richter: the composer who crosses the invisible divide between ‘high’ and ‘low’ music

  • Andrew Clements, photographed in the Guardian Studio for his byline photo. Clements is the Guardian's classical music critic.

    ‘He was, above all, a treasured spirit, who understood how vital music is for the human soul’: tributes to Andrew Clements

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  • Peter Mayhew, Mark Hamill, Alec Guinness and Harrison Ford in a scene from Star Wars.

    Trailblazers, trumpets and the theremin: 10 soundtracks that changed the way we listen to movies

  • Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea. Date/Period: 1871. Painting. Oil paint on wood. Width: 608 mm. Height: 502 mm. Author: WHISTLER, JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL.PNE158 Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea. Date/Period: 1871. Painting. Oil paint on wood. Width: 608 mm. Height: 502 mm. Author: WHISTLER, JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL.

    The twilight zone: Nocturnes, from piano to perfume and Russia to Richter

  • Handout photo of Bluey. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Music Bluey. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Music Bluey. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Ludo Studio 2018 NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Music Bluey

    Tom Service on music
    Can Bluey save classical music? Cartoon puppy’s all-encompassing soundtrack plays Bach and Beethoven to billions

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