Norman Lebrecht

Norman Lebrecht is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs, a novelist, and the author of the classical music blog Slipped Disc. He was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 1994 to 2002, and assistant editor of the London Evening Standard from 2002 to 2009. He tweets at @NLebrecht

Music directors who fail to provide any direction in times of crisis

Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem covers a gamut of moods, from pity to passion

I’m not giving up trying to persuade younger people to listen to new composers

The BBC thought Malcolm Arnold’s opera was not serious enough and a bit bawdy

Wagner’s sexual ambiguity spoke to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Mann, says Norman Lebrecht

Music from the Hungarian educator who shaped the sound of the modern American orchestra

A marvellous blend of early Baroque and Mediterranean traditional songs

Silvestrov writes almost as if Mahler is speaking to us from beyond the grave

Zero stars for the vacuous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra