On Music

The last true Kapellmeister

Chaotic in all things except music, where he demanded precision and gave his all

The Boston barbarians

The Boston Symphony acted like a New Orleans nightclub owner with a recalcitrant pole-dancer

The Symphony’s Indian summer

Imagine hearing a symphony for the first time

Mehta’s protest over the Gaza war

In the run-up to his 90th birthday, Zubin Mehta decided to sever contact with Israel

Why we need orchestras

China has grasped that an orchestra is more than a payroll of musicians

Bob Dylan and the mystery of traditional music

In becoming Bob Dylan, Robert Zimmerman entered a mysterious, invisible world

The year the mob called the tune

So much political meddling in music and so little resistance

This century’s Great Composers

Hidden masterminds may yet revive the species

Wanted: classical music influencers

Expert, well-dressed, wisecracking reviewers once delivered first-night juice

A fruitcake rather than an egghead

Somehow Alfred Brendel managed to appear both deadly serious and not serious at all