On Music
Spare us the skintight sonata
If Yuja Wang were to strip everything right down to the music, she could be a sensation
Passing on the batons
The future of conducting is looking bright — everywhere except in Russia and America
Savour the silence
The first duty of a conductor is to imagine a world without noise
Vienna’s hapless missing link
Zemlinsky’s music is arresting and his ideas fertile and diverse, but he often goes unnoticed
Notes on a doomed affair
Norman Lebrecht on how Marion von Weber was both interesting and important to Mahler’s emergence
And the band played on…
The appointment of a chief conductor little affects the general performance of an orchestra
Myth of Igor, the Great Composer
Norman Lebrecht says an affair with Coco Chanel did Stravinsky’s PR, and hers, no harm at all
Take a leaf out of sport’s book
Music has lost its unpredictability, its thrilling fear while sport’s passion shines, says Norman Lebrecht
From disaster to opportunity
London’s orchestral rat-race will have fewer runners when musical life returns, says Norman Lebrecht
The Russians aren’t coming
New music was not officially muted in the Soviet Union. It just got left at home, says Norman Lebrecht