Composers
Encompassing a life
RIP Kaija Saariaho
Brahms: sublime genius on a major scale
Forget the sneering of Benjamin Britten, for whom Brahms’s music was “ugly and foul”, the German composer and pianist was a virtuoso talent whose best works burn with volcanic passion and seriousness of purpose
Stravinsky’s reputation is in freefall
Norman Lebrecht re-examines the life and legacy of Stravinsky.
Forgettable history of forgotten music
These four composers deserve to be remembered without exaggeration in service of social revanchism
Modernists can be monarchists
Radical composers are not out to smash the system
Once more with Gustavo
“Orchestra makes right call” shock!
A guaranteed crowd pleaser
Let the brass section blow cobwebbed memories to kingdom come
Jiving in the ruins
This dazzling album features young composers in hyperinflationary Berlin
Sibelius: Symphonies 3&5 (Alpha-Classics)
There’s a new burst of steam from the sauna
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sixth Symphony (Hyperion/ICA Classics)
As shattering as any work of its era