Gaston Bachelard's image of an ecstatic paradise garden is linked with the Buddhist vision of the pure land, a state of mind beyond suffering where there is no grasping, in Jonathan Harvey's Fourth String Quartet. Dating from 2003, the Fourth Quartet...

'Music for young people. The Art of Listening. Dr George Firth director of Scotland of the Arts Council for Great Britain. Mary Firth (pianist). An Opportunity for those under 35'. This last item, The Art of Listening, was a favourite subject, often...

Drew80 has left a new comment on your post "Here comes ovation inflation": You are always essential reading, Pliable. Observing the Dudamel phenomenon has been highly amusing. I have no idea whether Dudamel will turn into a fine conductor—only time...

PR-speak reaches a crescendo in an EMI Classics press release announcing a new exclusive recording contract with Simon Rattle. The president of EMI Classics Global Eric Dingman, whose CV includes almost twenty years with Labatt Breweries, gushes: 'I am...

However, back to the beat - something it seems we must return to with regularity in some form or another, if we wish to cooperate with the natural regulatory forces of existence. I instinctively knew at the age of four that rhythm was the palpable...