In December 1989, I left my office Christmas party early to make my way to Tower Records in London's Piccadilly. The previous day, we had been at the Barbican to see Leonard Bernstein conducting his operetta Candide. We sat in the front row as one of my musical heroes led a now legendary, and most would agree, definitive [...]
Growing up, there was a lot of classical music in our house. Of the many composers on the turntable, Ralph Vaughan Williams - affectionately known as ‘RVW’ - enjoyed pride of place. It was the soundtrack of my early years. In more recent times I’ve reacquainted myself ever more with RVW’s output, not least through [...]
A working class woman goes to the opera. And not just any old opera, but Glyndebourne, the über poshest of all (British) opera. My goodness - whatever next?! The snobbery that says that opera, and other high culture, is only for the privileged, the rich and the powerful, is a particularly insidious kind of prejudice. [...]
As the weeks turn into months for the people of Ukraine, and as Russia threatens to consolidate the most ambitious of its ‘frozen conflicts’, the liberal democracies have so far maintained their focus. This was probably the last thing Vladimir Putin expected. He launched this adventure on the assumption that we in the West are [...]
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