The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

‘Call Me Flott’: A Tribute to Felicity Lott

26th May 2026

The acclaimed lyric soprano Felicity Lott, who has died at the age of 79, was an example of that rare breed among international singers: someone who combined star quality, wit, intelligence and humanity. During her half-century career she stood out for the refinement, clarity and textual responsiveness she brought to the music of Mozart and Richard Strauss, at a time when specialism in the former and sheer vocal power and OTT theatricality in the latter were increasingly the norm. These same strengths characterised her wider... read more

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Music of the Iberian Peninsula: Beginnings

19th May 2026

Nestling at the southwestern-most tip of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula has long held charms for the rest of the continent. It is still one of the most popular destination for west-European holidaymakers seeking a mixture of sun and exoticism. In the world of classical music, it has attracted composers from the Neapolitan expat Domenico Scarlatti, and French composers like Bizet, Chabrier and Ravel, to Rimsky-Korsakov in far-away St Petersburg. The allure of Hispania is partly due to its geographic location as a peninsula... read more

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When the Music Vanishes

12th May 2026

Many of you may think that classical music has already vanished from our streets. The days when a modest-sized city like Europadisc’s home patch in Nottingham could boast no fewer than three specialist classical shops are long gone. In central London, where the likes of Caruso & Co, Farringdon Records, Direction Dean Street and Orchesography plied their trade, even the tenacious Harold Moores in Great Marlborough finally shut up shop in early 2017. Mounting rents, business rates and online competition have been... read more

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Five Years of the Spin Doctor!

6th May 2026

A couple of weeks ago, I was told by Europadisc’s proprietor that it is now five years since we first launched the Spin Doctor column. Where has the time gone? The original brief was fairly succinct and deliberately left open to a wide range of options: to write a weekly column, roughly the same length as (or a little longer than) our Disc of the Week reviews, on any subject broadly related to recorded classical music. As the first columns appeared while the knock-on effects of the Covid pandemic were still being felt, the... read more

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Michael Tilson Thomas (1944–2026)

28th April 2026

For over half a century, the conductor, pianist, composer and pedagogue Michael Tilson Thomas, who has died at the age of 81, cut a distinctive figure on the international musical scene. Slim, graceful, often balletic on the podium, he brought a unique mixture of refinement and vitality to his music-making. A protégé and friend of Leonard Bernstein, he was just as committed to the championing of American music, though his tastes extended perhaps further, from Gershwin and Ives to Lou Harrison and Morton Feldman. And in the... read more

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