The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

The Greatest Ever? – Remembering Carlos Kleiber

17th July 2024

This Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the death of one of the most acclaimed maestros of the late 20th century. Born in Berlin on 3 July 1930, and raised from 1935 in Argentina, where his family had moved following their departure from Nazi Germany, Carlos Kleiber is regarded by many critics, musicians and music lovers as one of the greatest conductors of all time. He was the son of Erich Kleiber, himself one of the most important conductors of the last century, who had conducted the premieres of Berg’s Wozzeck (1925)... read more

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Of Satire, Humour and Anthems

10th July 2024

As the United Kingdom emerges bleary-eyed from its recent general election and – in England at least – refocuses its attention on the European Football Championship, our thanks to those of you who responded to our ‘Election Playlist’ last week, and especially to one keen-eyed regular who spotted our deliberate omission: Private Willis from Gilbert & Sullivan’s Savoy opera Iolanthe (1882). Together with the Lord Chancellor’s patter song, Pte Willis’s aria is arguably the highlight of the score, and rarely fails to get a... read more

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An Election Playlist

3rd July 2024

Many people turn to classical music to escape the hurly-burly of modern life, whether it’s the inanity of much popular culture, the mundanity of day-to-day existence, or the constant spouting of politicians from the airwaves. Yet, as we’ve pointed out before, music and politics have been inextricably entwined for centuries, whether it’s the ecclesiastical composer serving church dignitaries who wield very temporal powers, court composers writing for royals and nobles engaged in affairs of state, or in more recent times... read more

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The Drover’s Return: Vaughan Williams and the (Re)Birth of English Opera

26th June 2024

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, English opera was in the doldrums. The few composers who attempted it (such as Delius and Smyth) found it easier to get their works performed abroad. A key work in the emergence of a distinctively English modern operatic repertoire was Ralph Vaughan Williams's first work in the genre, Hugh the Drover, which he worked on in the years immediately prior to the First World War, but which received its eventual premiere only in 1924. A two-act work set in the early 19th century in a small... read more

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A Bright Star Extinguished: Jodie Devos (1988–2024)

19th June 2024

Six months in, 2024 already seems to have brought its fair share of deaths in the world of classical music. Few, however, have come as such a bolt from the blue as that of the rising star coloratura soprano Jodie Devos, who died on Sunday 16 June at the age of just 35, following a brief battle against an aggressive form of cancer. Members of the musical community both in her native Belgium and on the international scene (where she had achieved increasing prominence and critical superlatives) have all been paying tribute to a... read more

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