The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

One Size Fits All?

21st April 2026

The photograph, taken in Berlin in the summer of 1929, is a famous one. The occasion was a reception marking the visit of Milan’s La Scala opera company to the German capital. It features La Scala’s celebrated music director, Arturo Toscanini (second left), together with the conductors of Berlin’s leading musical institutions: Bruno Walter (conductor of the Städtische Oper), Erich Kleiber (Berlin Staatsoper), Wilhelm Furtwängler (Berlin Philharmonic) and Otto Klemperer (Kroll Opera). Although of varying temperaments, ranging... read more

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A Host of Gerontiuses

14th April 2026

Having last week written about viewing the new Covent Garden production of Wagner’s Siegfried, this week I finally got round to seeing Nicholas Hytner’s recent film The Choral, which places Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius at the centre of Alan Bennett’s Yorkshire-set World War I story of a small-town choral society. It is not, perhaps, a movie that will appeal to musical purists, and I’m not totally convinced by some of the details of the plot, though it does nicely reflect some of the anti-German and anti-Catholic... read more

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The Decision Makers + Easter with Wagner

8th April 2026

The classical music world has been shocked by two recent decisions regarding artistic leadership at its very top. The announcement by the board of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (a not-for-profit organisation with a large financial endowment) that the contract of its music director, Andris Nelsons (pictured), is to be terminated at the end of summer 2027 has shocked both the orchestra’s musicians and its audience (including subscribers). The summary dismissal of the widely respected pianist Markus Hinterhäuser (champion of... read more

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A Master of English Song: Gerald Finzi 70 Years On

31st March 2026

Against a backdrop of culture shifts and economic constraints, surely the most resilient form of art music is the one that has been with us for the longest: the song. From medieval minstrels via the lute songs of Dowland, the Lieder of Schubert and the mélodies of Fauré to the present day, the art of storytelling and reflection through the medium of the sung voice has proved astonishingly durable. And, when reality bites and large-scale opera productions (not to mention symphony concerts) eventually become unsustainable (not... read more

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Always in good taste: Clémence de Grandval

24th March 2026

Despite the widespread gender biases of the times, 19th-century France produced a particularly rich seam of women composers. Among those who have attracted renewed attention in recent years, the best-known include Louise Farrenc (1804–1875), Marie Jaëll (1846–1925), Augusta Holmès (1847–1903), Cécile Chaminade (1857–1944) and Mel Bonis (1858–1937). All are now well (though not extravagantly) represented on disc and in live performance. To their number, however, needs to be added a figure who fits in the chronological gap... read more

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