The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

An Alternative Coronation Playlist

3rd May 2023

For some, it's an historic event; for others, a colossal waste of public money. As media coverage of the forthcoming coronation of Charles III reaches saturation point, spare a thought for those (you may be among them!) who are either supremely indifferent to (or bored stiff from hearing about) regalia, processions, oaths and the like, or whose political and social convictions lie elsewhere. Elsewhere on this site, you'll find that our Disc of the Week is an album of coronation anthems by Purcell and Handel. Here, however,... read more

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Celebrating Pejačević

26th April 2023

In most countries, women composers are still overshadowed by their male colleagues. Ethel Smyth and Ruth Gipps have to be content with playing second fiddle to Elgar and Vaughan Williams. In France, Cecile Chaminade, Lili Boulanger and Mel Bonis are far behind Debussy and Ravel in the consciousness of music lovers, even after recent classy anthologies have raised their profiles. In smaller nations, the odds are less stacked against the distaff side. Although the founders of Croatian musical identity – Vatroslav Lisinski... read more

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Classical Music’s Image Problem

19th April 2023

In the latest edition of the London Review of Books (vol. 45 no.8, 13 April), one review begins, ‘Literary fans, as Alan Bennett once remarked, can be off-putting for the rest of us.’ The same could well be said of classical music. Recent posts in an online group dedicated to great conductors of the vintage era are a case in point, with Karajan fans in particular heaping superlatives on just about everything he ever set down, demonstrating (or at least so it might seem to a dispassionate outsider) the triumph of presentation... read more

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The Fate of the BBC Orchestras

12th April 2023

Imagine that you were tasked by your employer with undermining the reputation of the very organisation you work for. You could scarcely come up with a more elegant plan than that deployed by top music executives at the BBC in the past few weeks. Tasked with developing (or so they say) agility, flexibility and creativity among the BBC’s ensembles, they proposed the complete disbandment of the world-renowned BBC Singers, and a 20% reduction in the number of salaried musicians across three BBC orchestras: the London-based BBC... read more

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Music and Holy Week

5th April 2023

As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the feast of Easter – the most important date in the Church’s calendar – many will this week observe Holy Week: the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Day which is the culmination of the Lenten fast, and the occasion for particularly solemn church services. Holy Week reaches its most intense period with the three days (triduum) spanning Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. They mark, respectively, the Last Supper and the betrayal and arrest of Jesus; his trial,... read more

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