Concerts in this year’s Berlin Musikfest continue to offer interesting repertoire in works which are virtually unknown outside their composer’s homeland. I must confess that the music of Willem Pijper (1894-1947) is quite unknown to me. Pijper is regarded as the Netherlands’s finest composer of the first half of the twentieth century. Pijper wrote three symphonies, many works for chamber and…

Ainārs Rubiķis steps in to make his debut at the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest. The Latvian conductor will lead the opening concert for the 18th edition of the festival, which features performances by the First Prize winners of the 2021 competition. The programme will include ...

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic garnered rave reviews for their performances of Antonín Dvořák’s masterful final three symphonies in February 2020. Hailed as “a revelation” by the Los Angeles Times, their interpretations were recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall by Deutsche Grammophon for release as a digital album – the follow-up to the artists’ GRAMMY® Award-winning…

Singaporean conductor Kahchun Wong (better known to locals as Wong Kah Chun), recently appointed chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic, made a triumphant return to the orchestra that helped launch his podium career. While still a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, he was an assistant conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under Yeh Tsung's mentorship, a position that paved the…

The 27-year-old Briton Harry Ogg will be the new Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein from August 2022. Ogg was awarded 3rd prize in the 2020 Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, received 2nd prize in the 2018 MDR Symphony Orchestra Conducting Competition in Leipzig and was a finalist in the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition at the Barbican in London. He lives in Cologne ...