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DARK SECRETS: Rachmaninov - The Real Truth

Composition dedicated to war victims tops classical music poll

The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace by Sir Karl Jenkins has been voted the nation’s favourite piece of classical music.

Evening Standard

Martha Argerich and Dong-Hyek Lim review – legendary pianist and mentee create musical magic

This thrilling and idiosyncratic concert moved from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos to Rachmaninov, Ravel and Schumann

The Guardian - UK

LSO / Chan / Stankiewicz review – Matthews’s oboe concerto is dense and dynamic

The London Symphony Orchestra’s Olivier Stankiewicz was the soloist for the premiere of Colin Matthews’s oboe concerto; Rachmaninov and Bartók followed, with Chan compelling and clear

The Guardian - UK

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Tchaikovsky: The Seasons album review – exemplary playing but Yunchan Lim’s take is strangely sombre

(Decca)The young Korean gives these 12 miniatures more gravitas than most pianists

The Guardian - UK

Lim/CBSO/Yamada review – wonderful Rachmaninov and a swirling Sinfonia

Young Korean Yunchan Lim naturally conjured a willing audience into silence with his commanding range after an alarm disrupted the popular pianist’s Prom

The Guardian - UK

BBCNOW/Otaka/Kholodenko review – Rachmaninov fills seats but magic is missing

Soloist Vadym Kholodekno brought little subtlety to the ever popular second piano concerto, works by two Polish composers, Lutoslawsi and Grażyna Bacewicz fared better in this BBC National Orchestra of Wales concert

The Guardian - UK

Keys to success: the 2025 Van Cliburn piano competition, the instrument’s Olympics

One of the world’s most prestigious and intensive musical competitions took over downtown Fort Worth these past few weeks. Will its winner prove to be another Yunchan Lim-style sensation?

The Guardian - UK

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Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 3 album review – hear the performance that made Yunchan Lim a star

The prodigious South Korean talent won 2022’s Van Cliburn piano competition with this performance; his version deserves a place alongside Argerich and Rachmaninov himself

The Guardian - UK

The Best of the 2025 BBC Proms: 20 picks, from Chineke! to Mozart

As the Proms head back to London, another season of music variety beckons. Nick Kimberley picks out the ones worth grabbing tickets for

Evening Standard

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 tops Classic FM poll for third year

The piece took the number one slot in the annual Classic FM Hall Of Fame ballot, with 90,000 votes cast by the public.

The Independent UK

Le Piano Symphonique festival review – high drama with Argerich and friends

Evgeny Kissin, Beatrice Rana, Yunchan Lim and more dazzled at this flourishing young festival, but the week belonged to the great Martha Argerich

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Trouble in Tahiti + A Quiet Place; The Turn of the Screw; Sinfonia of London/Wilson – review

Total commitment carries Bernstein’s uneven suburban double bill; ignore the added subtext and savour ENO’s musically outstanding Turn of the Screw; and Rachmaninov as you’ve never heard him…

The Guardian - UK

Sinfonia of London/Wilson review – this orchestra brings a whole new dimension to listening

Rachmaninov’s first symphony was a joy-filled highlight but Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s thoughtful interpretation of Shostakovich’s second cello concerto glowed too in an evening of exhilarating music-making

The Guardian - UK

Is this 20-year-old the greatest pianist of our times? Yunchan Lim, the Korean about to electrify the Proms

His dazzling playing brought a conductor to tears and sent him viral – and he’s still being looked after by his mum. As he prepares to make his Proms debut, we meet the ‘unbelievable talent’

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Double Bryn Terfel; Siwan Rhys; Bozzini Quartet; My Beloved Man – review

A highlight of this summer’s country house opera season shows how these tireless and inventive festivals are vital to the UK’s classical music scene.

The Guardian - UK

Deborah Levy: ‘Writing and swimming help each other’

The novelist and memoirist on stamina and solitude, the influence of surrealist art on her work, and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s revelatory travel writing

The Guardian - UK

Byron Janis obituary

US piano virtuoso renowned for dynamic and lyrical playing as well as championing the cause of his fellow sufferers from arthritis

The Guardian - UK

Bittersweet symphonies: UK classical music 2023 in review

Amid the funding woes there were still bright spots this year, from Bach to Byrd, and the Rite to Rachmaninov, while the streaming world continued to evolve and expand

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Evening Standard

Brodsky Quartet at Kings Place review: the great veterans players put on a pleasingly varied showcase

This was the Brodskys at their most conversational, the music angrily bickering one moment, drivingly rhythmic the next

The Guardian - UK

RPO/Lugansky/Petrenko review – orchestra claps packed audience as transformation continues

A warhorse work from Rachmaninov and endlessly shifting combinations from Elgar showcased the Royal Philharmonic’s current form

The Guardian - UK

Prom 60: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Jurowski/Gerstein review – elegance, dash and flair

With a programme of Weill, Adès and Rachmaninov, the Berlin orchestra led by Vladimir Jurowksi showed what a fine group it is

The Guardian - UK

Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos; Paganini Rhapsody review – glittering interpretation holds its own

Yuja Wang’s interpretation of the concertos is more mature than her previous work, carrying off flashy exuberance and changes of mood with dramatic flair

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Proms 30: Sinfonia of London/Wilson; Prom 31: Dialogues of the Carmelites; Oxford piano festival – review

The Albert Hall swooned to the sound of the Sinfonia of London and was silenced by Glyndebourne’s semi-staged Poulenc, while in Oxford you couldn’t move for great pianists

The Guardian - UK

Prom 30: Sinfonia of London/Wilson review – this was Walton on steroids

The vivid immediacy and virtuosity of John Wilson’s Sinfonia made each piece sparkle and thrill, while Leeds winner Alim Beisembayev was a fluent soloist in Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto

The Guardian - UK

Prom 27: Yuja Wang / BBCSO/Mäkelä review – whoops, thrills and a virtuoso masterclass

The star pianist’s control of Rachmaninov left the audience exclaiming ‘How cool is she?’ – while partner Klaus Mäkelä and BBCSO kept up the excitement with a rattling Belshazzar’s Feast

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