Category: Interviews

• Meet Yuja Wang

  Sep 2

  To the outside observer, Yuja Wang, may seem more like a Rock ‘n’ Roll star than a concert pianist. With her outlandish dress sense and shock of black hair that… more ›

• Kirill Petrenko in conversation with Alexander Bader

  Jul 8

  In this interview with the Berliner Philharmoniker’s clarinetist Andreas Bader, conductor Kirill Petrenko tells how his exciting programme concepts come about, how he builds his work with an orchestra, what… more ›

• Interview with Andris Nelsons : Stalin’s influence on Shostakovich

  Mar 26

  The marvelous German violinist Christian Tetzlaff joins Andris Nelsons and the BSO for Beethoven’s peerless Violin Concerto, which, through its lyricism, intensely musical virtuosity, and expansive scope elevated the genre… more ›

• Simon Rattle on Gustav Mahler

  Mar 4

  “Mahler completely knocked me sideways … and that’s the reason why I’m a conductor today.” more ›

• James Rhodes interview: this clown can play Beethoven

  May 23

  No cheesy crossover, no TV ad favourites, but Bach partitas, Beethoven sonatas, Chopin études and wild, sprawling piano fantasies by the crazed 19th-century composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. And he’ll be playing… more ›

• Interview with Antonio Pappano

  May 15

  We are having an early lunch. Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, has blocked off the afternoon for a recording session at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in… more ›

• Sam Stander interviews Laurie Anderson

  May 14

  On a sparsely furnished Zellerbach Hall stage, armed with her skeletal violin, Laurie Anderson looked like the last player left after the orchestra had wandered off. But on Saturday, as… more ›

• Michael Tilson Thomas interview in The Washington Post

  Mar 21

  Michael Tilson Thomas is a conductor — he heads two orchestras (the San Francisco Symphony and the New World Symphony), has won 10 Grammys and led the YouTube Symphony at… more ›

• Yo-Yo Ma: Cellist in chief

  Mar 14

  In 1961, Pablo Casals played for John F. Kennedy at the White House. The concert could be seen as a symbol of the importance of the arts to the Kennedy… more ›

• Wolfgang Rihm: the musical omnivore

  Mar 7

  The taxi driver knows immediately who I’m going to see when I tell him the address I need in Karlsruhe. “That’s Professor Rihm, right?” I’m a wee bit bemused that… more ›