John Amis online

Dear Friends I really appreciate all the warm, caring and loving messages I have received in the past week. Many of you have asked for d...

London, Friday August 2nd Dear Friends. Darling John died peacefully last night at the Chelsea and Westminster – I was with him at the t...

'Damn braces: Bless relaxes' William Blake Goethe's Faust gripped the imagination of the civilised world. Hector Berlio...

This season is Vladimir Jurowski's thirteenth and last season as Music Director at Glyndebourne. If he is sad to go it is nothing to...

With my Oldie came an offer of an eight day trip around S.E. Turkey for a derisory sum that included fares, hotel accommodation, guide but...

Both books are entitled: BENJAMIN BRITTEN. Paul Kildea's is sub-titled A Life in the Twentieth Century, published by Allen Lane, 666p, £...

A Modern Master A cellist sits down and begins to play, not a tune but a pulse, steady, as if going for a walk (orchestra tacet). Sol...

A Cardboard Turkey? Opera houses feel, quite rightly, that they are in duty bound to mount new works; if they didn't they would n...

Down-Dating in Art Literally Zeitgeist means 'time-ghost' but it has come to signify the expression of a period of time. Art...

In the depths of the Hampshire countryside is a wapping great barn with a V-shaped roof, partly brick-walled. It seats about two hundred, ...

Bernstein in Clink Just beyond Devizes in Wiltshire there was a sign with the word OPERA written large. This targeted the venue of a ...

A Cracking Good Concert The playing of student and youth orchestras took a vast step forward when advisers and administrators realised ...

Swiss Pianist Good pianist, interesting programme. Swiss, daughter of veteran pianist. Peter Lukas-Graf. Venue, Swiss Church in Endel...

One of the pleasures of being a critic is that you sometimes spot a tremendous talent before it becomes known to the public at large: in my ...

Curious that the conductors Monteux and Toscanini who gave fine performances of the Enigma Variations did not subsequently tackle Elgar'...

In a sense, Benjamin Britten was a composer three times over: the genius who wrote the notes, the pianist who played as only a composer ...

Running parallel with the length of the main BBC studios in Maida Vale there is a narrow passage. One day the brilliant young percussion...

"Mummy, who is that man standing in front of the orchestra having a public fit"? And how important is what we see the man on t...

Brilliant Production I have long considered the six symphonies of Martin ů to be neglected masterpieces and would prefer to salute his m...

As we know, Benjamin Britten composed with favourite artists in mind, singers especially. Naturally, Peter Pears had the lion's share ...