Classical

It was the composer Henry Flynt who described the music of his friend Catherine Christer Hennix as “tuned texture rather than thematic articulation”. Hennix, who has died aged 75, was a Swedish musician whose work was profoundly informed by her background in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics and Sufism.Her music explored sound, light, drones, the pure intervals of “just intonation”, time and spirituality, inspired by her musical studies with La Monte Young, who introduced her to the work of the Indian singer and…

Even pop geniuses have a patchy record when it comes to writing for an orchestra. For every success (a Jonny Greenwood or a Randy Newman, for instance) there is at least one dud (a Paul McCartney, a Sufjan Stevens, a Deep Purple). Sadly, on the evidence of the world premiere of her first symphony, Joan Armatrading is very much in the latter category: a brilliant pop melodist who somehow turns cloth-eared when trying to write for an orchestra.It’s difficult to see what Armatrading was trying to achieve with her half-hour…

Earlier this year, launched the Apple Music Classical app, dedicated to classical music, songs and artists, for iOS and Android. Almost eight months later, Apple has finally made the app available for iPad as well. For those unaware, the app offers a wide range of curated playlists, exclusive albums and more. Apple says that is the world’s largest classical music catalogue with over 5 million tracks which includes new releases to celebrated masterpieces.In addition to this, the app also has composer biographies, deep…

More than half a year after Apple Music Classical debuted for iPhone, Apple is finally releasing its classical music streaming service for iPad users. This new app became available after Cupertino released version 1.1 on the App Store. Apple Music Classical is a service based on Primephonic, a classical music streaming service the company bought in 2021. After two years of development, the company released its own version of the app, which has a similar look to Apple Music but with new tweaks and a focus on…

When Apple Music Classical launched back in March of 2023 it did so after months of rumors and leaks. The classical music-themed streaming service is part of Apple Music and is included in the same subscription, but there's a catch — it has its own app, downloadable via the App Store.That alone might be seen as strange, but the strangest aspect of the launch was that there was no iPad Apple Music Classical app — something that Apple has now fixed eight months later.The new iPad app comes as an update to the existing…

Apple has finally made its classical music app available for the iPad. Now, you can download Apple Music Classical, which is included with an Apple Music subscription, directly from the App Store.Apple first launched its long-awaited classical music app on the iPhone in March, offering a library full of recordings you can search through by composer, work, conductor, and more. The app comes out of Apple’s 2021 acquisition of classical music streaming service Primephonic and allows you to listen to recordings with up to 192…

launched the Music Classical app on the App Store in March as an iPhone-only app. Later on, the company added the app to the Google Play Store for Android devices in May. Now, the Cupertino-based tech giant has rolled out another update for the Music Classical app. The latest update of the app adds support for iPads. Apple has already started rolling out the latest version (version 1.1) of the Music Classical app in the App Store. This version comes with a new design which is optimised for devices with larger displays,…

Wherever Shirley Thompson goes, she always makes sure she has a CD of her own musical compositions with her. “A lot of people have complimented me, or mocked me, for my initiative … I’m the ultimate entrepreneur,” she says.This habit came in particularly handy when she found herself in conversation with the then Prince Charles at Clarence House in March last year. She was there to celebrate her inclusion on The Powerlist, which lists the UK’s most influential Black people. “We were chatting about music, and he was asking…

The pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, 27, has an international career as a soloist and chamber musician, with forthcoming concerts in Lucerne, New York, Seoul and elsewhere. A regular duo partner with her cellist brother, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, she grew up in Nottingham, the eldest of seven siblings, all musicians. Her third solo album, Childhood Tales (Decca), was released in May. On 1 August she will make her BBC Proms solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.You’re about to play your first…

Men arrive on crutches, two in wheelchairs, through a wintry dusk at the monumental neo-Renaissance opera house in Lviv, western Ukraine. Some 100 seats tonight have been reserved for serving soldiers, who enter the lobby – a fin-de-siècle wonder – in military fatigues. They hand these in, so that the coat check looks like a barracks locker room. A contingent of 40 cadets from the city’s emergency firefighting department duly arrives, disarmingly young. For most, it’s a first night at the opera.The occasion marks the…