New in VAN
Review
Concerts Good, Recordings Bad
Is “The Yellow Tie,” starring John Malkovich as Sergiu Celibidache, a biopic or a hagiography?
New in VAN
Essay
In Art’s Company
How music and literature helped Maria Kalesnikava survive five years of Belarusian prison
Most read last week
All Fired Up
The most persistent critic of the chaos at the Boston Symphony Orchestra is an anonymous, AI-generated “investigative journalism” site. It’s not just readers who should pay attention to Cadenza’s embrace of automation.
Surface Vibrations
How Steinway’s soundboards got stuck in an American battle over logging regulation
Boosts and Bruises
Fellowships for musicians of color have long been touted as a strategy to diversify American orchestras. Are they working for Black musicians?
In Defense of the Program Note
Thoughtful written concert programs are on the outs. But they remain essential guiding lights for listening.
Sign up for our newsletter!
We promise never to send you spam, share your email address, or include bad classical music cartoons.
Movie stars
The Best Opera Scenes in Film
How movie directors use the form to deepen world and character
Abstracting Evil
Where Hollywood glamorizes violence, music and opera allow audiences to think for themselves
Flutes and flutists
Two Flutists Got Drunk and Listened to André 3000’s Flute Album
We swear, We Really Wanted To “Seriously” Analyze “New Blue Sun” But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Us This Time
ADVERTISEMENT
Support independent classical music journalism!
VAN runs on its subscribers. For less than $0.10 a day, you can help support our future and gain access to an archive of nearly 900 articles.
New in VAN
Opera’s Siren Servers
In its many lives, the platform Operabase has tried to become indispensable. Will its purchase this week by Events.com finally make that possible?
Pre-Election Paralysis
Julien Chavaz, the artistic director the Theater Magdeburg, on what an AfD government would mean for his house
Bach Festival Leipzig Stands By John Eliot Gardiner
The conductor will return to the festival following an allegation of “boundary crossing misconduct”
License to Earn
Regional orchestras see film music concerts as a way to generate money and expand their audience. But do these events benefit smaller ensembles, or big intellectual property holders instead?
Life After Monsieur
In memory of Hans Messner, who died this week after dedicating most of his life to Pierre Boulez
From five years ago…
From ten years ago…
Last But Not Least
