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Musical Openings

This lecture looks at how composers of all periods have risen to the challenge of how to write a memorable musical opening sentence.

The Changing Impact of Infections as We Go Through Life and Age

The changing pattern of disease as we progress in life has implications for treatment and prevention.

Prokofiev's War and Peace

Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace (1953) was an adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel begun during WWII. He saw it as a personal interpretation of the novel.

Prokofiev's Epic Opera

"Prokofiev really was a crazy composer. He had lots of...

Digital Listening: The Future of Music in the Age of Digital Fragmentation

What’s the future of listening? What will happen to the ways we give attention to music in the future?

The Unacclaimed Accompanist

Graham Johnson examines a problematic profession that continues to attract many gifted young pianists to its ranks and asks why.

Infections of the Abdominal Organs

Our gut is permanently full of large numbers of bacteria but serious infections rarely occur due to its extraordinary immune system. Public health has reduced but not eliminated transmission of these potentially dangerous infections.

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1932) was more a personal than a political drama. All was well for the first two years after the opera’s première in 1934, but shortly after Stalin went to a performance, it was vigorously condemned in the state press.