Thursday 23 September 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ Celebrating 30 years of The Bridgewater Hall with the world premiere of a stunning new symphony by Sir James MacMillan On Wednesday 11 Sep...

Tuesday 29 September 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester The Sixteen bring peace and stillness to the opening concert of the Bridgewater Hall’s 30th International Concert Series ★★★★ Harry Christophers ...

Thursday 23 September 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ Celebrating 30 years of The Bridgewater Hall with the world premiere of a stunning new symphony by Sir James MacMillan On Wednesday 11 Sep...

Saturday 19 September 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★ ★★ ★ ★ The Orchestra opens its new season with a stunning homage to nature, and a new piece by Gabriella Smith with a strong ecological theme ...

Thursday 17 September 2026 The Ritz, Manchester ★★★★★ Voyage 35 take us on a joyful trip to the outer reaches of the Porcupine Tree catalogue In an interview with Nick Holmes Music in August, bass pla...

The band’s fifth album is an eclectic and very effective mix of genres that creates a melodic and dynamic whole Genre can be problematic in music. An example: I told my older brother that my son wante...

Shez Raja was born on the Wirral to an Asian father and an English mother. He began playing violin as a child, but soon switched to bass guitar. He was voted one of the ‘Hottest Bass Players in the Wo...

Colin Edwin was Porcupine Tree’s bass player from 1995 to 2010, playing on seven studio albums from Signify (1996) to The Incident (2009) before the band took a long hiatus. Edwin is currently a membe...

Colin Edwin was Porcupine Tree’s bass player from 1995 to 2010, playing on seven studio albums from Signify (1996) to The Incident (2009) before the band took a long hiatus. Edwin is currently a membe...

Malcolm Galloway is vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer of London-based progressive rock band Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate. He’s joined on bass by Mark Gatland, who also sings backing voc...

The English prog rock band Van der Graaf Generator have very rarely troubled the UK charts. So, based on chart positions, all the recordings released by the band and the solo albums released by band l...

Saturday 18 July 2026 Royal Albert Hall, London ★★★★ There’s life in the old prog yet… A celebration of the classic era of British prog rock The first-ever rock band to appear at the Proms was Soft Ma...

★★★★★ Wilson launches his Headphone Dust online store with a stunning live recording made on The Overview Tour in Madrid Impossible Tightrope: Live in Madrid is Steven Wilson’s fourth solo live album,...

Tuesday 30 June 2026 Aviva Studios, Manchester ★★★★ The music of four titans of contemporary classical music, including a new piece from Cassie Kinoshi that was remarkable in more ways than one Tuesda...

Saturday 20 June 2026 Manchester Monastery, Gorton Lane, Manchester ★★★★★ Kantos Chamber Choir celebrates its tenth anniversary in stunning surroundings and an amazing acoustic It’s ten years since Cl...

★★★★★ Johnson’s book is a deeply personal and human meditation on music and mental health, and the redemptive power of love “…As I got out of the taxi Kate fixed me with a look of intense, focussed co...

Friday 5 June 2026 The Royal Albert Hall, London ★★★★★ Kraftwerk’s music sounds as fresh and contemporary as ever by guest reviewer Mike Holmes Between 1975 and June 2026, Kraftwerk have been infreque...

Saturday 13 June 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ From a funeral march to resurrection: superb Mahler in Manchester From a funeral march to resurrection: superb Mahler in Manchester Manches...

Sunday 7 June 2026 University of Wolverhampton at the Halls, Wolverhampton ★★★★ BEAT brings King Crimson’s 1980’s legacy to joyful life I knew I was in the right place. At a fast food joint before the...

Tuesday 26 May 2026 The Royal Festival Hall, London ★★★★★ The Bach Choir’s moving and supremely human interpretation marks the 150th anniversary of their first performance of Bach’s masterpiece Tuesda...

23 May 2026 Welcome to the fourth in our series on a tour around some of Europe’s greatest concert venues. This post contains more images than usual, as a major part of a visit to the Elbphilharmonie ...

14 May 2026 We approached the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen on foot from the centre of the city, walking past the university towards a campus that houses DR (Danmarks Radio), which, like the BBC, is j...

10 May 2026 The mini-tour of Europe’s concert venues continues, with a slight diversion… On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Christiania Jazz Club in Copenhagen to see the Good Vibes Quartet. So, how ...

Thursday 7 May 2026 It’s said that in London, you are never more than six feet away from a rat. In Amsterdam, you are never more than six feet away from a bicycle.  On Thursday evening, a smartly dres...

Saturday 25 April 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ The orchestra continues its run of superb form with Julia Wolfe’s vision of the aftermath of 9/11, Bomsori’s virtuosic violin-playing in T...

Thursday 16 April 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ Intimate Mahler and spectacular Vaughan Williams with the Hallé Choir and Youth Choir on superb form Last Thursday evening’s concert, with...

Tuesday 7 April 2026 Band on the Wall, Manchester ★★★★★ Soft Machine launch their new album Thirteen and revisit some classics Last time I saw Soft Machine’s Theo Travis onstage was nearly a year ago,...

Sunday 22 March 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ★★★★★ Viktoria Mullova shines as the soloist in Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and the Hallé soloists excel in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra Sunday’s ...

Thursday 19 March 2026 Victoria Baths, Manchester ★★★★★ This was not just a concert; it was an immersive experience, taking us from dawn to dusk Many contemporary artworks and installations describe t...

Jan Vogler Jan Vogler travels the world as an internationally acclaimed cello soloist. He was in the UK in February to perform with various orchestras, including a superb performance of Shostakovich’s...

Saturday 14 March 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester **** Stunning singing from soprano Sarah Wegener in Wagner and Strauss, and the UK premiere of a potential classic by Edmund Finnis Saturday’s c...

Friday 13 March 2026 Lowry, Salford ***** A viscerally powerful production of Britten’s masterpiece In his programme note for Opera North’s performance of Peter Grimes at Lowry in Salford on Friday, A...

Sunday 8 March 2026 Royal Festival Hall, London ***** A dramatic and deeply devotional performance, part concert, part religious ritual The Bach Choir’s 150th Anniversary season, which opened last Oct...

Thursday 24 February 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ***** ‘A mature work from a highly accomplished composer’ – Jonny Greenwood’s new violin concerto performed by Daniel Pioro and The Hallé Radiohe...

Saturday 21 February 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ***** Love is a fragile thing: superb performances of Albarn Berg, Sergey Prokofiev and Cassandra Miller by Lawrence Power and the BBC Philhar…

Thursday 20 February 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester **** Exploring the Cosmos: The Hallé’s Stellar Concert The Hallé orchestra, Choir and Youth Choir. Image credit Sharyn Bellemakers/T…

Saturday 7 February 2026 The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester **** French-tinged minimalism, sparkling Ravel and Rachmaninoff’s final orchestral statement Elisabeth Brauß and members of the BBC P…

On 14 January 2017, I was staying in the Thistle Hotel, Euston, within striking distance of Euston station in London. That evening, I ordered a copy of the original cast recording of Lazarus the mu…

Saturday 17 January 2026 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester **** A serene Beethoven piano and two unresolved American orchestral classics from Ives and Adams Alim Beisembayev (at the piano), John Storgår…

Steven Wilson bites back at the future ***** THE FUTURE BITES™ In the early years Steven Wilson’s band, Porcupine Tree, were often compared to Pink Floyd and Wilson himself admitted the impor…

Manchester was the place to be for superb performances in 2025 The Year in Classical Music Sometimes going abroad reminds you how good things are at home. In the spring of 2025, I went to the Shost…

How a magnificent new book helped me rediscover the maverick’s music ***** The Cover of ROCK and ROLE by Joe Banks published by Kingmaker Publishing. Often, the route to discovering new music…

The Yard, Manchester Tuesday 9 December 2025 ***** Christmas magic comes early to Manchester with joyful singing and a party atmosphere The Apex Singers. Photo Harry Proctor On another unseasonably…

The Cover of The Overview by Steven Wilson, designed by Hajo Müller His Eighth Solo Album The Overview is Steven Wilson’s eighth solo album, released on 14 March 2025. It charted at number thr…

Friday 5 December 2025 RNCM, Manchester ***** The strings of the BBC Philharmonic shine in music by Bartók and Tchaikovsky The Strings of the BBC Philharmonic directed by Zoë Beyers. Image © Chris …

Sunday 30 November 2025 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ***** Manchester’s oldest orchestra become the city/region’s newest cultural ambassadors Akiko Suwanai, Kahchun Wong and members of …

Thursday 27 November 2025 Stoller Hall, Manchester **** Samantha Fernando’s new piece Wintering celebrates winter’s withdrawal from daily life Wintering with Samantha Fernando © Mike Sk…

The Cover of pH7 (1979) by Peter Hammill With typical sarcastic humour, Peter Hammill named his eighth solo album pH7, when it would have been more logical to name it PH (Peter Hammill) 8. He wrote…

Friday 14 November 2025 RNCM, Manchester ***** A spellbinding and emotional journey through a historical travesty of justice The Pendle Witch trials of 1612 have left a deep scar in our collective …

Saturday 8 November 2025 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester **** Elena Schwarz conducts nature-themed Debussy and Mahler, with the Manchester premiere of Dani Howard’s trombone concerto The BBC Phi…