Alexandra Wilson

4 weeks ago | thecritic.co.uk | Alexandra Wilson

This article is taken from the April 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. Up and down the land, university managers are waging war on their arts and humanities departments. Music is the discipline that is most beleaguered. First there was the Battle of Oxford Brookes, in which I was an early casualty.

2 months ago | thecritic.co.uk | Alexandra Wilson

This article is taken from the February 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. A farcical episode unfolds: a pianist in a Moscow concert hall plays a Mozart concerto, which is broadcast live on the radio. Stalin’s secretary calls to demand a recording but none has been made.

Jan 15, 2025 | engelsbergideas.com | Alexandra Wilson

The life story of Maria Callas, the most celebrated and adored opera singer of modern times, has been told countless times. Not only is she the subject of numerous biographies, but her life has inspired novels (most recently Daisy Goodwin’s Diva), a Broadway play (Terrence McNally’s Master Class), a piece of performance art (Marina Abramović’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas), and even a ‘psychobiography’ (Paul Wink’s Prima Donna), which attempted to analyse her from beyond the grave.

Jan 2, 2025 | thecritic.co.uk | Alexandra Wilson

The end The Musical Times is symbolic of a broader malaise in classical music You can learn a great deal about the cultural life of an era from its periodicals. Flick through the pages of BBC Music Magazine, Opera or Gramophone and alongside reviews and interviews you will find a great deal of subtle commentary about the state and status of classical music in contemporary Britain — a vital resource for the social historian of the future.

Dec 15, 2024 | thecritic.co.uk | Alexandra Wilson

Blaring incongruous sound is as much a sign of urban decay as piles of litter Noise is an inescapable feature of urban life. Residents of any Medieval city would have lived their lives against a soundtrack of incessantly pealing church bells, clattering wagon-wheels, clipping hooves, ringing anvils, and baaing and mooing livestock. Water would have sloshed as it was scooped from wells; ordure would have plopped and splattered as it was flung from windows.