Albums: Bachelor Girl Waiting For The Day: Artist Sessions

Far too often, anniversary albums feel like contractual obligations or exercises in nostalgia. Waiting for the Day: Artist Sessions is neither. It breathes new life into an already exceptional collection of songs while introducing them to a new generation through some of Australia's finest artists. More importantly, it serves as a reminder that Bachelor Girl's songwriting has always deserved to be spoken about alongside the very best pop of its era.

Crossover Albums: Revival: The New Album by Reductio

The textures throughout are stunning, and the resonance and reverberation are captured with real skill—this is a beautifully engineered record, not just a gimmick with a good story. What next—a bishop or dean DJing the gospel reading to a four-on-the-floor beat? Whatever it takes to draw new audiences into our cathedrals and abbeys, let's try it. I love its difference. I love its challenging nature. I love the disco beat. And for a critic over 60, I thoroughly enjoyed every irreverent, reverberating minute of it. Try it—and dare yourself to like it.

Albums: Now That’s What I Call Soft Rock & Power Pop Anthems

This new compilation brings together some of the biggest commercial rock songs of the last fifty years over a set of four CDs or three blue vinyl albums.

Albums: Ariana Grande Petal

If Eternal Sunshine hinted at a more reflective Ariana, Petal fully embraces that direction. These songs unfold gently, rewarding patience rather than demanding attention. The production is smooth and understated, blending soft pop with contemporary R&B textures that give the record a dreamy, almost weightless feel.

The CBSO Launches 'First Listen' – A Three-Part Concert Series For New Audiences, With Tickets Just £5 Each

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) has announced ‘First Listen’, a new three-part concert series at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall which has been created to introduce orchestral music to a new audience. At one hour each, and with tickets costing just £5, each concert in the series is designed to be the ideal introduction to seeing a symphony orchestra live.

From Alpine Roots To Global Stages: How Oesch’s Die Dritten Keep Tradition Alive

In the rolling green valleys of Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, where yodelling once carried messages from mountain to mountain, a family ensemble has spent nearly three decades proving that tradition need not stand still to survive.

Classical Music: Contemporary Uzbek Music for Clarinet and Piano

Contemporary Uzbek Music for Clarinet and Piano is the first commercial recording given over wholly to this repertoire, and it arrives with several works written for and dedicated to its soloist. Sayyod Mirzomurodov, an international soloist, chamber musician, and educator, is about as well placed as any clarinettist could be to bring this music to disc: several of the pieces exist because he does.

Classical Music: Vienna Philharmonic Sommernachtskonzert Schönbrunn 2026

The world's largest annual open-air classical concert needs no introduction, but Schönbrunn's Baroque park still supplies one every June: torchlit gardens standing in for a concert hall and a Viennese audience with the best seats in Europe. This year's instalment, recorded on 19 June, brought two Summer Night Concert debuts of consequence — Lorenzo Viotti on the podium and Sir Bryn Terfel as soloist, despite decades of prior collaboration with the orchestra. It hardly sounds like a first date.

HENGE Prepare To Beam Down Across 17 Countries On Biggest Mission Yet

After a decade of steadily expanding their reach across the UK and Europe, Manchester's self-proclaimed intergalactic travellers HENGE are preparing for their biggest Earth mission to date. The band have announced a 75-date world tour spanning 17 countries – with more still to come – marking not only their most ambitious run yet but also their long-awaited first shows across North America.

Albums: Little Miss Twain Shania Twain

Perhaps the biggest surprise arrives with Faded Blue Jeans, featuring Josh Homme. It's an unlikely pairing that somehow makes complete sense, with Homme's gravelly vocals adding a rugged edge to a song that blurs the boundaries between country, blues and rock. Their chemistry is effortless, and the result is one of the album's most memorable collaborations

Albums: Amy Shark Soft Pop

Amy Shark has always excelled at turning life's awkward, painful and complicated moments into memorable songs, but soft pop feels different. Stripped back and refreshingly uncomplicated, this is an album that places her voice and innermost thoughts front and centre, allowing the emotion to do the heavy lifting. The production rarely gets in the way, creating the feeling that you're sitting with Shark as she quietly unpacks her experiences without fear, shame or pretence.

Follow Your Gut, Don't Rush, Don't Compromise: Shawn Colvin On 30 Years Of A Few Small Repairs

Over the course of more than three decades, Shawn Colvin has established herself as one of America's most captivating performers and revered storytellers.

A Year At Portsmouth

Thirty years is no small tenure, and Regent Records' latest instalment in its cathedral series chooses to mark David Price's three decades at the helm of music at Portsmouth Cathedral with a disc that feels less like a retrospective and more like a tide turning full circle. As is the way with this series, the selection draws from the choir's repertoire across the liturgical year, and the result is a recording of genuine freshness — one that rewards repeated listening rather than exhausting itself on a single pass.

Classical Music: Martha Argerich: A- Z Schumann - Tchaikovsky

Martha Argerich is nothing less than the High Priestess of the Piano, and this release marks a fitting way to celebrate her 85th birthday: a complete digital collection of her recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Philips, spanning 65 years, from 1961 to the present day. Her solo recordings, though relatively few, are each a gem — from Chopin to Ravel, Bach to Schumann — but it is her partnerships with the great artists of her generation that have defined her legacy: Claudio Abbado, Nelson Freire, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky and Daniel Barenboim are among them.

Yorkshire Music Charity To Merge With National Young Talent Fund

A North Yorkshire-based music charity is joining forces with national charity Future Talent to provide increased support for young musicians in Yorkshire and the North East.

Opera North To Perform At Bradford’s Darley Street Market

Opera North’s bitesize version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute comes to Bradford’s Darley Street Market this August, offering a fairy tale opera for all the family. Mini Magic Flute packs fun, fantasy and enchanting music into a 40-minute story, making it perfect for all ages to experience their first taste of opera. A prince is in search of a princess, but will they ever find each other?

One Voice Choir To Sing For Supper With A Soul Food Festival

Audience donations of tinned and dried food will be accepted as admission to special charity concert taking please this weekend Saturday 25th July as part of the MET programme of entertainment which launched in Preston this weekend. The One Voice Choir, a Preston based group, is inviting local music lovers to enjoy an evening of live entertainment while helping families in need this summer.

From Croy Village Hall To Nashville: Jamie Rafferty On The EP That Ticks Every Box

A village hall in North Lanarkshire is not where careers in Nashville are supposed to begin. Jamie Rafferty's did anyway.

All That Jazz - Jazz à Juan Festival

The annual Jazz à Juan Festival, held under the pines at Pinède Gould in Juan-les-Pins, might not be the largest jazz festival in Europe in terms of capacity – what the festival lacks in size is compensated by the stature and reputation Jazz à Juan holds within the jazz community.

Classical Music: Thème varié

There is a particular pleasure in returning to a recording again and again as a reviewer and finding that it yields something new each time, while one thing remains constant. With this latest Chandos disc from Elena Urioste and Tom Poster, that constant is the sheer beauty of the playing: the balance between soloist and accompanist is judged to perfection, and the engineers have done what Chandos so often manages, capturing the sound with such transparency that the listener seems to be eavesdropping on the duo rather than hearing a recording at all. It is sublime, moving and endlessly captivating.

Albums: The Rolling Stones - Foreign Tongues

If that is the case, the band’s 25th studio album is a fine one to end with, coming with a huge dose of blues, rock, attitude and the unmistakable vocals of Mick Jagger; even at the age of 82, he can still rock with swagger and style.

December 10, Wulfrun Hall

Despite a shaky start, Simon Cowell's December 10 seems to be finally making headway. With the assumption that a Netflix series would propel them to instant international success and huge chart acclaim, they appear to have fallen very far short of those anticipations.

Blue Plaque Installed At Liverpool ONE Is Music To Brad’s Ears

A blue plaque has been unveiled at Liverpool ONE to mark the spot where piano star Brad Kella first performed at the centre more than 10 years ago.

In Conversation: Bongeziwe Mabandla

Few artists capture vulnerability with the grace and honesty of Bongeziwe Mabandla. Across his acclaimed catalogue, the South African singer-songwriter has built a reputation for crafting intimate songs that blend folk, electronic textures and Xhosa storytelling into something deeply personal yet universally resonant.

Vasily Petrenko On Nurturing Talent, Broadening Horizons And Lifelong Learning

Following the success of his 2026 Academy for Young Conductors, Vasily Petrenko reflects on what it takes to shape the next generation of conductors – and what he wishes he’d been taught in his early years This week, as I wrapped up the Academy for Young Conductors in the Armenian capital of Yerevan for another year, I was struck by a recurring thought: I wish something…

Billy Ocean - All Plain Sailing In Halifax

They were one of the biggest bands in the late eighties and early nineties, culminating in 1994 when Wet Wet Wet spent fifteen consecutive weeks at Number One with their version of Love Is All Around. The group are still recording and touring, though original frontman Marti Pellow is now a solo artist besides having an acclaimed acting career.

DLA Piper Renews Partnership With CBSO For Fourth Consecutive Year

The CBSO has announced that global law firm DLA Piper’s Birmingham office has renewed its partnership with the orchestra for a fourth consecutive year.

In Conversation With Headwreck

Having earned a reputation as one of Australia's most electrifying new acts, Headwreck already have their sights set on world domination.

ABC And The Human League - Together In Electric Dreams In Leeds

They were two of the biggest pop acts of the early eighties; ABC and The Human League went from the nightclubs of Sheffield to conquer the world with their hit singles and albums. ABC delivered one of the most iconic albums of that period in the shape of The Lexicon of Love.

Winterreise In The Ryedale Heatwave: Icy Solitude At The Height Of Summer

Pickering Church, with its striking mediaeval architecture and clear, focused acoustic, provided an ideal setting for the opening Saturday of the Ryedale Festival. Staging Franz Schubert’s deathless Winterreise in the midst of a heatwave created an unintended antipathetic fallacy that worked remarkably well.

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