Mark Pullinger
@larkingrumple.bsky.social
Music critic, editor, programme note writer. Happy to be ambushed by cake. Best when caffeinated.
https://canzonetta.substack.com/
https://canzonetta.substack.com/
Pinned
Thinking of propagating the myth that Salieri poisoned Mozart with a laced Mozartkugel...
Anyway, Shaffer's Amadeus gets a new serialisation on Sky soon, so I wrote about it: bachtrack.com/feature-amad...
Anyway, Shaffer's Amadeus gets a new serialisation on Sky soon, so I wrote about it: bachtrack.com/feature-amad...
The December issue of Gramophone has landed... including my Recording of the Month review of Lucia di Lammermoor, featuring the outstanding Lisette Oropesa: www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...
Editor's Choice: December 2025 | The best new classical recordings
Our Recording of the Month is an outstanding new recording of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor conducted by Fabrizio Maria Carminati
www.gramophone.co.uk
December 6, 2025 at 7:13 AM
The December issue of Gramophone has landed... including my Recording of the Month review of Lucia di Lammermoor, featuring the outstanding Lisette Oropesa: www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
Dmitri Shostakovich walking his cat with his wife in the snow.
December 5, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Dmitri Shostakovich walking his cat with his wife in the snow.
It was a treat to sit down and peruse the score of Rachmaninov’s The Bells with Vasily Petrenko for Gramophone ahead of @royalphilorchestra.bsky.social’s new recording:
www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...
www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...
Rachmaninov’s The Bells: inside the score with Vasily Petrenko
Vasily Petrenko talks to Mark Pullinger about the composer’s personal favourite of his own works
www.gramophone.co.uk
December 5, 2025 at 4:59 PM
It was a treat to sit down and peruse the score of Rachmaninov’s The Bells with Vasily Petrenko for Gramophone ahead of @royalphilorchestra.bsky.social’s new recording:
www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...
www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...
Residenz München bling…
December 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Residenz München bling…
Sergei Leiferkus, 79 years old and still going strong!
December 4, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Sergei Leiferkus, 79 years old and still going strong!
Munich is basically Christmas City…
December 4, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Munich is basically Christmas City…
Thinking of propagating the myth that Salieri poisoned Mozart with a laced Mozartkugel...
Anyway, Shaffer's Amadeus gets a new serialisation on Sky soon, so I wrote about it: bachtrack.com/feature-amad...
Anyway, Shaffer's Amadeus gets a new serialisation on Sky soon, so I wrote about it: bachtrack.com/feature-amad...
December 3, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Thinking of propagating the myth that Salieri poisoned Mozart with a laced Mozartkugel...
Anyway, Shaffer's Amadeus gets a new serialisation on Sky soon, so I wrote about it: bachtrack.com/feature-amad...
Anyway, Shaffer's Amadeus gets a new serialisation on Sky soon, so I wrote about it: bachtrack.com/feature-amad...
Very much liked Cathy Marston’s Against the Tide, an absorbing new ballet that is so obviously about Britten, Pears and pacifism, but without imposing them too heavily on the work.
December 2, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Very much liked Cathy Marston’s Against the Tide, an absorbing new ballet that is so obviously about Britten, Pears and pacifism, but without imposing them too heavily on the work.
Joy to the world! A gorgeous selection of festive fare from Christiane Karg and Gerold Huber at @wigmore-hall.org.uk last night. Review 👇
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
Christiane Karg/Gerold Huber review — spellbinding Christmas songs
The soprano and her fellow Bavarian offered a programme featuring 14 composers at Wigmore Hall, including Engelbert Humperdinck and Peter Cornelius
www.thetimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Joy to the world! A gorgeous selection of festive fare from Christiane Karg and Gerold Huber at @wigmore-hall.org.uk last night. Review 👇
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
After the cancellation of her festive programme in 2021, I'm especially looking forward to hearing Christiane Karg at @wigmore-hall.org.uk this evening: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202...
Christiane Karg soprano; Gerold Huber piano
Christiane Karg soprano; Gerold Huber piano 'Weihnachten – es naht die jubelvolle Zeit'
www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
December 1, 2025 at 3:56 PM
After the cancellation of her festive programme in 2021, I'm especially looking forward to hearing Christiane Karg at @wigmore-hall.org.uk this evening: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202...
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
Soprano Christiane Karg and pianist Gerold Huber present their seasonal recital this evening including a sequence of heartwarming songs by Engelbert Humperdinck, Peter Cornelius and more 🎀
🕰️ 7.30pm
🎶 'Weihnachten – es naht die jubelvolle Zeit'
🎟️ https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202512011930
🕰️ 7.30pm
🎶 'Weihnachten – es naht die jubelvolle Zeit'
🎟️ https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202512011930
December 1, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Soprano Christiane Karg and pianist Gerold Huber present their seasonal recital this evening including a sequence of heartwarming songs by Engelbert Humperdinck, Peter Cornelius and more 🎀
🕰️ 7.30pm
🎶 'Weihnachten – es naht die jubelvolle Zeit'
🎟️ https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202512011930
🕰️ 7.30pm
🎶 'Weihnachten – es naht die jubelvolle Zeit'
🎟️ https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202512011930
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
May we never stop trying to write cricket bats.
![HENRY: Shut up and listen. This thing here, which looks like a wooden club, is actually several pieces of particular wood cunningly put together in a certain way so that the whole thing is sprung, like a dance floor. It’s for hitting cricket balls with. If you get it right, the cricket ball will travel two hundred yards in four seconds, and all you’ve done is give it a knock like knocking the top off a bottle of stout, and it makes a noise like a trout taking a fly… (He clucks his tongue to make the noise.) What we’re trying to do is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might … travel … (He clucks his tongue again and picks up the script.) Now, what we’ve got here is a lump of wood of roughly the same shape trying to be a cricket bat, and if you hit a ball with it, the ball will travel about ten feet and you will drop the bat and dance about shouting ‘Ouch!’ with your hands stuck into your armpits. (Indicating the cricket bat.) This isn’t better because someone says it’s better, or because there’s a conspiracy by the MCC to keep cudgels out of Lords. It’s better because it’s better. You don’t believe me, so I suggest you go out to bat with this and see how you get on. [quoting from the play] ‘You’re a strange boy, Billy, how old are you?”Twenty, but I’ve lived more than you’ll ever live.’ Ooh, ouch! (He drops the script and hops about with his hands in his armpits, going ‘Ouch!’ ANNIE watches him expressionlessly until he desists.)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tfusco6lurhflepbh3g7m7s5/bafkreihts3fxnflkahxc7f6q4gpmjmbfxxkoeerd7ksiqmqvgl2mvgerbe@jpeg)
November 29, 2025 at 7:17 PM
May we never stop trying to write cricket bats.
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
glad to see Carrasco was inspired by the Berkhatov Norma
(photos by Les Arts Valencia)
(photos by Les Arts Valencia)
November 29, 2025 at 9:50 AM
glad to see Carrasco was inspired by the Berkhatov Norma
(photos by Les Arts Valencia)
(photos by Les Arts Valencia)
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
My review of last night’s wonderful all-Haydn concert with the OAE:
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
OAE/Schiff review — who says Haydn isn’t box-office gold?
Andras Schiff conducted an all-Haydn programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, before performing himself — and finding a tuning hammer in his piano
www.thetimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM
My review of last night’s wonderful all-Haydn concert with the OAE:
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
Gaetano Donizetti, born OTD in 1797, composed around 70 operas. Which ten made my playlist?
bachtrack.com/playlist-top...
bachtrack.com/playlist-top...
November 29, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Gaetano Donizetti, born OTD in 1797, composed around 70 operas. Which ten made my playlist?
bachtrack.com/playlist-top...
bachtrack.com/playlist-top...
My review of last night’s wonderful all-Haydn concert with the OAE:
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
OAE/Schiff review — who says Haydn isn’t box-office gold?
Andras Schiff conducted an all-Haydn programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, before performing himself — and finding a tuning hammer in his piano
www.thetimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM
My review of last night’s wonderful all-Haydn concert with the OAE:
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
Scenes of general rejoicing in Crouch End at the reopening of Waitrose (after a 7-week refurb #firstworldproblems) tempered by discombobulation at not being able to find anything...
November 28, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Scenes of general rejoicing in Crouch End at the reopening of Waitrose (after a 7-week refurb #firstworldproblems) tempered by discombobulation at not being able to find anything...
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
Magnificent Elgar from Beth Taylor, Edward Gardner and the @lporchestra.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
LPO/Gardner review — I’d happily drown in this singer’s magnificent voice
Mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor brought five-star conviction to this all-Elgar programme conducted by Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall
www.thetimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Magnificent Elgar from Beth Taylor, Edward Gardner and the @lporchestra.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
Magnificent Elgar from Beth Taylor, Edward Gardner and the @lporchestra.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
LPO/Gardner review — I’d happily drown in this singer’s magnificent voice
Mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor brought five-star conviction to this all-Elgar programme conducted by Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall
www.thetimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Magnificent Elgar from Beth Taylor, Edward Gardner and the @lporchestra.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
www.thetimes.com/culture/clas...
Reposted by Mark Pullinger
Tchaikovsky put on trial: my Opera Now review of a thrilling Maid of Orleans in Amsterdam
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans at Dutch National Opera | Live Review
'A lot of love has clearly gone into preparing this production and it deserves the widest possible audience'
www.gramophone.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Tchaikovsky put on trial: my Opera Now review of a thrilling Maid of Orleans in Amsterdam
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
Delightful discovery today: many will be familiar with Leonard Boden's portrait of Boris Christoff in costume as Boris Godunov. Here he is, watching Boden apply the finishing touches:
November 22, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Delightful discovery today: many will be familiar with Leonard Boden's portrait of Boris Christoff in costume as Boris Godunov. Here he is, watching Boden apply the finishing touches:
It's eight years since the untimely death of baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Here's an early (1990) recital where he is in simply glorious voice: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-15...
Подарок меломану. Дмитрий Хворостовский (1990)
YouTube video by Советское телевидение. ГОСТЕЛЕРАДИОФОНД
www.youtube.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:48 AM
It's eight years since the untimely death of baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Here's an early (1990) recital where he is in simply glorious voice: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-15...
Gustav Klimt portrait sale breaks modern art record www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...
Gustav Klimt portrait sale breaks modern art record
The painting of Elisabeth Lederer, a patron’s daughter, was the ‘height of his artistry’ according to the auctioneer at Sotheby’s in New York
www.thetimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Gustav Klimt portrait sale breaks modern art record www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...
Tchaikovsky put on trial: my Opera Now review of a thrilling Maid of Orleans in Amsterdam
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans at Dutch National Opera | Live Review
'A lot of love has clearly gone into preparing this production and it deserves the widest possible audience'
www.gramophone.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Tchaikovsky put on trial: my Opera Now review of a thrilling Maid of Orleans in Amsterdam
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...