Can classical music be cool?

Pianist Steven Osborne presents his insights into Olivier Messien’s Quartet for the End of Time, a landmark work for piano, clarinet, violin and cello, composed whilst Messiaen was an inmate of a Nazi prisoners of war camp and premiering in that camp in 1941, performed by Messiaen and three other prisoners.

Recorded in 1960, Dame Joan Sutherland’s gold standard recording The Art of the Prima Donna has been remastered for Classic Sounds and released on the Decca legends label. Dame Joan Sutherland sings with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducting. The listing includes Arne’s The Soldier Tir’d of War’s Alarms from…