fri 29/08/2025

David Nice

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Bio
The classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk, David writes, lectures and broadcasts on music. A former music critic for The Guardian and The Sunday Correspondent, he has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 3, not least in the long-running series Building a Library. He has written short studies on Elgar, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and the history of opera, and is currently working on the second volume of his Prokofiev biography for Yale University Press. He runs two Zoom lecture series, Opera in Depth on Mondays and a symphonies course on Thursdays.

Articles By David Nice

Elena Ferrante: The Lying Life of Adults review - a universal Neapolitan adolescence

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Kaleidoscope Collective, Wigmore Hall online – playing with panache, as if to a live audience

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Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, Bold Tendencies review - visions under the car-park roof

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Charles Owen, Fidelio Orchestra Café review - high-profile, robust romantics

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Heart's Delight, Opera Holland Park review - a classy hour of operetta pops

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A masked elegy: portraits of string players at the Fidelio Orchestra Café

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Elektra, Salzburg Festival, Arte review - distancing, but not in the physical sense

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Louis Schwizgebel, Fidelio Orchestra Café review – gilt-edged postcards from around the world

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Pavel Kolesnikov, Fidelio Orchestra Café review – a Chopin cosmos

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Anne Applebaum: Twilight of Democracy review - lost friends and new hope

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theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2020 – great live orchestra, ecstatic audience

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Classical music/Opera direct to home 21 - from large-scale memories to chamber-music streaming

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Alina Ibragimova, Samson Tsoy, Fidelio Orchestra Café review – cataclysms and calm on the Clerkenwell Road

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This House is Full of Music, Imagine..., BBC One review – a spring dream of a lockdown concert

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Classical music/Opera direct to home 20 - more signs of musical life around the UK

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Steven Isserlis, Fidelio Orchestra Café review – distilled reflection, joy and wit

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