Sophia Lambton became a professional classical music critic at the age of seventeen when she began to be published in Musical Opinion, Britain’s oldest magazine centred on classical music. Since graduating from the University of Oxford in 2015, she has also written for The Guardian, Bachtrack, musicOMH and Broadway World.
In 2019 she finished The Crooked Little Pieces: a series of novels about strange passions and self-paradox spanning five decades. She has also spent several years researching a classical music-related book now in its fifth draft.
You can find more of her work at https://sophialambton.substack.com/.
August 15, 2021
Tightly-buttoned Bach met a bombastic Shostakovich in this demonstration of four radically different works that came across as either under- or expressly overstated.
September 10, 2020
Accentuating agony across three erasa?? worth of works, Paavo Järvi conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra unsettlingly in both good and bad ways.
August 11, 2019
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted an evening of music where emotion overrode pristine beauty.
July 22, 2019
Evolving artists with differing amounts of stage experience formed a variably green, prepared and overworked ensemble in this summer showcase of the Royal Opera's young roster singers.
July 21, 2019
*****#JakubHrusa builds a wondrous labyrinth of melodies with @bambergsymphony and @JoshuaBellMusic in the original #BohemianRhapsody @BBCProms
June 29, 2019
A slick delivery of operatic satires by students of the Royal College of Music challenges contemporary, outmoded conceptions about 'amateur' vs. 'professional'.
April 30, 2019
In a minimalist setting, Benjamin Britten's 20th-century reflections on Herman Melville's novel are deftly captured musically and visually.
April 28, 2019
Stupendous singing from a group of students battled old professionals who didn't dare reward risks.
March 30, 2019
Juan Diego Flórez gave an orchestral recital which failed to display his superlative assets.
February 19, 2019
If there are golden voices, the instrument of Elina Garanca isn't among them. Dusky like a claret, the mezzo-soprano's pervasive, pure timbre emerges with the strength of a tree bark; equally, the luscious lilt of gently pouring molten bronze.
February 9, 2019
This evening of contrasting sentimental works was far too fiery to resound with echoes of the (Russian) soul.
January 15, 2019
A quarter of a century after its premiere, the long-running production is still worth a shot.
January 14, 2019
The Royal Opera's new production sidelines the opera in favour of meaningless chaos.
December 14, 2018
The spectacle is a hunger-inducing delight for the eyes.
December 1, 2018
Barrie Kosky's unmusical revival loses more steam on its second outing.
October 24, 2018
Antonio Pappano's conducting of the work evoked gloom but didn't approach closely enough the more sinister subject of death.
September 6, 2018
Under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the evening exuded Romantic electricity - of a calibre not always the most musical or Berliozian.
August 19, 2018
Sir Simon Rattle enslaved the LSO under Ravel's near-supernatural spell; solo singers strived to follow him along the trail.
June 5, 2018
In the space of just a brief recital, Joyce DiDonato brings World History to Covent Garden (and makes some).
March 30, 2018
Magical realism is supplanted by kitchen sink comedy-drama in this adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 2002 hit novel of the same name.
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