The admirable Guardian newspaper of London has redesigned its website, offering an exceptionally crisp presentation of its arts coverage alongside web-only and bloggy features. Here is the classical site. Currently at the top of the page are sound files for Andras Schiff's recent lectures on the Beethoven piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall (four up now, three more coming). The great pianist may sound a little stiff at first, but give him a chance to let his wry wit and musical intelligence show through. In the first lecture he digresses somewhat to tell the classic, possibly apocryphal tale of Maurizio Pollini's attempt to lecture on Schoenberg to Italian factory workers.
