The August 2025 issue is a special one: the 250th magazine published under the Limelight masthead. 

First published in July 2003, Limelight’s stated mission then was “to reflect a broader concept of the arts. History, science, comedy and poetry are as much a part of the artistic fabric of a country as music, dance or visual arts.” We’ve stuck to our guns ever since, and the August 2025 edition is a pretty good example of what we do. 

For starters, we hear from Alexander Briger, the Chief Conductor and founding Artistic Director of the Australian World Orchestra, who has programmed Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies in one concert for this year’s season. Madness or genius? It could be a bit of both, says Limelight Editor-at-Large Clive Paget.

Clive also interviews star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason about his new album, Shostakovich & Britten; his new book, The Power of Music; and his now infamous appearance last year as a castaway on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, in which he suggested that Rule, Britannia! should be dropped from the Last Night of the Proms …

In 2012, 45 years after the premiere of George Balanchine’s...