As Adam Fischer’s Dusseldorf Mahler cycle has evolved a clearer picture has emerged of his choices and priorities. He’s a very sympathetic and clear-headed Mahlerian whose nose for beauty and atmosphere (clearly led by very personal convictions)…

LSO Live have billed their new Simon Rattle recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony as ‘the complete version’. Doesn’t that go without saying these days? Surely no reputable conductor performing the piece now would countenance anything less? But…

Listening to Bartók’s chilling ‘pantomime grotesque’ The Miraculous Mandarin – complete – in a performance as good as this one you do ask yourself why anyone would programme the Suite any more. There is the small matter…

The London Symphony Orchestra have a kind of ownership on this piece. The era of Andre Previn and his and their championship of it was one of the defining moments in a period of change – not…

Each Sunday morning whilst awaiting the BBC’s news round-up from Andrew Marr (an erstwhile editor of mine) I generally catch the end of Gary Lineker and his pundits reviewing the week’s football. Now I’m no expert on…

It has often been said that over the last half-century or so orchestras have begun to sound more and more alike. As the instruments themselves have grown in sophistication, evolved to be more flexible and capable of…

A recent conversation with Vasily Petrenko once again brought home to me just how much at odds our impressions of Russian music can be when shared with those closer to its source. We were discussing his recent…

Sleeping Beauty – A Dramatic Symphony? Alarm bells start to ring. One of the greatest classical ballets in the repertoire – some might say the greatest – surely needs no reinvention. And however well you think you…