Schnittke Day

The quality was variable in a run-through of 12 of the labyrinthine works of Alfred Schnittke

Royal London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sanderling

The RLPO’s championing of the work of Mieczyslaw Weinberg made one want to explore farther the Soviet composers considerable legacy

Far Theatricals

Two of the biggest hits commissioned by the John Armitage Memorial were featured in this inspiring concert

Kings Place and Southbank Centre festivals

Aldeburgh Music, Takacs Quartet and London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Between Two Worlds among musical attractions

Lucy Crowe makes her ROH debut

The singer prepares to lead as Sophie in Richard Strauss’s popular neo-rococo romantic comedy, Der Rosenkavalier

Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Perahia

Two concerts in one — with five-star piano playing as a centrepiece, framed by three-star orchestral performance

Red Hedgehog: a perfect little gem

Intimate music-making venues such as the North London concert hall are worth fighting for, the actor argues

Aldeburgh Highlights

For the thrilling Monteverdi finale the bright paint still seemed wet as the singers coloured every word exquisitely

Philharmonia/Petrenko

Mussorgsky’s bare mountain throbbed and glowered with baleful sonorities; Shostakovich received a magnificently menacing performance

London Symphony Orchestra/Harding

Despite some fine moments, in Mahler’s Sixth Symphony the bigger picture seemed to elude Harding

Alison Balsom has put the glamour into the trumpet

With a classical Brit, wowing the Proms and mounting her own production with Edward Gardner. It can't get any better

The oddest couple

A composer and soul singer may be an unlikely match, but it is one made in heaven

Nicola Benedetti's trials of early fame

Former BBC Young Musician of the Year has finally taken command of her life as a young and successful musician

Singing in the wake of war

A middle-class choir from leafy West London was the first to visit Sierra Leone since the country’s bloody civil war

James Dillon: ‘I am looking for an endless intensity’

His music may be fiendishly difficult, but the Scottish composer is unrepentant

The Takács Quartet

Throughout the kaleidoscope they promoted their instrument’s individual colours and tones, yet stayed yoked together

Angela Gheorghiu

Criticism only goes so far when you reach these kitschy outer limits: gloriously silly, gloriously operatic with it

Angela Gheorghiu

Criticism only goes so far when you reach these kitschy outer limits: gloriously silly, gloriously operatic with it

London Symphony Orchestra/Tilson Thomas

If Matthias Goerne wobbled, the orchestra stayed solid, colouring the songs’ narratives with hues the singer whispered or missed

Bad Boys: tenors play lovers; basses play villains

Bryn Terfel is now far more than a singer. He’s a national institution, at least in the land of his fathers

Schnittke Day

The quality was variable in a run-through of 12 of the labyrinthine works of Alfred Schnittke

Royal London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sanderling

The RLPO’s championing of the work of Mieczyslaw Weinberg made one want to explore farther the Soviet composers considerable legacy

Far Theatricals

Two of the biggest hits commissioned by the John Armitage Memorial were featured in this inspiring concert

Kings Place and Southbank Centre festivals

Aldeburgh Music, Takacs Quartet and London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Between Two Worlds among musical attractions

Lucy Crowe makes her ROH debut

The singer prepares to lead as Sophie in Richard Strauss’s popular neo-rococo romantic comedy, Der Rosenkavalier