East meets west

Ubiquitous pre-concert routines feature furtive programme reading and, for the truly organised, ordering interval refreshments. Activities do not usually include brushing one’s teeth and changing into

Yunchan Lim (piano) Decca 4871517 77 mins That Yunchan Lim is a remarkable pianist is self-evident in everything he plays. But let’s hope he doesn’t pay too much heed to the hype his singular talent a

On the morning of 9 January 1905 (22 January on the New Style calendar Soviet Russia later adopted), a crowd of striking workers marched peacefully through Saint Petersburg towards the Winter Palace,

Born in Moscow, Boris Giltburg emigrated to Israel in 1990 and won the Newport International Piano Competition at 13. But his international career really took off after winning the Queen Elisabeth Com

Berlin Philharmonic/Kirill Petrenko Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR250561 56 mins Kirill Petrenko’s early career stint at the Meiningen Court Theatre, a place indelibly associated with Brahms, laid the f

Never meet your heroes, so the saying goes. Writing about a favourite subject – classical music – has permitted me occasional opportunity to test that theory. While the odd star might have tarnished a