‘if we have a garden full of great personalities, i’m happy. we need a variety of viewpoints on music’

Itzhak Perlman has just turned 80, but it’s a milestone this warm and wonderful violin virtuoso is in no rush to acknowledge. ‘Don’t hurry me,’ he jokes when I wish him an early Happy Birthday during

When you’re speaking to someone devastatingly fluent in four tongues (Italian, German, French and English) the subject of language naturally leads to some curiosity. Especially from a somewhat green-e

Sonatas Nos 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6; Sonata violino solo representativa in A major Rachel Podger (violin); Brecon Baroque Channel Classics CCS48525 70:08 mins No Arts Council funding was available to rescue

Norman Lebrecht on Music HE WORKED SO ...

Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMM902752 49:20 mins Those of us lucky, as I was at both their Ragged Music Festival and

Ask if national schools of piano really do exist, and one might be tempted to reply that there are only as many schools as there are pianists. Yet, the idea of a distinctive musical heritage, preserve