A personal and deeply felt expression of sorrow

Rachmaninov himself at the piano, recorded in 1929, is bound to remain a benchmark, even after nearly a century. Like many performers at the start of the recording era, Rachmaninov was microphone-shy

Symphony No.1 (arr. Shai Wosner); Piano Trios, Op. 70, No. 1 ‘Ghost’ & Op. 11 ‘Gassenhauer’ Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Leonidas Kavakos (violin), Emanuel Ax (piano) Sony 19802908842 78:03 mins Smiles are power

Jonathan Gaisman is a KC and a writer on cultural topics

Classical music has a problem with perfection. You’d have thought the most important job of any professional musician was learning, playing and repeating the notes composers wrote down so often that t

Claire Jackson’s opinions on Brahms (Hero or Hype?; August) resonated with me. I studied his First Symphony for O-Level, and his Fourth for A-Level. Then at college, my piano teacher insisted I learn

December round-up Although he’s been writing and performing for many years, Donald WG Lindsay might come across as a bold new Scottish talent on Two Boats Under the Moon, his excellent two-disc debut