Big orchestral flourishes, memorable themes, expansive action set pieces… These were once a staple of film music, but these days you are perhaps even more likely to hear such things coming from your T

THE BEST FILMS, BOOKS AND GREAT DAYS OUT TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS

Steven C Smith Oxford University Press 978-0-197-68128-2 312pp (hb) £31.99 Theirs remains one of the most thrilling composer-director collaborations of all time, and while Bernard Herrmann and Alfred

Andrey Gugnin (piano) Hyperion CDA684712 83 mins This album of Russian ballet transcriptions sparkles like a glass bauble hanging amidst the fairy lights. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky wrote so colourful

MATEUS ASATO IS the kind of guitarist we haven’t heard much of lately — a true original. He doesn’t do anything particularly outrageous or revolutionary — there’s no crazy gimmick (yet) that he’ll be

ON THE SURFACE, guitar trends in 1986 looked downright wild and perverse — a weird parade of shred-happy virtuosos, anthemic power pop heroes, dirtbag metalheads and eccentric alt-rock outsiders. But