Straight to the heart sergei rachmaninov1873-1943

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

Works by Bach, Vivaldi and Marcello Amandine Beyer (violin); Gli Incogniti Harmonia Mundi HMM90276970 134 mins The communicative warmth and infectious vitality of Amandine Beyer’s performances will ha

Kammerorchester Basel/Giovanni Antonini Alpha ALPHA1092 76:29 mins The most familiar of the symphonies here, if only because it has a nickname, is No. 55, whose ‘Schoolmaster’ title arises out of the

As part of my research for meeting Seong-Jin Cho, I learned that Korean names tend to have specific meanings. But I also found several variants (in translation, naturally) of his own moniker. One of m

In the Kent cottage where he has lived since 1964, Malcolm Binns reclines in an armchair, reminiscing. A mischievous gleam lights up his expression as the stories tumble out, from his lessons with Dam

When a young Russian singer suggested to Tchaikovsky in 1877 that he compose an opera based on Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin’s famous novel-in-verse, he dismissed it as a “crazy” idea. “Then, durin