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

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

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

Pagan doom, Marmite metalcore, genre-smashing hardcore, razzle-dazzle arena metal… this has been the soundtrack to the decade to date

New tribute to their former guitarist Brian James is delivered with real passion.

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