Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Clarinet Sonata no. 1 in F minor, Op.120 no.1

Pierre Genisson parachutes in as clarinet soloist to join Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain, led by Berlin Phil Principal Clarinettist, Andreas Ottensamer.

Almost a case of bringing coals to Newcastle: two works by Brahms, played by a Swiss orchestra and with an Austrian soloist in the composer's home town.

Lorenzo Viotti conducts a programme of familiar favourites including a speedy Prokofiev “Classical” Symphony. 

The final event of the Ragged School Museum Festival saw a programme of Brahms and Shostakovich in the wonderful Victorian museum, tucked away at the heart of the East End.

Brahms wrote four of the greatest works in the clarinet repertoire for his friend Richard Mühlfeld. The indefatigable Michael Collins performed three of them in the latest recital in Stephen Hough's Brahms residency.

It seemed at times that Dame Mitsuko Uchida and clarinetist Jörg Widmann have been collaborating for decades.

Whenever Brahms is mentioned, songs and symphonies often come straight to mind: after all, the man was the master of all things symphonic, even his piano sonatas being called “veiled symphonies” by his mentor, Schumann.

Edinburgh's Queen's Hall, combining centre stalls with a horseshoe of pews on two levels, boasts a wonderful chamber music acoustic. The attentive Sunday afternoon audience for the SCO Chamber Concert had no difficulty making out every nuance of the small forces present.