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Fretwork bring the expected and the startlingly unexpected to Sheffield in a revealing evening of music for viol consort. 

Jean Rondeau’s anniversary tribute to Louis Couperin reveals a refined but inward-looking aesthetic – beautifully controlled, yet ultimately lacking the rhetorical energy, physicality, and communicative spark essential to this music.

The Celtic Connections festival showcases Górecki’s Sorrowful Songs, the BBC Scottish with soprano Francesca Chiejina conducted by Pawel Kapula with a thoughtful introductory song set from Alice Zawadzki.

Ensemble Masques brings French Baroque to life at the Elbphilharmonie, with Olivier Fortin’s radiant harpsichord, spirited strings and vivid interplay revealing the expressive richness of Couperin, Rameau, Forqueray and Corrette.

Vox Luminis bring radiant Advent performances to northern Germany, filling Hamburg’s winter evening with joy, clarity and winter-firewood charm.

Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto comes alive as Stephen Hough joins Domingo Hindoyan and the RLPO in an explosive performance of this dramatic work. 

Martyn Brabbins conducts MacMillan’s Confession of Isobel Gowdie, BBCSSO founder Ian Whyte’s forgotten Violin Concerto with Stephanie Gonley, and a memorable Rachmaninov 2.

From Bach to the American Minimalists (and some of their friends and acquaintances) on Shani Diluka’s journey in search of transcendence.

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste, present an Arvo Pärt portrait concert in Glasgow. 

Sixtrum’s program – framed by two very different composers but just as much by the big wooden instruments that filled the staging ground – is pristine both In sight and sound.