Instrument: Harpsichord

A star cast and red-hot conducting make for a memorable night at the Barbican.

The title of the latest programme by the Australian Chamber Orchestra is simply: Goldberg Variations. While Bernard Labadie’s ingenious arrangement of JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string orchestra takes up all of the second half of the programme, the first half was no less interesting.

A striking première by Eve Risser following Jean Rondeau’s captivating display of the virtuosic heights of French Baroque harpsichord writing.

This year’s Gala Conzert at Göttingen featured two different works not commonly heard and certainly not together, with excellent soloists and the Christ Church Cathedral Choir

Jory Vinikour was the soloist for Poulenc’s rarely heard Concert champêtre. A performance of Rachmaninov's Symphony no. 2, in which thrilling excess ruled, completed the program.

To reach the mother lode of Bach's keyboard music, you have to listen to it on harpsichord, and today, no performer embodies that mother lode more than Mahan Esfahani.

Czech harpsichord legend Zuzana Růžičková would have turned 91 on 14 January, making it an ideal night for a tribute concert featuring one of her star pupils, Iranian-American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani. As he noted in brief remarks sandwiched between rousing renditions of Bach, “When she died, I lost a great teacher. But this country lost part of its history.