Instrument: Keyboard

It's not really an opera (or even an oratorio), but Ted Hearne's The Source is important and engaging.

An evening of frivolousness and solemnity.

During Salzburg's Easter Festival, Isabel Karajan presented her look into Shostakovich and russisch authors who suffered under the Stalin Regime. The result is a fascinating collage about fear.

Introduced by Southbank Centre’s artistic director, Jude Kelly, this latest instalment of The Rest is Noise festival felt like one of those events that rarely finds its way into the concert diary. A packed hall witnessed one of those feats of sheer physical, intellectual and emotional energy that you are unlikely to forget.

As I sat in the intriguing darkness of Koerner Hall, Marielle Labèque carefully placed the opening notes of Le fils des étoiles by Erik Satie. They hung in the air like little crystals. This was a simple beginning, yet deceptively so, that would build towards something larger. In turn, these notes would unfold in a continuous stream of build-ups and decays.

John Zorn doesn’t look 60. He looks 35, or whatever age it is where you’re still just about young enough to get away with wearing baggy camouflage pants. “And that’s how it’s done!” he yells through his mic at the end of the first half, over huge applause and cheering from this passionate Barbican audience.

From Studio to Stage was the name of this year’s summer performance by young artists on the Jette Parker programme at the Royal Opera House. The programme includes not only singers but also conductors/répétiteurs, a pianist, a lighting designer and stage director Pedro Ribeiro, who surely wins the prize for best headshot.