Performer: Jonathan Biss

Stepping in to replace Stephen Kovacevich, Jonathan Biss’ Schubert alternates between insight and impatience.

Jakub Hrůša conducts a magnificent Shostakovich 11 and, just after the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a work by one of the many Jewish musicians who perished there.

Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give an extraordinary, terrifying account of Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony, preceded by a Classical-Romantic tussle in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. 

Early Beethoven doesn't convince, but Karina Canellakis’s rendering of Shostakovich 8 pulls no punches: raw, frightening, even chastening

A boldly curated programme, showcasing two ambitious orchestral works premiered during the last two years, proved to be a most stimulating evening. 

Exhilarating playing, but speed isn’t everything as Jonathan Biss opens his Beethoven cycle in London.

For its 60th edition, the Touraine festival, founded by Sviatoslav Richter and directed by René Martin, keeps true to its values while spreading outside its boundaries.

Notre chroniqueur revient sur le 250e anniversaire de la naissance de Beethoven, son traitement par le service public audiovisuel... et la façon dont celui-ci célébrait l'art du compositeur il y a cinquante ans, en 1970.