One man and his cello: Pieter Wispelwey performs Britten’s Cello Suites

Kazuki Yamada combines Japanese deference with full control of his players to lead he CBSO to fine performances of Beethoven and Sibelius, with a relatively laid back performance of the Elgar Cello concerto.

At one point in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, the narrator is listening to a sonata for piano and violin by the fictional Vinteuil, when “at a certain moment, without being able to distinguish any clear outline, or to give a name to what was pleasing him, suddenly enraptured, he tried to grasp the phrase or harmony – he did not know which – that had just been played and that had opened and expa

The noted Beethoven pianist Artur Schnabel was famously interested only in music that he felt was “better than it can be performed”. This idea of works which transcend any individual performance seems particularly true when it comes to Beethoven’s late string quartets, enigmatic masterpieces which continue to pose challenges to interpreters nearly two centuries after they were written.

A compelling concert at Liverpool’s Tung Auditorium offers a striking Josephine Stephenson’s UK premiere, dazzling John Adams and Steve Reich’s mesmerising Reich/Richter.

As part of the Southbank Centre's Multitudes festival, Unnatural Harmony: Sounds of Lee Alexander McQueen offers a multimedia tribute to the life and creative vision of the iconic British fashion designer. 

In an all-Russian programme in Liverpool, Alim Beisembayev gives a breathtaking performance of Prokofiev's fiendishly difficult Second Piano Concerto.