Guardian Music — Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThis marked the start of the Hallé's Beethoven cycle, the orchestra's first, surprisingly, for 50 years. It promises to be unusual in several ways. The symphonies are spread out over the entire season, one per concert, ra... more info

WFMU's Beware of the Blog — It's seldom I see pre-avant gaurde classical music on a WFMU playlist, so I look twice on spotting it. Bob Brainen played "Jeux" by Claude Debussy next to "Shadows Breaking Over My Head" by the Left Banke., Maybe my surprise... more info

Guardian Music — The author explains how he came to abandon a conventional biography of the composer in favour of a 'club DJ' approach 'with lots of fast-forward and rewind'How did you come to write Why Mahler?I had been struggling with the question for most of my ad... more info

Guardian Music — Usher Hall, Edinburgh"Ladies and gentleman, bonsoir!", Stéphane Denève called out as usual from the podium, and received a booming "Bonsoir!" right back at him from the auditorium. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra's music director is entering ... more info

Guardian Music — It's as a result of his efforts that so much 20th-century music is now established in the concert repertoryThis weekend the Southbank Centre in London pays tribute to one of the most influential musicians of our age. In the 1970s and 80s Pierre Boule... more info

Guardian Music — Capuçon/Caussé/Capuçon/Angelich Dalberto/Quatuor Ebène(Virgin Classics, five CDs)Fauré composed chamber music more or less throughout his life, but it is the extraordinary series of works that he produced in the first decades of the 20th century... more info

Guardian Music — Perianes/BBCSO/Pons (Harmonia Mundi)Ambivalent, it would seem, about the piano, Manuel de Falla once famously told a journalist: "Virtuosity, with its concert tours, has always repelled me." His output for the instrument, with or without orchestra, w... more info

Guardian Music — Usher Hall, EdinburghMalcolm Martineau was as superlative a piano accompanist as ever, but there was no doubting who stood centre-stage for this recital. In persona as much as in voice, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila declares herself the grande dame ... more info

Guardian Music — Nero have high concepts and big ideas to spare, but it's pop music they do best, says Alexis PetridisThere's a longstanding tradition that an artist who starts their own record company will use it to sign artists in their own image: they don't call ... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonYou can, on occasion, have too much of a good thing. Donald Runnicles's first Prom with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra opened with Debussy's Prélude à L'Après-Midi d'un Faune and went on to explore its influence on th... more info