Guardian Music — Colston Hall, BristolDuring her six-year tenure as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's principal conductor, Marin Alsop built up a strong fanbase in Bristol. So she got a warm welcome on this return to the Colston Hall, in appreciation of her role i... more info

Guardian Music — Perth Concert HallAlexander von Humboldt, German scientist and explorer, travelled the new world at the turn of the 19th century and wrote his reports in quasi-Romantic prose. His Personal Narrative of a Journey is an odd mix of scientific fact, glum... more info

Guardian Music — Almost every performer or composer I've met cannot stomach hearing their own recordings - even when they're the best you could ever hope to hear. Why not?Talking to pianist Richard Goode for this week's Music Matters, he said something to me that see... more info

Topix — Margaret Thatcher chose Beethoven, Michael Caine picked Frank Sinatra and boxer George Foreman selected The Beatles' "All You Need is Love." They are among almost 3,000 guests who have appeared on the radio program "Desert Island Discs," a British br... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Festival Hall, LondonAmnesty International was founded just over 50 years ago, an anniversary marked by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia with performances of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Dallapiccola's one-act opera Il Prigioniero (The ... more info

Guardian Music — Trio Zimmermann(Bis)These three Opus 9 trios present a fascinating picture of the young Ludwig, bursting with ideas and an impatient desire to take a musical form born as the baroque trio sonata and breathe bold new Beethovian life into it. But as st... more info

Guardian Music — Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThe Sixth is possibly the simplest of Beethoven's symphonies to listen to, yet the most challenging to present. By interpolating a storm into an unusual five-movement structure, Beethoven effectively created the first c... more info

Guardian Music — Dasch/Fujimura/Beczala/Zeppenfeld/Wiener Singverein/Wiener Philharmoniker/ThielemannSony Classical, six CDs"The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century" proclaims a sticker on these recordings, which were taken from concerts Christian Thielemann conducte... more info

Guardian Music — Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonJonathan Biss opened and closed his recital with two of the Beethoven sonatas – No 5 in C Minor, Op 10 No 1 and No 26 in E Flat "Les Adieux" – that feature on his latest album, the first volume of a full cycle, schedul... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonFirst performed in 1801, The Seasons was Haydn's last oratorio and has a reputation for being something of a problem piece. Its depiction of a divinely appointed, rationally ordered natural universe, populated solely by a cheerful rur... more info