Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe second of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales's Proms appearances with their conductor Thierry Fischer brought another brace of local premieres. Both were flute concertos, written for the dazzling principal flautist of th... more info

Guardian Music — (Mode)Released as the first in a series of discs devoted to John Cage's works for percussion, the pieces here also include some of his earliest experiments in electro-acoustics. The first of the Imaginary Landscapes, from 1939, employs two variable s... more info

Guardian Music — Bright, young and full of ideas, the Aurora Orchestra meld classical music with anything from jazz to tango to Nico Muhly. Nick Shave meets their dynamic leaderIt's one thing to launch an orchestra; it's quite another to make it a success at a time w... more info

Guardian Music — Obituaries of Leo Kirch (16 July) have compared him with the international media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi. However, in one respect his career was sharply different, since he had an enlightened involvement with classical music.In 19... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe Prommers are back at the rail, inches from the conductor's feet and chanting their synchronised heave-hos. The fountain has gone from the middle of the arena but the shiny bust of Sir Henry Wood, who dreamt up the whole i... more info

Guardian Music — Wigmore Hall, LondonFrance has an outstanding crop of pianists in their 20s, 30s and 40s, including Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Cédric Tiberghien, François-Frédéric Guy and Lise de la Salle. But on this evidence David Fray, though widely admired in his... more info

Guardian Music — Celebrated cellist and original member of the Beaux Arts TrioOne of the first home-grown American cellists to achieve fame, Bernard Greenhouse, who has died aged 95, was best known as a great chamber musician, although he was also a superb soloist.... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe string-playing Capuçon brothers don't always come as a pair, but when they do they can be quite some team – as they showed in the second of this year's Proms by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Myung-... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonPascal Dusapin is arguably the most prominent of the 50-something generation of French composers, yet relatively little of what is now a considerable body of work seems to make it across the Channel. The opening fortnight of ... more info

Guardian Music — Loud. Cheap. Pretentious. What a young Gerard McBurney was told about Wagner's music. But neither parental disapproval nor the Wagnerians stopped him learning to love and cherish itIn my childhood, I knew almost nothing about Wagner. We listened to l... more info