Guardian Music — Purcell and Vivaldi are all very well, but it's a modern, avant-garde Norwegian who sends shivers down my spineSnow, ice, and frost music. We can do better than Debussy's The Snow is Dancing, than Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden or Vivaldi's Winter... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonAmong this year's various Ballets Russes centenary commemorations came a nicely conceived programme of music by some of the composers who ensured their immortality. There's nothing like hearing this music without the distraction of me... more info

Guardian Music — Hoddinott Hall, CardiffThe French composer Bruno Mantovani – definitely not to be confused with the Italian popular conductor Mantovani, he of the saccharine strings – is one of the young lions of French music and the subject of the las... more info

Guardian Music — Jazz pianist Stefano Bollani tells Will Hodgkinson why he'd hate to be a Rolling StoneWhile not wishing to suggest that he is sexually attracted to them, the Italian pianist Stefano Bollani is comparing a good session with his Danish rhythm section t... more info

Guardian Music — Last week you sent us your favourite lunar tunes. Now we want songs with pep in their step ...What to do about classical music? That's the question that's been rattling around my noggin'. I don't mean "do about" in the sense of "take care". I have no... more info

Guardian Music — When Sufjan Stevens was asked to write a symphony for New York, he turned to a hated freeway for inspiration. The musician tells Andrew Purcell whyThe Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is a miserable stretch of road. The BQE, as New ­ Yorkers call it, ha... more info

Guardian Music — Kings Place, LondonMost music heard today could be called electro-acoustic, but concerts devoted specifically to exploring the implications of electronic sound are exceedingly rare. Excellent, then, that the London Sinfonietta organised a three-day f... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonAfter opening the LSO's season with Debussy and Ravel, Valery Gergiev continued his exploration of the French repertoire with Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, a choice that will doubtless be viewed as contentious in some quarters. Th... more info

Buffalo News, New York — Piano music written by Frederick Chopin and Claude Debussy is more alike than some people may think, and Stephen Manes' program Tuesday night did a lot to prove that. more info

Guardian Music — As he brings the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to London, conductor Bernard Haitink discusses the secret of playing Mahler, what the Nazis did to music, and playing a Prom through gritted teethMost conductors dream of being the principal conductor of a ... more info