Guardian Music — Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThere is a school of thought that Beethoven made history with his odd-numbered symphonies and marked time with the even-numbered ones. It's an oversimplification, yet the modestly scored Fourth invariably lives in the shad... more info

Guardian Music — Musicians at Manchester University performed at the premiere of "A Clockwork Operetta" inspired by Anthony Burgess's most famous workHe's best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, but the depth of Anthony Burgess's work is much broader.On Thursday... more info

Stereogum — Fine, sure, everybody hated Lulu. But maybe we were just listening to it wrong! As Exclaim! points out, Lou Reed has just released his own line of signature Klipsch earbuds — a steal at $399.99 — and maybe those headphones’ increased fidelity w... more info

Guardian Music — Assembly Rooms, BathThe Mozartfest, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, opened with a performance by the Emerson String Quartet of two of Mozart's Prussian quartets, K589 and 590, the last he wrote.The Emersons' characteristic transparency he... more info

Guardian Music — Romania's Mr Jazz who sought perfection as player, composer and teacherThe jazz pianist and double bass player Johnny Raducanu has died of a heart attack aged 79. For more than 30 years he had been pre-eminent in Romania as performer, composer and te... more info

Guardian Music — Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonA generation ago, a John Eliot Gardiner Beethoven concert was a gathering of rebel upstarts, of musical sans-culottes throwing down a radical performance practice challenge to what Gardiner, in his pre-concert speech, call... more info

Guardian Music — Mark Elder named the five symphonies that changed musical history; here are my own picksBeethoven 9Yes, it's the chorus, of course, and the entire universe of the secular, the sacred and the joyous that Beethoven composes in the finale. But it's real... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Festival Hall, LondonHow should one feel after a performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis? Elated at the memory of the jubilant Gloria? Uneasy at the disquiet of the Agnus Dei, and the way in which the choir seems to finish on an unresolved... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonRiccardo Chailly's Barbican Beethoven cycle with his storied Leipzig orchestra has been one of the musical pinnacles of the year. Yes, in specific movements Chailly's tempi have been disconcertingly fast, even by modern standards, and... more info

Guardian Music — Paul Lewis(Harmonia Mundi, two CDs)Seven years have passed since Paul Lewis's last solo Schubert recording, and this latest collection coincides with his continuing series of Schubert recitals. It groups together the three sonatas of 1825 and 1826 â... more info