Guardian Music — Royal Festival Hall, LondonIt's rare but refreshing to see a soloist from the first half of a concert sit among the audience for the second. Mitsuko Uchida makes a habit of it, as do some younger players. But what I'd never seen, until now, was a vis... more info

Guardian Music — After a performance in Berlin just 10 days ago, Abbado has cancelled his return to La Scala. Meanwhile, Rattle's astonishing St Matthew Passion is onlineCouple of quick aftershocks and afterthoughts from Berlin: news that Claudio Abbado has cancelled... more info

Mercury News, California — An can play mid-period Beethoven with the menacing precision of a sharpshooter, and he can nimbly showcase the jazz in Rachmaninoff. But Chopin is his man. more info

Guardian Music — Quatuor Mosaïques(Laborie)Originally all members of Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus, the Austrian-based Quatuor Mosaïques were true pioneers in period-instrument performances of the 18th- and early 19th-century string quartet repertoire,... more info

Guardian Music — Steven Osborne(Hyperion)Steven Osborne's first foray into Beethoven on disc is also his first recording of genuinely mainstream classical repertory. It confirms that the qualities he has brought to a wide range of later works, from Liszt to Messiaen,... more info

The Telegraph — James Rhodes is the first classical pianist to be signed by a major rock label, Warner Brothers, for six albums of what he calls "hardcore stuff". more info

Topix — Since Beethoven 's death in 1827, musicians and academics have pored over his life, letters and documents with a fine-tooth comb; even his hair was the subject of an entire book. more info

Guardian Music — Outstanding interpreter of contemporary piano music - above all the work of her husband Olivier MessiaenThe French pianist Yvonne Loriod, who has died aged 86, was for half a century the inspirer and accredited interpreter of the piano music of Olivi... more info

Guardian Music — Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonThe journey through the Beethoven string quartets on which the Takács Quartet has taken its enthralled audiences since last November had to end at some point, and it did so with a standing ovation, as well as the less pre... more info

Guardian Music — Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonThe group dynamics of chamber music are endlessly fascinating, and the Takács quartet's veteran second violinist, Károly Schranz, often appears to be his ensemble's discretely dominant musical personality. So the natural... more info