I’ve been listening to a lot of Schumann lately, so it was with some pleasure I discovered that young Australian guitarist/composer Paul Ballam-Cross also finds Schumann “deeply inspiring” as he admits in the note on his self-titled debut recital. Ballam-Cross’s Two Portraits of One Subject is dedicated to Schumann. But those same qualities of melancholy, intimacy and nostalgia permeate the entire programme, which comprises works by Schumann (of course), Bach (a favourite of Schumann’s), Tárrega (who adored Schumann’s music), Chopin (born the same year as, and championed by, Schumann) and Sor (whose three studies evoke a kind of Schumannesque saudade). Tárrega’s preludes owe a debt to Chopin, and it is with Tárrega’s transcription of Chopin’s Mazurka No 4 that Ballam-Cross prefaces his sensitively rendered performances of those nine miniature masterpieces. He opens his recital, however, with Bach’s oft-performed-on-guitar Suite No 1 in G. He makes of it a spacious, searching prelude to the rest of the programme, which then moves through Sor to Ballam-Cross’s own lyrical, musical commentaries on Schumann’s work and personality, Chopin and Tárrega, before coming to rest, appropriately, on the latter’s transcription of Schumann’s Bunte Blätter No 1. This is a beautiful and thoughtful debut, which as…

In addition to masterful technique and sensitive lyricism, the English pianist Imogen Cooper is renowned for her impeccably considered and well-researched programmes, which eschew obvious choices. Her fifth recording for Chandos explores Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, exact contemporaries with personalities, egos and intertwined personal lives more generally associated with dissolute rockers of a century later; despite often strained relations, they were friends and great mutual admirers. This album’s initial impetus was Cooper’s rediscovery of Zoltán Kocsis’ piano transcription of the Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and the notion of playing it alongside Liszt’s transcription of the Liebestod, effectively, the beginning and end of the (five hour) opera. Particularly inspired is Cooper’s decision to include, as a bridge between these two abysses, Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola, written after a premonition that Wagner would die in Venice and his body would be borne along the Grand Canal, which did in fact happen. Also included are four of Liszt’s Italian Années de Pèlerinage, and his extraordinary transcription of Gretchen from his Faust Symphony, which glistens in Cooper’s hands. The liner notes by Dr Conor Farrington are erudite, learned and fascinating, as are the additional notes from Cooper herself. Zoltán Kocsis died…

There’s plenty to like about young German pianist Joseph Moog’s approach to Chopin’s three sonatas. The works span 27 years – almost the length of Chopin’s career. The seldom-recorded No 1 sees the teenage student experimenting with form and time signatures (witness the unusual 5/4 for the Allegretto) and is a rarity. Moog makes an eloquent case for having it heard more often, especially in the superbly restless finale. Just about every pianist worth their salt has recorded the other two works. The B Minor Second was famously described by Schumann as four of Chopin’s “maddest children harnessed together” to form a sonata. Moog takes the famous funeral march extremely slowly – it clocks in at over 10’ (compare Martha Argerich’s 8’34’’ or Ivo Pogorelich’s brisk 6’34’’) – but while other approaches are more weighty the beautiful nocturne-like middle section is played with affecting simplicity. The famous brief flurry of triplet quavers that follows, the “wind blowing over my grave” as the 19th-century virtuoso Tausig described it, is dispatched with breathtaking panache. Moog is equally astute in the Third Sonata, which many consider contains some of the finest Romantic music written for the instrument. Still only 30, he is being…

Brautigam's final furlong: The Diabellis are a satisfying conclusion to a superb survey.

Limelight talks to Russell Torrance about this year's strong contenders, Puccini's emotional manipulation, and the passion of the tuba.

Listeners generally preferred new instruments over Stradivaris in the largest ever blind testing experiment.

The French pianist loved the classics before discovering the Stones; 40 years after his first disc he still straddles both worlds.

A lifetime's experience served up in two hours of musical heaven.

The new instrument, valued at $1.4 million, is an Amati and was played by the cellist Amaryllis Fleming.

Ahead of her Australian tour, the Canadian pianist explains why communicating with audiences is vital.

Harpsichord wizard delivers all that is expected, and plenty more.

Works will range from opera, electronics, and immersive live performance, with two thirds of funding going to women composers.