★★★★½ Robertson delivers a tale well told, whichever way you look at it.

The acclaimed musician has been presented with this year's Don Banks Music Award in honour of his contribution to music.

Classical performers are increasingly concerned with their looks… but isn’t it supposed to be about the music? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

★★★★½ Robertson’s opener did mean a thing ‘cos it sure had that swing.

It’s not just hard work, says the musician described as the Paganini of his instrument. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

★★★★★ Alondra de la Parra sweeps into QSO as Music Director designate. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

★★★★½ The visiting virtuoso proves his acclaim as the “Paganini of the recorder”.

Ryan Wigglesworth is making a name for himself as an accomplished conductor, composer and pianist. He is Composer in Residence with the English National Opera, for whom he is writing an opera for the 2017 season, and is Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé orchestra, who feature on this recording. This album is the first full-length portrait of his compositions and demonstrates his prowess over a variety of mediums. Wigglesworth’s Echo and Narcissus: A Dramatic Cantata, for which the album is named, is a setting of text from Ted Hughes’ Tales from Ovid that had its premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2014. Wigglesworth on piano is joined by mezzo-soprano Pamela Helen Stephen, tenor Mark Padmore and two choruses of female voices. Stephen, augmented by chorus, is the narrator – her voice sumptuous and authoritative. The part of Echo is sung by a wistfully distant second chorus (heard mainly from offstage), while Padmore makes an anxious, keening Narcissus. The album opens with Augenlieder, a suite of four songs, settings of poems linked thematically by eye or gaze imagery, written for soprano Claire Booth. Wigglesworth conducts the Hallé, the orchestra a haunting underbelly to Booth’s limpid soprano. Three orchestral works round…

Alina Ibragimova has previously tackled Bach’s solo violin Sonatas and Partitas with great success, and here she presents an equally superb recording of the Bach violin concerti. JS Bach’s violin concertos are oft-recorded, so new performances have to face down most of the 20th (and 21st) century’s greatest violinists – not an easy task! However, with sensitive accompaniment from ensemble Arcangelo and director Jonathan Cohen, Ibragimova brings a fresh and lively approach to these popular favourites. Only two of the works on this disc are officially labelled as “violin concertos”, the Concerto in A Minor, BWV1041, and the Concerto in E Major, BWV1042. In contrast, the Concerto in A Major, BWV1055, the Concerto in F Minor, BWV1056, and the Concerto in D Minor, BWV1052 all exist as harpsichord concerti, but due to various quirks, scholars have suggested that the pieces once existed in violin concerto format as well. Parts of the keyboard versions contain passages that seem oddly reminiscent of violinistic writing, complete with double-stops and convenient open strings. The theory is that Bach wrote a violin original, transcribed it for harpsichord (or other instruments), and at some point the violin original was lost, leaving only the transcription. Although these works are more…

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In our latest magazine, ten leading brains decide who and what changed the course of music history.

Yuja Wang’s ability to colour her playing at speed is like nothing we’ve heard since Martha Argerich