An exhilarating concert, led by a vigorous violinist.

This a strange compilation with a convoluted concept, can’t help but be amazed at the sound of the ASMF.

The ASMF and Joshua Bell have discovered the fountain of musical youth.

From busker to band leader, meet the young gun turned experienced hand.

The virtuoso leads a line up including Kate Mulvany and investigations into Wagner's amours and the Mignon obsession.

The young Bell learns about perseverance and second chances in The Dance of the Violin.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, Sir Neville Marriner’s chamber orchestra will tour nationally in 2017.

Still conducting into his 90s, the indefatigable founder of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has passed away.

After 500 commercial recordings, mainly together, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields have been one of the most dependable names in the business for half a century. So with the great man turning 90 next year, there’s more than a bit of interest in how American violinist Joshua Bell goes in his very first recording as the new music director of the venerable institution founded in Sir Neville’s living room back in 1958. Short answer: really well. Nothing to scare the warhorses in his choice of Beethoven’s Fourth and Seventh of course, which he and the Academy worked up during a favourably reviewed American concert tour. But succeeding a legend? Well, Bell’s never been one to shy away from potential humiliation, as he famously demonstrated by busking in a Washington DC metro (net result: $32 in 45 minutes and only seven people stopping to listen). Here, he doesn’t try to impose his personality on music most of us could whistle in our concert-hall sleep. And in this day of new editions of everything, and bold personal statements, and authentic blah-blah-blah, it’s refreshing to hear a guy on a high-profile mission simply standing with his…

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