Multi-CD surveys devoted to Herbert von Karajan, Pierre Boulez and Steve Reich are among the year’s finest classical-music offerings.

Hilary Hahn, violin; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Sir Neville Marriner, conductor (Sony Classical). Brahms: Violin Concerto; Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 Kyung ...

Schoenberg's flamboyant take on Brahms's G Minor Piano Quartet sounds less and less authentically Brahmsian the more I listen to it, but it's a work I can't imagine ever getting bored with. Schoenberg ...

Since the recent death of Alicia de Larrocha, Joaquín Achúcarro is probably the pre-eminent living Spanish pianist. He's also a significant presence in Dallas, with an endowed professorship at ...

Conductor Kurt Masur's role in Germany’s reunification has tended to obscure his musical strengths. I'd previously dismissed him as a safe, reliable pair of hands, so exploring this Brahms set was an ...

Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. The epithet “autumnal” is ...

Johannes Brahms is a funny one in the history of classical music. When you first hear his work it seems older than it is, like he should be further to the left on the following timeline, by birth date ...

Remember Arcadi Volodos? If you were going to piano concerts a couple of decades back, you couldn’t possibly forget him, with his seemingly superhuman keyboard technique and penchant for mystical ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

“It’s like when you have a vision of a huge mountain from far away,” says Nelson Freire about returning to Brahms’s F Minor Piano Sonata after a gap of 50 years. “By getting close you begin to notice ...

An error has occurred. Please try again. With a The Portland Press Herald subscription, you can gift 5 articles each month. It looks like you do not have any active ...