Our field report of Banff Centre's cultural renaissance on the world stage. Part one: revamping their Summer Classical Music programs.

The period-instrument orchestra, joined by the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and conductor Ivars Taurins, constructed its Handel Celebration programme in two parts, each made to resemble the dramatic arc of an oratorio, with an optimistic opening, sombre middle and celebratory close.

I couldn’t help asking myself that question at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night as the storied Vienna Philharmonic performed a programme whose express mission was to show off everything these fine musicians can do.

Among the hippest of the hip classical musicians these days are New York City’s Brooklyn Rider, who have released their fifth album, built around Ludwig van Beethoven’s epic, five-movement String Quartet No. 14.

The fact that a pianist at the start of his career is prepared to defy the rule makers and play Scarlatti on a modern concert grand restores our faith in musical free-thinkers.

It’s a tale Klaus Heymann, the founder of Naxos, clearly wants told as his company — now a colossus in the music business — celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Two resurrected favourites emerge this week, with Guido Cantelli and Herbert von Karajan both heading the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Daniel Barenboim's new Maene-Barenboim piano has received a lot of media hype in the piano world. But is justified?

I have been seduced by The Great Mass, a 1998 large-scale ballet anchored on Mozart’s masterpiece by the German choreographer Uwe Scholz, who died in 2004, aged 45.

As edited, rewritten and rearranged by conductor Sir Andrew Davis, music by Sir Edward Elgar’s (1857-1934) and story by Algernon Henry Blackwood (1869-1951) become nearly two hours of magic on this 2-CD Chandos release.