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The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, which recognise live classical music in the UK, were presented in London. Winners included Thomas Adès, James MacMillan, Gustavo Dudamel, John Tomlinson and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The founder of Venezuela's El Sistema education project...

Joel Coen, and composer Yehudi Wyner. Non-American honorary members inducted this year include conductor Riccardo Muti and film director Pedro Almodóvar.

Psychologists have found that different types of music can enhance the taste of wine, according to BBC News. In the study by Heriot-Watt University "people rated the change in taste by up to 60 per cent depending on the melody heard". Cabernet sauvignon was most affected by "powerful and heavy"...

The soprano on recording an extremely rare opera This month you appear in two Editor's Choice recordings, Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini and Ambroise Thomas's La Cour de Célimène. Thomas is known for his Hamlet, but this is never performed. Did you hesitate to learn a role you'd probably never be...

The conductor Cecil Cohen introduced me to Barbirolli and I got to know him quite well. He was enormously friendly. In 1946 I joined the RAF Central Band for my National Service and one day played in Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, with its beautiful horn solo. A scout from the Hallé Orchestra was...