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THE VIOLINIST RELISHES THE ANGST IN SHOSTAKOVICH Just half an hour after completing a three-day recording session of Shostakovich's gruelling First Violin Concerto Leila Josefowicz looks like someone who has looked into the abyss and pulled back from the edge. Her pupils are dilated and her...

The Tackács Quartet won a cabinet-full of awards for their Beethoven cycle on Decca so Hyperion must be hoping for great things from the quartet's first disc for the label - not least as the venue (St George's, Bristol) and recording team (Andrew Keener and Simon Eadon) are the same (though the...

A busy month for conductor Marin Alsop: she finished her LP0 Brahms symphony cycle at the Watford Colosseum with the Fourth and the Haydn Variations (as well as a few more Hungarian Dances), and at her Poole base, she recorded Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and...

Welsh star Bryn Terfel was recently in Glasgow with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, mezzo Christine Rice and soprano Miah Persson to record 'Tutto Mozart!'. Terfel's selection of arias explores the composer's writing for bass-baritone, from Papageno to Masetto to Figaro...

RICHARD EGARR is to become music director of the period-instrument ensemble The Academy of Ancient Music in September; he succeeds its founder Christopher Hogwood who becomes emeritus director for life • This year's recipients of $15,000 AVERY FISHER career grants are cellist Efe Baltacigil,...