Contents

This month as we celebrate the Shostakovich centenary, David Fanning attempts to reconcile apparent contradictions in the man and his music - by no means an easy task. The enigmatic composer was posing no less of a conundrum back in 1943 when he first appeared in The Gramophone. 'I wish Columbia...

ON WHY SINGING SIBELIUS IS LIKE A RELIGIOUS MEETING To listen to Sibelius's songs is to enter a world where myth and reality mingle in mist-strewn rural idylls. The whole is steeped in longing, love, lust and loss. That, we might say, is the province of song, and as Soile Isokoski's new disc...

ALAN CURTIS and II Complesso Barocco have won the Stanley Sadie Recording Prize, given each year to a Handel disc, for their Virgin Classics disc of the original version of the opera Radamisto• Winners at the ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY AWARDS, for live music excellence, included conductor Mark...