From a very private recording.

“Hommage à Tschaikovsky” by György Kurtag played with gloves in the wonderful new Lugano concert hall as an encore after Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto…

It was an arrogant conductor that tipped Stephen Sitarski into the darkness.

Read here.

The rate of depression is higher amongst musicians than in the general population, says Dianna Kenny, professor of psychology and music at Australia’s University of Sydney. In one study, 32 percent of one orchestra’s players ticked off symptoms of depression in a questionnaire.

US soprano Vivica Genaux shows how to do the coloratura thing.

Jorge Bergero of Buenos Aires lost his former girlfriend to cancer.

His response was to set up Music for the Soul, a volunteer group who perform for the terminally ill.

The BBC has selected it as one of its inspirational causes. Wach.