The American pianist Jonathan Biss prefaced his Southbank appearance with the release of a Kindle ebook called ‘Beethoven’s Shadow’, in which he discusses the challenge of Beethoven’s piano music.

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An unknown work by the composer Johannes Brahms has come to light after almost 160 years following its chance discovery in a visitor's book, and will be played for the first time next week.

Horses for courses: the question of which keyboard instruments suit which composers’ music is as pertinent now as it was when the harpsichord and fortepiano were competing for dominance in the 18 century.

Great pianists often gravitate to chamber music in their maturity, as though the satisfactions of communal music-making finally outweigh the thrills of solo achievement.

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It might seem a fool's errand to attempt to encapsulate the musical developments of the 18th century in a single package, given the era's heavyweight talents include Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn.

With Elizabeth Leonskaya and Paul Lewis leading the pack, this has been a good year for Schubert’s piano music, but from the moment Katya Apekisheva played the opening flourish of the Sonata in A minor D 537 it was clear that hers was a voice like no other.

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The French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet may be in his mid-forties, but he’s going for the slow burn on this side of the Channel: he’s probably better known to audiences in Beijing (where his Beethoven has caused a sensation) and in the Lofoten islands of Norway (where he runs a piano festival) than he is to audiences in Britain.

Anyone wanting to test the mettle of British classical music’s up-and-coming young stars might begin by checking out the annual parade of talent put on at Christmas by the Park Lane Group.

On the London Symphony Orchestra’s website there’s a conversation between pianist Mitsuko Uchida and conductor Colin Davis in which they discuss the Beethoven and Nielsen works they are currently performing at the Barbican.

The diversity of Handel's works, especially popular ones such as the Messiah, Royal Fireworks and Water Music, has tended to overshadow his keyboard compositions. T