When you are arguably the greatest violinist in the world a four-year “time out” from the public arena can seem like an eternity.

Books: I read all the time. I recently read a big book on the nature of seeing and believing by Pylyshyn. I've also been re-reading a book that has been an influence on me: 'Frame Analysis' by Erving Goffman, about how we make sense of things. There's also a whole series of philosophical books by Donald Davidson – particularly 'Essays on Actions and Events' (1980). It's difficult and you need to read it again and again to get it straight. Hand movements are something I'm always thinking about when directing an opera or theatre production. I also read a very good new translation of 'Madame Bovary' by Lydia Davis.

Ever since she was voted BBC Young Musician of the Year, Nicola Benedetti has found ways of staying in the limelight.

Eric Roseberry enriched the world of music in a variety of ways. He was a lecturer, writer, scholar, organist, broadcaster, teacher, pianist, conductor, editor and enthusiast, the sheer breadth of his intellect making him an inspirational guide for generations of aspiring musicians.

At the core of the Australian Chamber Orchestra is a string ensemble, soloistic in nature, enquiring in spirit, whose connections one to the other make for a palpable kind of musical telepathy.

For anyone who’s ever thought that the term Vorsprung durch Technik might be better applied to the superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter than a certain brand of automobile her hair-raising account of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra will have given pause.

Piano trios by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich are meticulously played by the David Trio, a chamber ensemble of growing repute, each member a distinguished player in his own right.

Despite the title, this 43rd volume of Mode's John Cage Edition focuses more on his early experiments with radios, tape and turntables.

It says something for Sir Colin Davis’ eternal vitality and musical curiosity that he should come to the dynamic Carl Nielsen symphonies so late in life.

As sometimes happens in live performances a soloist’s encore might display a brilliance and precision that one might have felt lacking in the main event – or, in this case, events.

Shostakovich’s ‘24 Preludes and Fugues’ may be seldom performed, but they are one of the miracles of twentieth-century pianism, and their genesis was suitably strange.

Appearing at the Southbank on successive nights, Janine Jansen and Sarah Chang allow interesting comparisons between two virtuoso fiddlers in their early thirties, who are in every other respect as different as the sun and moon.