Hit Eighties' songwriter blames today's singers for taking the easy option

This New York-based trio's name has always irritated because it fails to convey how musically eclectic they are.

Independence and hard work are the threads of this life's rich tapestry

As the leading pianist of his native Norway, Leif Ove Andsnes has traded very effectively on his easy manner and camera-friendly looks, and the Queen Elizabeth hall was predictably packed.

So, Schubert. He's inescapable, or at least he is on Radio 3. If you're not an admirer but a regular listener, you'll either have to decamp to Classic FM or seek refuge in silence which is, of course, unthinkable. I can't claim to be an authority on the composer since my knowledge of classical music can pretty much be summed up in Music for Babies, a CD that someone who didn't know me too well gave me when I was pregnant after it was claimed that exposure to classical music would increase my child's IQ. (To what extent it succeeded isn't clear). Pretty much all I know about Schubert is that he's the greatest songwriter since The Beatles. Hang on, that doesn't sound right....

‘Some people say Vivaldi wrote the same concerto five hundred times,’ said Steven Devine before starting his harpsichord recital in the Purcell Room. ‘And if that’s the case, you’re in for a pretty boring morning.’

When the young Pierre Boulez said that opera houses should be blown up, he was attacking, not opera, but its cultural ambience- the snobbery, exclusivity and expense.

When the drummer Michael Hossack jammed with the Doobie Brothers at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco in June 1971, he proved such a natural fit alongside founding drummer John Hartman that the other two mainstays of the group, the guitarists, vocalists and songwriters Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmmons, asked him to perform with them at the Fillmore West. Within weeks, "Big Mike" Hossack and "Little John" Hartman forged a drumming partnership to match those driving the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers.

This first-rate spine-chiller notches up another hit production for the fledgling Northern Ireland Opera

David Zinman's Mahler and Beethoven cycles with the Tonhalle exemplify the "third way" in historically informed performance practice.

One normally thinks of the celebrated Spaniards when considering classical guitar music, but the 19th-century Italian Mauro Giuliani was highly regarded as a virtuoso and a composer.

The crowd at tonight’s gig, which kicks off Lianne La Havas’ European tour, is probably very pleased that she’s been through a bad relationship.

Ani DiFranco's first album in three years finds the self-proclaimed Righteous Babe in feisty, thoughtful form, her political ardour undimmed despite a discernibly increased interest in the effects of ageing, particularly the way it deepens and matures the once callow emotions of love and devotion.

Pre-Columbian jazz? The Mexican drummer and bandleader Tino Contreras pioneered the fusion of groovy, "Take Five"-like 1960s modernism with elements based on Aztec ritual and symbolism.