Pianist and composer Bjornstad is also one of Norway's leading writers and this double CD represents a musical response to his trilogy of novels about a young piano student, Aksel Vinding.

German label Wergo is marking its 50th anniversary with this five-CD box featuring one album from each decade of its existence.

The four years since their last studio album have found Sigur Rós in suspension while Jónsi Birgisson indulged his various side-projects.

Ligeti's Piano Études are famously quixotic in pushing the player beyond their usual limits.

As each new player joins the fray, one remembers the imbalance between the seven hundred pianists listed in the British Music Yearbook, and the thirty who make a decent living from concerts.

Listeners to BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs could be left spluttering into their cornflakes this morning after castaway Tim Minchin suggested a robotic sex doll could be a good choice of luxury.

Keane's debut album had its charms, if you convinced yourself it was closer in spirit to A-ha than Coldplay.

The impressive range of Piers Hellawell's work is displayed on this collection of six compositions, five of which are premiere recordings.

On Darknesse Visible, the Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan offers a compelling programme of pieces inspired by poems, their interpretations occupying the netherworld between light and dark.

Contralto Kathleen Ferrier was born 100 years ago. Jessica Duchen celebrates a very British love affair

Renzo Piano's latest design towers over London's skyline – but will the controversial 1,000ft construction come to be known as the Italian architect's finest work? Simon O'Hagan finds out.

After the Scratch My Back and New Blood albums of orchestrated re-imaginings of his and others' songs, and last year's New Blood Live in London DVD, another two-hour, two-CD live set based on the same material may be a case of Peter Gabriel returning to this well once too often.

The title refers to a series of concerts played in darkness, in tribute to bassist Jasper Hoiby's sightless sister.