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Andrew Clark has been writing about music for the FT since 1981. Based in central Europe for 15 years he reported on a wide variety of cultural events before returning to London in 1996 as chief classical music and opera critic.
He won the Salzburg Critic Prize in 1997 and was awarded a Special Prize by the Anglo-German Foundation in 1999.
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Bernard Haitink: Bruckner Symphony No 4, Shostakovich Symphony No 15
The Dutch maestro revisits some of the symphonies with which he made his early reputation and the results are well worth hearing
Michael Head: Songs
Even when the mood is tinged with sadness, the English composer ensures there is not the slightest inelegance
Christian Blackshaw, Wigmore Hall, London
You can tell from this warm and deft recital of Mozart piano sonatas that Blackshaw has lived with the music for a long time
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 5, 11, 12 and 26
Jonathan Biss takes a middle-of-the-road view – no overly prim classicism and no romantic waywardness
Bach: Cantatas and Orchestral Suites
The touchstone of these performances is their joie de vivre: a lively pace, a rhythmic verve, a stylistic sleight-of-hand
London Schools Symphony Orchestra, Barbican, London
Under Venezuelan conductor Carlos Izcaray, the exuberant LSSO showcased music that is hardly ever played in Britain
Stephen Hough/Skampa Quartet, Wigmore Hall, London
Gritty Smetana, songful Dvorák and an eloquent tribute to Václav Havel in the latest instalment of the pianist’s Wigmore residency
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Royal Opera House, London
There are some fine individual performances here, not least from Antonio Pappano’s orchestra, but Graham Vick’s production is showing its age
Andreas Staier, Wigmore Hall, London
The German harpsichordist keeps alive the debate over Bach’s elaborate Goldberg Variations – also known as the ‘keyboard exercise’
Luzzaschi: Concerto delle Dame
This is music of intimate emotion and subtle embellishment
