Linda Catlin Smith: Flowers of Emptiness album review – compelling beauty and quiet intensity

The composer’s ever evolving chamber music is captured here in eight works from 1986-2024, showcasing a singular voice

Takács Quartet review – a superlative performance in which the music never sits still

Britten’s second string quartet was framed by forward-looking works by Haydn and Beethoven with each work sounding fresh in an entrancing concert

Young working-class people being ‘blocked’ from creative industries, study finds

Sutton Trust calls for improved access to creative education and industry dominated by upper middle-class

Lawrence Power/Philharmonia/Salonen review – commitment and virtuosity in works old and brand new

Two concerts, including the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s fiercely challenging Viola Concerto, showcased the versatility and communicative skills of Lawrence Power

LSO/Mäkelä review – dazzle and drama, but always backed by exceptional musicality

A turbo-charged performance from the young conductor, carefully paced and full of bold choices, brought out the beauty and the terror of Stravinsky’s score

The week in classical: The Monster in the Maze; Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson; Rigoletto – review

Sheffield takes on the Minotaur in a rousing Jonathan Dove staging; fire meets grace as two superstar pianists share the stage; and ENO’s Verdi updating remains the godfather of them all

The Tales of Hoffmann review – fun, carnivalesque staging goes to the dark side

Damiano Michieletto’s production of Offenbach’s opéra fantastique is full of warped wit and devilish touches with a fine cast bringing this colourful fever-dream to life

The Brandenburg Concertos on tour review – OAE and Bach lift the spirits

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment combine virtuosity with a practised nonchalance to soothe our age’s anxieties

Distant Voices, New Worlds review – avant-garde vision of Albion by bright British composers

Inspired by the South Downs near Brighton, this selection box of new work from contemporary composers is English to its core – and yet defies tradition

LPO/Gardner/Ólafsson review – fierce Brahms and a rich Waley-Cohen premiere

Vikingur Ólafsson’s performance of Brahms’s first piano concerto was the evening’s main attraction, but those who left at the interval missed the world premiere of Freya Waley-Cohen’s ambitious and rich Mother Tongue

The Frans Brüggen Project album review – Horsch’s fascinating recorder review

On a record where instruments matter more than the music, Horsch celebrates Brüggen and the remarkable 17th and 18th-century recorders he collected

Brahms: Piano Sonata No 1; Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy, D760 album review – beautifully shaped works and a bravura performance

The French pianist revels in the virtuoso demands of Brahms’s early sonata

What are you Haydn? The hoaxers who fooled the classical music world

One wrote six sonatas and claimed they were by Haydn. Another used a ghostwriter to write his symphony – and pretended to be deaf. So how did they manage to hoodwink the experts?

WEDO/Barenboim review – optimism and despondency as visionary conductor returns to London

Making their second visit to the capital this year, a frail Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra played sun-drenched Mendelssohn and stately Brahms with command and beauty

Katya Apekisheva review – balletic grace and formidable technical prowess

The Russian-born pianist’s solo recital took in Russian and French music; she is a persuasive advocate of Mel Bonis’s keyboard works