The piano leads the field with front runners Mitsuko Uchida and Leif Ove Andsnes, but first an auspicious start to a brand new Mahler cycle.

Handsome revival rescues opera unfairly consigned to Siberia.

A first-class reading will have you falling in love with Bohème all over again.

Lockdown in a global pandemic gave soprano Sonya Yoncheva the opportunity to realise a long-held dream and return to her musical roots. So, where does ABBA come in?

We look at Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and why it has inspired so many adaptations, composing women past, present and future, and the piano works of an overlooked Australian composer lost and found.

Sonya Yoncheva provides an eclectic soundtrack for the new world.

The concerts feature 100 artists and star performers Sonya Yoncheva, Juan Diego Flórez, Renaud Capuçon and Rolando Villazón, who discusses how COVID-19 has affected him personally and why the Rolex initiative is so worthwhile.

From breaking news to features and reviews, here are the headlines you were reading this year.

The Bulgarian soprano has joined those rallying to the tenor’s defence following allegations of sexual harassment, while some opera houses have cancelled performances and others are watching the situation closely.

Kaufmann journeys back in time for his best solo disc in years.

The soprano brings her Mimì to the London stage, while Aussies fill out the ranks of the Covent Garden season.

Once the remit of boy choristers and early music specialists only, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater has evolved into a star vehicle – a marketable foray into the baroque for major labels. Emma Kirkby and James Bowman led the way (Decca) and more recently Philippe Jaroussky and Julia Lezhneva (Erato). Now it’s the turn of Sony’s new leading lady, Sonya Yoncheva, joined by French mezzo Karine Deshayes and period band Ensemble Amarillis.   Both singers began in this repertoire, but both have moved beyond it on the opera stage; Yoncheva recently debuted as Norma and Deshayes has sung Carmen. It shows. While each phrases sensitively, the idiom is now Pergolesi by way of Verdi, with plenty of colouring outside the vocal lines. The effect is by no means unpleasant – old-fashioned, perhaps, but venison-rich and deliciously fleshy. If these anachronistic performances had been paired with a contemporary orchestra it might have worked. As it is, Yoncheva in particular seems to struggle to sing down to her period accompanists, and occasionally pitch wavers. Ensemble Amarillis takes centre-stage for Mancini’s rather anonymous Sonata in G Minor for recorder (co-director Heloise Gaillard the elegant soloist) and a bittersweet Concerto Grosso by Durante. Neat performances, but…