This season I seem to be performing a large number of works with famous nicknames, and it's re-awakened a grudge I've nursed since childhood.

A welcome addition to the growing body of English-language Shostakovich studies, and a much-needed "apologia" for a cycle of works whose true greatness continues to elude too many music-lovers—and musicians—in the West.

About several Stravinsky works, conductors and connoisseurs alike love to debate, Which version?  In the dramatic case of Petrushka, the differences between the original 1911 version and its 1947 revision are particularly stark.  

Too much concentration, and you are rigid, even paralysed.  Too much relaxation, and you’re lucky to remember what composer you are performing, let alone whether the dynamic at this moment is piano or pianissimo.