Ah, a fine new CD from Joanna Madroszkiewicz playing arrangements of Chopin waltzes and nocturnes (mainly arranged by Huberman or Sarasate). I like Chopin violin and piano arrangements! The music on the disc is varied and interesting and makes a big change from the tired old selection of Banjo & Fiddle, etc. Madroszkiewicz is at the opposite extreme from being a bland player; maybe somewhat gusty, maybe somewhat over-sentimental in the more romantic pieces. But always interesting. Good listening; it will join my "re-listen" pile. I must pull her Wieniawski disc off my racks and re-listen. Finished up the fine Thai soup for lunch, then out with the veal chops from Bath this evening!

Yesterday evening it was the Op 74 quartet by Beethoven (Takacs Quartet). I really think that the later 10 Beethoven string quartets (plus the Grosse Fuga) should always be beside my CD player. The music in the quartets is so varied, so full of light and shade, so daring, so vibrant. The 10 quartets may only occupy six hours or so of music; but they are most certainly among the greatest music ever written.

To Portsmouth on Friday to hear Simon Trpceski playing the third Prokofiev piano concerto. A highly impressive pianist. So good, I ordered his second CD yesterday (Rachmaninov). Only 25 years old, but can he play! The hall erupted after the performance.

Recorded Julia Fischer off-air playing the Sibelius violin concerto (from San Francisco). She really is an impressive violinist.
It will be good to hear her (if only ... ) in somewhat less hackneyed repertoire. Yet another Sibelius violin concerto ... or Tchaikovsky, or Mendelssohn, or Bruch G minor. I messed up the recording (forgot to turn the tuner to stereo). So the recording is passable rather than good. But the playing is passionate and musical. I await her Bach unaccompanieds (on order).

A real case of serendipity was recording off-air Dvorak's Op 81 piano quintet (Verbier Festival, 2004). Distinguished line-up was Vadim Repin and Laurent Korcia, with Yuri Bashmet and Alexander Kniazev, and Evgeny Kissin on the piano. One of those memorable occasions when five top-class musicians get together and enjoy themselves playing music they obviously love. A marvellous treat of great playing and great music making. Not to be forgotten either is the "fill up": Alexander Kniazev and Kissin playing the Rachmaninov duo sonata. I had not come across Kniazev before, but he is obviously very much a player to be reckoned with. In some ways, in the 5-star line-up for the quintet, he is the primus inter pares. Some achivement.

Bach to Beethoven. I purchased the new 3-CD set of the Takacs Quartet and listened to the A minor quartet (Op 132). Along with some of Bach and some of the later piano sonatas, this has to be the greatest music around. Red wine, roast duck, crab and camembert are, along with a set of the late Beethoven string quartets, some of life's essential elements. The highly mercurial sound of the Takacs' playing exactly matches the mercurial and ever-changing nature of the music in these quartets. Essential music.

I have always had a special fondness for Schubert's last piano sonata (D 960) so I was very pleased indeed to find that Leif Ove Andsnes's new recording really is an instant classic. In this sonata, I always think of Richter, But there are also Schnabel, Yudina, Curzon and Paul Lewis. Andsnes, however, integrates improvisation with a well- thought-out overall concept and I am entirely convinced. Nice to meet a new "instant classic".

A thoroughly enjoyable recital (from the Wigmore Hall) of Leonidas Kavakos and Denes Varjon. Bach E major BWV 1016, Bartok Rhapsody No.1, Schumann first violin & piano sonata, and Enescu third sonata. Beautiful and well-contrasting encore is Ravel's Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré. All really well played by a well-balanced duo -- Varjon is especially good in the Enescu sonata that really demands the best violin playing coupled with the best piano playing. Kavakos has always been my kind of violinist: stylistically impeccable, technically without problems, and with a wide dynamic and colour range from his 1694 Strad. The Enescu sonata in this recital really merits three stars; interesting that Kavakos's grandfather and father both played the folk violin which, as Kavokos explained in an introduction, relies more on bowing and the right hand more than fingering and vibrato.

Listened to a copy of the 1960s Schubert recordings by Johanna Martzy (with Jean Antonietti at the piano), sent to me by Carlos. In her favour, it has to be said that she always sounds quite lovely and that her playing is always 100% accurate and stylistically impeccable. Her sound is also completely distinctive. Against, there is too much prior deliberation in her playing, absolutely no spontaneity, and little variety of tone colouring. Enjoyable, but dated.

Thank goodness for Handel! He seems increasingly to form a significant part of my listening (and of my collection of recordings). This evening it was Sandrine Piau (with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset). Soprano arias from a dozen Handel operas. Piau has a lovely voice and is as technically adroit as Jascha Heifetz. A beautiful CD.

Recorded a concert (10 January, Wigmore Hall) in which Janine Jansen and Kathryn Stott -- billed as Jansen's "permanent partner" -- played Janacek, Messiaen and Elgar. Jansen really is an excellent, no-nonsense violinist who digs into the music quite selflessly. In the Janacek sonata, I feel that Stott erred in trying to smooth out Janecek's somewhat brusque and rugged writing. The Elgar violin & piano sonata was exellently played by both, but it is not really a work to which I warm. The recital confirms Jansen as one of "my" violinists.

Carolyn Sampson really has a most lovely soprano voice. I first met her in a new Hyperion release (Handel's Ode to St Cecilia, and cantata Cecilia, volgi un sguardo). Then in a lovely BIS disc of two of Bach's best secular cantatas conducted by Suzuki and his Japanese consort: the "Coffee" cantata, and the ever-incredible O Holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit (where Sampson is so much better than Dorothea Röschman or Christine Schäfer).

Lovely sound, intelligent musicianship, vocal dexterity in abundance (and she certainly needs it in the Bach Wedding cantata). Only real drawback is she suffers from what I term the Joan Sutherland school of diction; it takes a good 30 minutes to work out what language she is singing in, let alone identifying individual words. Still, we can't expect everything.

Oh incredible Cavalleria rusticana! On a Friday evening after many large glasses of whisky, many bowls of moules marinières and half a bottle of pinot noir d'Alsace, it is probably the only music that could keep me both awake and wet of eye. Glorious emotional outlet (conducted by Muti in 1979, with Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, et al). Difficult the find music to follow this!

At last, a big round of applause for Ida Haendel. Her 1965 account of the second Wieniawski concerto (Supraphon, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra) is impeccable and note-perfect. She does not have the imperial charisma of Heifetz, but she plays the Wieniawski in a manner that would have Carl Flesch showing rare enthusiasm.

For New Year's Eve this year, it was Elgar rather than Bach. I wanted to hear the violin concerto. Interestingly, my choice went to Isabelle van Keulen out of the 11 versions I have. A few wobbly bits in the finale, but she plays with passion and eloquence and is very well supported by the Hallé Orchestra under Mark Elder. (Off-air of a January 2004 concert).

Greatly enjoyed a 2-CD Vadim Repin concert (Tokyo, October 2004) courtesy of Akiko. Serious programme based on the Franck sonata and Schubert's D 934 Fantasy. Double secret of success? Repin's playing, plus the duo partnership with Nikolai Lugansky. Duos are best when they feature equals (like Repin and Berezovsky, or Repin and Lugansky). I have not warmed to Repin in duos with Argerich, nor with "Bash'em" Itmar Golan.
Also on the CD are Arvo Pärt's Fratres (good) and Schoenberg's Op 48 Fantasy (as awful as ever). The enticing encores are two Tchaikovsky pieces, plus Bartok's Roumanian Dances, and Paganini's Carnival in Venice. Civilised listening at the highest level. Quite restores one's faith in violin & piano duos.

Recorded off-air Vadim Repin and Martha Argerich playing the Beethoven Kreutzer sonata (from the 2004 Verbier Festival). I'm certainly glad Ms Argerich doesn't want to accompany me; she is pretty dominant. One of those performances of which it is said: "sparks were struck". It is certainly a performance full of life and fire. In some ways, it might be termed hectoring. But this is as much Beethoven's fault as that of Martha Argerich. This performance reminded me that there are many violin & pianos sonatas that I prefer to the Kreutzer.

A really excellent new CD features the young German violinist Julia Fischer. She fits well into the all-star team of extraordinary young female violinists and, like Janine Jansen and Elisabeth Batiashvili, is thorougly musical and "serious". This, her first CD, has an excellent Khachaturian violin concerto, the Glazunov concerto, and the first Prokofiev concerto. Adding to the pleasure is the all-Russsian back-up of Yakov Kreizberg and the Russian National Orchestra. Recording is excellent, though the violin balance a little too natural for my taste; with these concertos we are, alas, used to a more forward balance for the soloist. But Julia Fischer is yet another young violinist to watch.

A new release (December 2002 recording) of Schubert's Trout Quintet also makes one wonder whether, in recorded classical performances, the "good old days" were always that good. This new Trout, with an all-French line-up of the Capuçon brother, Gérard Caussé. Frank Braley and Alois Posch, sparkles and dances and underlines the fact that this was a young man's music written for an informal social occasion. Difficult to think of a Trout I'd rather put on. And the recording (Virgin) is really first-rate.