I greatly admired Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov in the Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin. I now have to start admiring the new set (first disc just out) featuring Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien (Wigmore Hall Live). These live performances from 2009 are in the same class. German and Russian v Russian and French. Maybe the latter gain with their sense of a live performance? Whatever; we are in better days than when the sonatas were played by Heifetz and Emanuel Bay. Anyway, good times for the Beethoven duo sonatas.

As I thought, my squid with a sauce made by me was far superior to any squid soaked in something concocted by the laboratories of Kraft or Unilever. My sauce was fresh tomatoes, garlic, black olives and fresh chilies.

Too much chili; I bought four, but two would have been quite enough. The sauce would have caused Thais and the inhabitants of Madras to flee in terror from the fiery Sauce de Malmesbury. But it was good! Not more bottled sauces for me. The remainder of the sauce can decorate an exceptionally nondescript chicken remains in due course.

I enjoyed the new Hyperion CD of Vieuxtemps music for violin and orchestra (fourth and fifth violin concertos, and the 18 minute Fantasia Appassionata which is practically another concerto). You would never have found such a recording issued by RCA, Columbia, HMV, Decca or DGG in the old days!

Viviane Hagner is the excellent soloist. The recording is well balanced. An unexpected pleasure was the contribution from the Royal Flemish Philharmonic conducted by Martyn Brabbins; all too often the orchestral part in these kinds of virtuoso works is somewhat perfunctory, but one advantage of having a "provincial" orchestra is that often the players more than make up in enthusiasm and dedication for what they lack in ultimate polish.

Hagner does not efface memories of Heifetz in these works (who could?) But she does very well, and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic certainly leaves Heifetz's various accompanists standing at the gate. Vieuxtemps gains in stature. I'll return to this disc.

I really must cut down my rate of CD purchases. For every surprise triumph, there are many one-listen disappointments. The two CD set of Oscar Shumsky playing unaccompanied Bach was a major and unexpected success. But the new Nikolaus Harnoncourt CD of three Bach cantatas really added nothing to my (vast) collection. I bought David Nadien playing the Brahms violin concerto not to listen to the Seattle Youth Orchestra, nor to the Brahms concerto that I know so well. I wanted to listen to David Nadien playing, but he is balanced so far back you can hardly hear him, so it's all a bit of a dead loss and the CD will go into the "unheard" rack.

Still, the CD of Yevgeny Sudbin playing Scarlatti was a great and unexpected success. The Volume II of Naxos transfers of Fritz Kreisler's acoustic recordings from 1911 and 1912 is a model of transfer technology; the 90 year old recordings come up nearly as good as new, and Kreisler's inimitable tone is preserved, merely at the expense of a bit of background hiss from the 78s. But the sound is of a quality I missed in the over-scrubbed, squeaky-clean Pristine Audio transfers of the Busch Quartet recently. With these old Kreisler recordings, you forget about the music -- which is mainly frightfully light-weight -- and just wallow in the sound of Kreisler in his prime.

Schubert's later piano sonatas and string quartets have a special place in my affections, so it was good to renew acquaintance with the G major string quartet D 887 (coupled with the earlier B flat major, D 112). When it comes to Schubert, the Busch Quartet was very special indeed, and I enjoyed Pristine Audio's latest re-incarnation of these 1938 recordings. The sound is a little "clean", and lacking warmth and reverberation. However, the original sound and balance were so good that minor quibbles can be forgotten and I much prefer listening to this presentation of the D 887 quartet compared with my recent disappointment with the Belcea Quartet. Adolf Busch and friends -- like Hanna Shybayeva who impressed me recently in two of Schubert's late piano sonatas -- make sure the music is generated from within itself, and not adorned with layers of varnish and Affekt. Schubert doesn't need additives.

Of all things, I am enjoying a recording of Liszt's 12 Etudes d'exécution transcendante. I gave up on Liszt long ago (and have never taken to his sonata). But the études, at least as played here by Lazar Berman in 1963, are pretty thrilling stuff. I see I also have them played by Cziffra and I must also dig into those. Perhaps also invest in Boris Berezovsky for a post- 1960s recording (the Berman recording sounds a bit tinny).

Yesterday evening saw me eating the best "bolognese" sauce ever. Whether the inhabitants of Bologna would recognise it, is another matter. But it was meaty, tangy and succulent. Well done Chef Collier (for once).

A somewhat eclectic food weekend. I bought three large squid and decided to cook them in a tomato and chili sauce (from a jar). Good, but next time I'll use my own tomatoes, chili and garlic rather than a processed concoction. Then the "special offer" rump steak turned out to be excellent, somewhat to my surprise. And the fillets of plaice were super. So not a bad weekend from a gastronomic point of view. But one needs to avoid ready-made sauces, since they do not measure up to The Real Thing.

I confirmed my previous view that Hanna Shybayeva in Schubert is truly excellent. There is music that needs a charismatic intermediary -- one thinks of Thomas Beecham in Saint-Saëns, Delius, Fauré etc. And there is music that just needs to be played, like Oscar Shumsky in Bach, Bernard Haitink in Mahler ... and Hanna Shybayeva in Schubert.

I did not recall having heard Ottorino Respighi's 1917 sonata for violin & piano, even though I have recordings of it by Heifetz, Politkovsky and Shumsky. It's a work with many attractive moments and lasts for 27 minutes in its latest re-incarnation by Frederieke Saeijs and Maurice Lammerts van Bueren. The works sounds like something by Guillaume Lekeu crossed with Richard Strauss, with a dose of Nikolai Medtner. The well-played and recorded Naxos CD also contains Ravel's somewhat hackneyed violin & piano sonata, plus a nondescript sonata by Enrique Granados (that sounds like anything but Granados).

The 24 caprices by Nicolò Paganini are staple diet to advanced violinists, but they are not that easy to play; some, in fact, are pretty difficult. The caprices also contain some very attractive music, and this is sometimes lost while the violinist struggles to play three parts at once in different parts of the sound spectrum. Thus, the new recording of the caprices by a string quartet does, in fact, make for pleasant and interesting listening. Paganini's not-inconsiderable musical and melodic gifts can be fully appreciated -- especially in some of the caprices that are technically difficult on the violin. The recording is by the Wihan quartet, and the excellent arrangements by William Zinn. A thoroughly worthy enterprise all round, and something that should enter the repertoire of string quartets.

Also a happy listening experience is the re-issue of the 1986 recording by Oscar Shumsky of the Bach unaccompanied sonatas and partitas. I have many, many versions of these in my collection, but Shumsky appeals greatly. As to be expected, he plays simply and in an undemonstrative manner; it is as if the only people in the world were Bach, Shumsky and a violin. No grand-standing here. And how nice to hear Bach played with an attractive sound, warming vibrato, and dead-accurate double-stopping almost worthy of Fritz Kreisler's playing. Oscar goes into my select few for these works.

Bernard Coutaz, the founder of Harmonia Mundi, died on 26th February at the age of 87. I have many recordings, and quite a sizeable number of them are from Harmonia Mundi, a company that proves that, in the musical world, small can be both beautiful and powerful, and that one individual can make an enormous difference. Thank you, Monsieur Coutaz; and rest in well-deserved peace.

Like most people, I imagine, I had never heard of Hanna Shybayeva until I read a review in the American Record Guide extolling her CD of Schubert sonatas. The best adjective for Ms Shybayeva's playing is probably level-headed. She does not draw attention to her pianism; attention is focussed strictly on the music. And what music! Schubert's later piano sonatas have everything that I missed in Chopin the other day: a sense of a real person behind the music, a person of ever-changing moods and ideas -- in 12 bars, Schubert can encapsulate three or four different modulations and mood changes. The music is enough by itself and needs a first-rate pianist who finds the right tempi and concentrates on communicating the music. This Hanna Shybayeva does to an exemplary degree. Originating from Belarus, she now appears to be based in Holland from whence this very cheap and very desirable Brilliant CD comes. The sonatas on the disc are the A major D959 and A minor D784, both supreme works in the piano repertoire.

George Frederic Händel's music was like an iceberg: after the composer's death in 1759, nine tenths of his music was submerged and lost from the world of music. Astonishingly, it has only been over the past twenty years or so that Handel's music has re-appeared in popular view. Until recently, Handel was The Messiah, Water Music, Fireworks Music, and a few bits and pieces.

How impoverished were the generations from 1759 until around 1990! So much extraordinary and beautiful music simply lost from the scene. This evening I listened (again) to the CD where Sandrine Piau sings Handel arias -- mainly from the oratorios. Wonderful music. Wonderful singing, and also top-grade backing from Stefano Montenari and the Accademia Bizantina. A recording for the "do not file away" pile. And a recording of music one would probably never have found before 1980.

Alice Sara Ott playing Chopin's complete waltzes. She plays them very well, and most expertly. I bought the complete waltzes long ago played by Dinu Lipatti. He also played most expertly but I was disappointed by the music. I am still disappointed by the music, even when played now by Miss Ott. 19th century salon piano music is not for me, I fear. When it comes to piano music I enjoy Scarlatti, Bach, Schubert, Medtner, Rachmaninov, and many others. But not Chopin (or Liszt).

It was quite a relief to turn back to Handel, and a new CD of opera arias sung by Johannette Zomer. Much more my cup of tea.

The twentieth century was rich in violinists. Probably Kreisler and Heifetz stand out as the two greatest. But the third greatest? A long list of candidates, including Nathan Milstein, David Oistrakh and Michael Rabin. But, to my mind, after listening to him again for 50 minutes this evening, the third greatest violinist of the last century was ... David Nadien. Emphasis on violinist, on the craft of playing one of music's most difficult and contrary instruments. But Nadien (almost) trumps them all when it comes to mastering the four strings with a wooden stick strung with horse hair.

I seem to have entered a piano-listening phase. I certainly enjoyed the CD from a British teenager called Benjamin Grosvenor. Quite incredible playing, worthy of the young Gilels or Cortot, with extreme sensibility to both the piano and the music. I could have done without the three bits by Nikolai Kapustin, since I prefer jazz in a jazz environment and not juxtaposed with Scarlatti, Albéniz, Chopin, et al. The same goes for the George Gershwin piece. However, all in all the CD offers a feast of attractive music and quite remarkable playing. On the CD cover and back, it is, however, remarkably difficult to make out the name of the pianist.

Back home from a truly wonderful trip to Bangkok and Hanoi. I should have discovered that area of the world much sooner in my life! And I eat four meals a day and also managed to lose weight.

One advantage of being back home, however, is being able to listen to music again. I made the acquaintance of Franco Gulli, playing Paganini back in the 1960s. Wonderful technique and a lovely sound. A bit short on dynamic contrasts, but nevertheless highly enjoyable listening (and that is not always true when violinists attempt Paganini). Also renewed acquaintance with the stunning Liza Ferschtman, another Dutch girl of incredible talent. Her programme of Bach (first sonata and third partita) and Ysaÿe (first and second sonatas) is a most attractive juxtaposition. And it's good to hear a violinist playing Bach without trying to imitate what a violinist may have sounded like in 1720.

Perhaps, when I make my long-delayed Carnegie Hall début, it will be with the Concertgebouw orchestra in an all- Saint-Saëns programme, with the three violin concertos (around 75 minutes). The orchestra can fill in with some of the orchestral pieces such as Le Rouet d'Omphale.

I have just listened to the three violin concertos with much pleasure. In common with Handel, Camille Saint-Saëns wrote music that was stress- and angst-free, but with good tunes. The Swiss CD, with the Romanian-born but Swiss domiciled Liviu Prunaru playing tastefully and impeccably, is excellent. Prunaru, like most of Saint-Saëns' music apart from his "Organ" Symphony, seems to have passed into obscurity. A shame; popularity is fickle and I would give 50 hours of Gustav Mahler's music in return for one hour of Saint-Saëns.

Two of the three concertos were dedicated to Sarasate (the last two, confusingly numbered 1 and 3) and Prumaru plays much as one imagines Sarasate would have done: suave, sophisticated and tasteful, with a sweet and sonorous violin from the Guarneri family (1676).

Bit fixated on stewed neck of lamb with dumplings at the moment, the stew well seasoned with thyme and bay leaves. But it's so cold every day! Life needs lamb stew with 2007 Côtes du Rhône wine. I probably will need a change of diet in Bangkok next week, however.

Shuffle-play on CD players has a very limited use for classical CDs. But I discovered yesterday evening it is a great invention for tackling Paganini's 24 caprices which, apart perhaps from No.24, have no really logical order and Paganini would certainly not have expected people to play, or listen to, all 24 in the printed order. Shuffle play here is great, since all too often the first 12 or so caprices are listened to more often than the final 12. Shuffling the order gives everyone a chance to be heard.