Peter Quantrill

According to an eminent cellist (perhaps you can guess which one...), pianist Martha Argerich’s favourite concerto is this one – not any landmark piece of the piano literature, but the Cello Concerto which Robert Schumann wrote, in a typically inspired frenzy, during two weeks of October 1850.

A huge field of options on record leaves Peter Quantrill searching for those versions which embrace the violence and volatility of the composer’s ‘farewell symphony’

The summit of solo-violin writing before Bach, this 17th century cycle of devotional sonatas attracts highly individual responses on record, finds Peter Quantrill

When modern art is big business and critically lauded, why does modern music upset and even enrage many listeners? Peter Quantrill discovers a book that promises an answer