It has often been said that music is a universal language; it is not, though, universally understood as a mother tongue, it is only universally spoken thus. So one must always attempt to hear it like something new, not quite familiar with a tourist's perception. Let's travel, then, and imagine some interesting encounters, where a German Brahms would understand a French Saint-Saëns as much as a Russian Glière, where a Belgian Jongen would make himself understood to an Austrian Kreisler as much as to a British Elgar, and where a trombonist and a pianist would understand themselves mutually. The listener, then, will have the creative opportunity to impart these familiar and less familiar sounds with significance while surrendering to the sheer pleasure of their beauty.

Is there a subgroup of works among the creations of top composers that has been more neglected than Mozart's songs? They're neglected partly because they're a very mixed bag; they were mostly composed for specific purposes, and they don't develop as a group in an orderly way as do, say, the piano concertos. At any rate, any new recording of Mozart's songs is good to have – the album title referring to "Lieder" is a bit misleading, for there are songs in French and Italian here as well as German.

This is the fourth instalment in Deutsche Grammophon’s new Mozart cycle. In the end this will encompass the seven great operas, from Idomeneo forwards. I haven’t heard the previous three, but from the reviews I have seen the reception has been rather mixed. Concerning this latest issue I am also in two minds. The problem, as I see it, is that Nézet-Séguin hasn’t quite decided what he is up to. He has the excellent Chamber Orchestra of Europe at his disposal.

This live recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni inaugurates a series of Mozart operas to be recorded live at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden in southwestern Germany, featuring a galaxy of top operatic stars. The performance marks an impressive beginning indeed for the project. The incongruously named Mahler Chamber Orchestra under French Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin may seem tentative and underpowered to those used to, say, the Vienna Philharmonic, but Nézet-Séguin keeps the music very tightly connected to the singers. The opera stands or falls on the voice and attitude of the seducer Don himself, and the performance of the young Italian bass-baritone Ildebrando d'Arcangelo may come to be seen as a milestone in his career development. He has a low yet lively voice, and he's a completely persuasive Don Giovanni.

This cello concerto is a miracle, both for the listener and for the soloist. The listener is swept along through unexplored terrain. The instrumentation stands out - even for a master like Robin. For a cello, Robin's concerto is innovative and challenging from a technical point of view. The premiere with Yannick and the orchestra was like a celebration - you can hear it. New work only reveals its secrets after a lot of listening, so it is fantastic that this recording is being made. In the summer of 2007, Robin de Raaff wrote Entangled Tales for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Entangled Tales is built up of several layers. It is a continual variation of small elements: rhythms, brief melodies, and ever-changing sounds in the rich palette of a large symphony orchestra. He does not hesitate to use an opulent instrumentation in impressionist and expressionist sphere. For the occasion of its 125th anniversary in 2015, the Het Gelders Orkest asked Robin de Raaff to write a special composition. The result is a symphony of three movements on the concepts of light and dark, referred to as illumination and eclipse. These words do not point to a state of being, but to motion. It is not just about states - light and dark - but also about motion: illumination and eclipse.

World famous mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and conductor-pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin join forces to take on one of the most brilliant song cycles ever written: Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey). DiDonato, however, casts a different light on this beloved cycle of 24 songs in telling their story from the perspective of the woman, the lost love. Nancy Plum, Town Topics writes: “The question of what happened to the woman who sent the narrator on a tortuous journey was not answered in the Wilhelm Müller poetry from which Schubert drew the text, but DiDonato created a scenario onstage of being that woman, reading from the narrator’s journal and responding to the inherent despair.” “What stood out was the heavy emotion that came through in her singing, as she lingered on a syllable here, pressed her tone there. She created vivid feelings with her contrasts” wrote New York Classical Review about Joyce Didonato’s interpretation.