On January 31, Linz celebrated the 85th birthday of composer Philip Glass at the Ars Electronica Center with a very special concert played by Dennis Russel Davies and Maki Namekawa.

Stephen Hough - pianist, composer, author and artist plays the Nocturne in F sharp major, op. 15, No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin, recorded by Gramophone at the Bristol Hotel in Vienna.

No less than 85 minutes of pure beauty on one CD. You just can't get enough of it. (opusklassik.nl / Aart van der Wal)

Jörg Leichtfried wins the Lower Austrian Culture Prize 2021 in the category music. Awarded since 1960, this prize recognises outstanding achievements in artistic creation in Lower Austria.

Founded by Gidon Kremer in 1981 the festival quickly developed to an internationally acclaimed oasis of chamber music. The impressive Knight’s Castle with its Knight’s Hall, said to had served as secret assembling place by the Templars, and the wonderful baroque church of Lockenhaus are offering magical performance spaces in the middle of the woods of Mittelburgenland: a place of refuge for discovery, experimentation, presentation of young or unknown artists, building artistic partnerships and live long friendships by music making on the highest standards.

One thing I immediately liked about Grante’s playing was that he makes a differentiation in approach to Brahms’ original works and the variations he wrote based on the music of Handel, Paganini, Schumann and a Hungarian song, all of which require an entirely different approach to the rhythm. (Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge)

Join us this spring for six remarkable free concerts live-streamed straight to you. On the magnificent Bösendorfer 280 Vienna Concert piano in the beautiful concert hall Casa Delle Culture e Della Musica in Velletri, pianist Carlo Grante will perform Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and more. Prior to each recital, special guest Bruce Adolphe will join Grante for a short discussion and Piano Puzzler based on each concert’s repertoire and composer. You won’t want to miss it!

"What Swiss pianist Melodie Zhao and Howard Griffiths present here is sensationally good. Spirited, virtuosic, exceedingly vividly articulated, they serve up these concertos often misunderstood as inconsequential early works." (Fono Forum 04/ 2021)

Nareh, acclaimed for her "sensual" narrative tone", "precise stylistic approach" and "dazzling technique", juxtaposes two vignettes of the Romantic piano repertoire: Brahms Opus 117 and Tschaikowsky's Opus 37.