Prof. Arens has had an extensive concert career as a musician. He performed as a soloist for the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (1986-1991), played with famous conductors such as Kurt Masur, Herbert Blomstedt and Neville Marriner, and toured in various...

How short is the staccato of that opening chord? When should the oboe appear from the decay of the chord? How should we shape the oboe melody? Should the oboe line LEAD to the chords with a little crescendo? As the Seventh began, Masur tried to help...

The exceptional Québecois conductor is not the first to programme Bruckner's Te Deum following the three completed movements of his ninth symphony. Bruckner himself sanctioned the possibility when he realised he would not live to write a finale. But...

This was immediately apparent in the Philharmonia's unobtrusive but neatly shaped accompaniment to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. It also greatly suited the crisply articulated phrasing of Arabella Steinbacher who, like Masur, avoided grand gestures...

Looking frail - he will be 85 this year - and exhibiting a worrying tremor, Masur chose to stand throughout a taxing programme. But if he has a lifetime's experience and wisdom to bring to Bruckner's Seventh Symphony in E major, it was not always...

Siren on the Helsingin Sanomat has been collecting memories of Paavo Berglund, the doyen Finnish conductor, who died today aged 82. He interviewed Kurt Masur from Leipzig, Esa-Pekka Salonen from London, Jukka-Pekka Saraste from Oslo, Sakari Oramo from...