Symphony No. 40

Italian violinist Fabio Biondi – famous especially for his interpretation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with his orchestra, Europa Galante – refuses to be compartmentalised. We take a look back at the career of a musician blessed with a supple mind and an extraordinary talent for the Baroque violin.

From Sappho of Mytilene to Kaija Saariaho and Clara Schumann, several women have managed to break through the macho codes of the milieu and become composers. While the classical music landscape has been largely dominated by men in recent centuries, the work of their female colleagues, whether pioneers or contemporaries, is just as fascinating. Here we put eleven undervalued figures of female composition in the spotlight.

For over thirty-five years, Marc Ribot’s name has been on the covers of albums by Tom Waits, Alain Bashung, Diana Krall, John Zorn, Robert Plant, Caetano Veloso and numerous other artists, and when he's not busy lending his unique guitar to others, the New Yorker takes pleasure, under his own name, in breaking down and re-building rock, jazz, funk, Cuban music and anything his fingers touch.