The Traveller at Salisbury Catherdal

An exciting collaboration between the composer Alec Roth and the writer Vikram Seth with Eastern inflections

Duran Duran

You can understand why Duran Duran consider their celebrity stock to be soaring, despite disastrous sales of their album

Tenebrae/Stimmhorn

Tenebrae's Schubert partsongs were exquisite, as were others, where singers produced gently overlapping backing harmonies

Aldeburgh Festival

The week's triumph was the UK premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's new string quartet, The Tree of Strings

London Symphony Orchestra/Davis

Sibelius's tragic Fourth Symphony made for an evening with precious little glimmer to pierce the Nordic gloom

Dolly Parton tour begins in style in Glasgow

Given the implausible length of her fingernails, the wonder was how she managed to masterly play multiple instruments

Hard Rock Calling/ The Police in Hyde Park, London

Sting, Stewart and Andy - looking like the best of friends - ripped into a classic set of karaoke favourites

Philharmonia/Maazel at Festival Hall

An inauspicious start and some ropey solo performances spoilt an otherwise commendable revisit of Brahms's symphonies

Pentangle

After 40 years there still isn’t a band on the planet that sounds like them. It’s an absolute joy to have them back

I'm pretty awesome, Jay-Z assured us

And he was. The rapper, a controversial booking for many, proved to be Glastonbury's most thrilling headliner for more than a decade

Concertgebouw Orchestra/Järvi

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition showed the brass section's panache, but Messiaens Turangalîla was something of a ruckus

Def Leppard/Whitesnake

Def Leppard and Whitesnake, those kings of the rock zoo, demonstrate that they still know how to roar

My Bloody Valentine

There’s no new material, they look exactly the same as they did in their heyday and they still don’t bother with fripperies such as...

Aldeburgh Festival -the Sunday Times review

Judging by Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s pleasantly shocking recital, Aldeburgh is in safe hands

Nelson Mandela at 90

None of the acts overstayed their welcome and generally there was a much greater effort to find balance

Crowds respond to Glastonbury rain with a shrug

Thousands of festival-goers ignore intermittent showers but what really dampens their spirits is a dull act on stage

Carlinhos Brown

The charismatic Brazilian was here to party, turning the knobs up to 11 he allowed the percussion section to let rip

Goldfrapp sends fans into semi-slumber

At a packed Albert Hall, eerily breathy moments gave way to tunes that sent much of the crowd into semi-slumber

MC5/Primal Scream

Primal Scream revealed a 1970s disco-tinged new direction and MC5 located the passion as both bands took to the stage

Martin Taylor and Alison Burns

With no frills, no gimmicks, the duets by Taylor and his daughter-in-law demand nothing less than your full attention