Royal Festival Hall, London
Rudolf Barshai’s audacious completion of Mahler’s final unfinished symphony slathers on the colour, and its diverse timbral details came over loud and clear thanks to the LPO’s playing and Vladimir Jurowski’s textural lucidity

For decades following his premature death at the age of 50, it was believed that the fragments of Gustav Mahler’s 10th symphony were just that: skeletal ideas impossible to flesh out into anything worth hearing. It was British musicologist Deryck Cooke who first took a proper look, discovering that crucial melodic lines were intact throughout the entire work. His subsequent lithe-limbed “performing version” has been embraced by many – but some have adopted a more interventionist approach, the most popular being Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai, whose audacious completion Vladimir Jurowski presented here.

As Jurowski admits, Barshai’s orchestrations bring the music closer to Shostakovich and perhaps Britten – both huge fans of Mahler. On its own terms it succeeds, though for those familiar with Cooke’s version it’s a bit of a culture shock. Where the Englishman deployed restraint and a scrupulously Mahlerian palette, in the movements the composer left most incomplete – the second, fourth and fifth – Barshai slathers on the colour. There’s a clattering xylophone, a guitar (miraculously audible amid the orchestral melee), a Wagner tuba, a cornet, a second tuba to beef up the most terrifying passages, a second harp, celesta, woodblocks, tubular bells and a trio of tiny gongs. That these diverse timbral details came over loud and clear was a testament to Jurowski’s textural lucidity and the outstanding playing of the LPO.

The singer-songwriter and actor on depression, becoming a sex symbol and rebelling in his 30s in his ‘middle-finger phase’

Born in Los Angeles in 1981, Josh Groban is a singer-songwriter and actor. His self-titled classical-crossover debut went five-times platinum in 2001, and he has since sold more than 25m albums. As an actor, he has appeared in films such as Crazy Stupid Love and TV shows The Office and The Simpsons. Groban made his Broadway debut in 2016 in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 – a role that earned him a Tony award nomination. Groban performs his first UK show in six years at a one-off O2 event in London on 1 April.

I went through a lot of phases when I was five – astronaut, firefighter, and, in this photo, cowboy. The look was inspired by the old country and western films I was watching, a kind of homemade blend of gunslinger and headband-wearing guitarist. And it wasn’t just for the back yard – I wore it everywhere. If I dropped something on the street, my mum would say, “Josh, cowboys don’t litter.” She was great at using whatever character I’d invented to teach me a lesson.

These records serve as statements of intent and have the power to change or reshape the industry, inspire fellow musicians, and drive essential conversation about our understanding of music. Roisin O'Connor picks the best of the bunch

Signed at 13 and dropped by 16, Beer’s path to stardom has not been easy. Now 26, she says she’s finally making music for herself and happy to wear her heart on her sleeve

Madison Beer may only be 26, but she is something of a veteran in the pop industry. She got her start at 13, after Justin Bieber tweeted a link to a YouTube video of her covering Etta James’s At Last, and has spent the intervening decade-plus toiling away in mainstream pop, amassing a huge gen Z fanbase in the process – including more than 60 million followers between Instagram and TikTok. It’s an understatement to say that her career has been a slow burn: the day before we speak, it’s announced that her single Bittersweet, released in October, has become her first song to reach the US Hot 100 chart, entering at No 98. When I suggest congratulations are in order, she shrugs off the achievement. “I’m obviously super excited and thankful whenever a song performs well, but I think I’m at the point where I love what I make, and I’m proud of it regardless,” she says amiably, before laughing. “Only took me like, 15 years! But it’s cool.”

Beer’s attitude is indicative of someone whose career has progressed in fits and starts, a far cry from the kind of meteoric rise that fans and onlookers sometimes expect to see in aspirant pop stars. As she prepares for the release of her third album, Locket, she is in prime position to break through to pop’s upper echelon: Her 2023 album Silence Between Songs featured the sleeper hits Reckless and Home to Another One, the latter a sorely underrated Tame Impala-inspired cut, and in 2024 she released Make You Mine, a Top 50 single in the UK which was nominated for a best dance pop recording Grammy.

Rock band are preparing to take the stage at the Super Bowl alongside MAGA-despised singer and rapper Bad Bunny

Musician opens up to presenter Zoe Ball about his health, sobriety and extraordinary career for the BBC Eras podcast

Listening to Brian May’s multi-tracked epic on a battered cassette player when I lived in repressive Havana inspired lit a spark of rebellion inside me

Throughout my childhood and teenage years growing up in 80s Cuba, Fidel Castro’s presence, and the overt influence of politics, was everywhere – on posters, on walls, in speeches that could last four hours at a stretch. The sense of being hemmed in, politically and personally, was hard to escape.

I had been raised to believe in communism, and for a long time I did. I even applied twice to join the Young Communist League, only to be rejected for not being “combative” enough: code for not informing on others. Friends were expelled from university or jailed for speaking too freely and my family included people in the military and police, so I had to be careful not to endanger them. But amid that stifling conformity, something else had begun to take hold.

This May, the singer will embark on a global tour in support of his forthcoming album, ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’

The acclaimed singer was set to perform with conductor James Gaffigan and the National Symphony Orchestra

The former Take That star admitted he ‘desperately’ wanted to beat The Beatles’ record

The former Take That star admitted he ‘desperately’ wanted to beat The Beatles’ record

Twenty-five years after its initial release, Not Such An Innocent Girl has become the best-selling and most downloaded song of the week

Styles was photographed during the historic event wearing a hat with the slogan ‘techno is my boyfriend’

Singer singled out the fan to ask her why she was not dancing

The Grammy-winning artist and actor discusses body standards, romance, motherhood, music and the time she spent dancing with Prince, in the latest episode of the ‘Good Vibrations’ podcast

Pop star returns with a sprawling house and dance-influenced track that yearns for adventure

The pop star says he’s ‘honoured’ to have the music icon on his upcoming tour as she’s been in ‘my life for a really long time’

Twenty years since the Sheffield band released ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, it remains the bedrock of contemporary British guitar music. Mark Beaumont speaks to producers Alan Smyth and Jim Abbiss about the making of a cultural H-bomb

Song features AI-created arrangement with Minnelli contributing spoken lines

The singer’s new album comes out March 6

Rock the Country will take place in eight U.S. cities this spring and summer