He clung to the few experiences he had shared with her: the gift of a flute whose sounds had astonished him, her wish that he should enjoy music and especially play the cello. He refused to let her go.

If the tenderness of Anton Webern's musical expression at the loss of his mother is difficult for some listeners to hear in his scores, how much more so for the iconoclastic music of Iannis Xenakis? Be that as it may, Matossian's revelation of this intimate memory from his childhood provides a clue to the composer's attraction to the cello, and, by extension, to the chamber string genre, particularly the string quartet. This perhaps surprising personal inspiration is reinforced in the recently published interviews with Bálint András Varga.

The feeling of nature I think is what I like so much in Grieg's best things. You have it too & I think we all 3 have something in common.

Delius to Grainger, 10 June 1907.

Spring always means for me a longing for Norway.

Delius to Grainger, January 1914.

A ‘Norwegian Cuckoo’? Well perhaps not Norwegian literally, but certainly figuratively. Perhaps, as we shall see, nothing more than an accidental cadence. Delius thought so, even if Grieg didn't; and it was probably Grainger who inadvertently acted as the go-between.

• Henze's Ninth Symphony Christoph Schlüren

• Henze's ‘Venus and Adonis’ at the Proms Guy Rickards

• James Dillon's ‘Blitzschlag’ Rachel Beckles Willson

• James Macmillan: ‘Raising Sparks’ Ronald Weitzman

• Salzburg Festival 1: Ligeti and Greenaway George Newman

• Salzburg Festival 2: Matthias Pintscher Christoph Schlüren

• Schwantner's Percussion Concerto Bret Johnson

• ‘Il rozzo martello’ and the ISM Congress Malcolm Miller

• Holloway's Third Concerto for Orchestra John Pickard

• James Wood: ‘Two Men meet …’ Guy Rickards

• Colin Matthews David Denton

• Markevitch orchestral music Calum MacDonald

• Dave Heath David Denton

• Takemitsu piano music Mike Seabrook

• Recent Schnittke discs Calum MacDonald

• Italian Chamber Music (I) Robin Freeman

• Kernis and McKinley Michael Oliver

• Görecki Howard Skempton

• Indian Music and the West Raymond Head

• Brian Ferneyhough's writings (and recent discs) Ian Pace