At fifty, Oliver Knussen has an output of formidably accomplished works behind him, composed at consistently high levels of invention and imagination, instantly recognizable both for their harmonic language and their clear, resonant instrumentation. Yet, surprisingly in view of Knussen's long-established international reputation, the musicological and analytic fraternity has been slow to pick up on what Knussen has been up to since the mid-1970s. There is almost nothing in print which goes into any technical detail as to the painstaking methods by which these spontaneous-sounding pieces are built up. Knussen himself has written little about his own work – preferring, as with his conducting activities, to place the advocacy of the work of others on higher priority than his own.

His name may not be familiar to some readers, but since the première of his first major work The Prairie in 1944 Lukas Foss has remained one of the most distinctive voices in American contemporary music. He is a unique kind of musician, equally renowned as composer, conductor, pianist, educator, and spokesman for his art.

At a time when composers usually write only one piece in any particular genre, since they seldom get the commission or — like Brahms and Beethoven – feel the urge or need to make it two or three at the very least, it is more than just good fortune that James MacMillan's cello compositions, large and small, are rapidly becoming a major corpus of work for the instrument. It is a tribute to, and result of, his confidence with the cello's ability to carry his thoughts, and also of its inherent suitability to express the singing, dancing and searingly intense things he wants to say.

Any consideration of William Walton's Second Symphony should begin with some mention of its predecessor, first performed complete in November, 1935, twenty-five years before No.2. The First Symphony created an enormous impact, coming soon after the successes of the Viola Concerto of 1929 and the oratorio Belshazzar's Feast of 1931. The Symphony's vast scale, its emotional power and fierce utterance, allied to an impressive consistency of style, conspired to declare a work of originality and almost instantaneous appeal. An early Decca recording of it under Sir Hamilton Harty, who had conducted the first performances, enabled the Symphony to be heard worldwide.

Berlin, May 2002: around a wooden table in a pleasantly overgrown garden, friends and neighbours had been discussing with an English visitor some recent and imminent events — Blair's 50-minute interview on prime-time German TV, George W. Bush's coming visit, the World Cup, and so forth. The conversation turned to Berlin and the performing arts — the deficits, the new appointments, the expected disappointments, and the prospects for next season. G., the conductor of an enterprising church choir, spoke of his next autumn festival and the one to follow. There were plans for an Anglo-German festival, sensibly exploiting official civic partnerships. Given the musical interests of almost everyone present, a surprising number of English composers, from Dunstable onwards, proved unfamiliar to all but the conductor and the visitor from abroad. It was already dusk, and H. and B., the hosts, suggested a move indoors, where names and dates could be checked in the umpteen volumes of their 1970 edition of Brockhaus.

• Vienna: the Reich-Korot Three Tales Graham Lack

• Birmingham: Julian Anderson's Imagin'd Corners Clement Jewitt

• Kokkola: Anders Eliasson's Symphony for strings Christoph Schlren

• Tampere and London: two violin concerti Martin Anderson

• Israeli Tributes to Shostakovich Malcolm Miller

• Globe Theatre: Claire van Kampen Jill Barlow

• Letters of William Walton Stephen Johnson

• Jewish Composers in the USSR Martin Anderson

• Recent Birtwistle releases Jonathan Cross

• Elliott Carter on Bridge Records John Kersey

• Adams's El Nio on CD and DVD Julian Haylock

• Steve Reich's Triple Quartet Malcolm Galloway

• Steve Mackey, Christopher Rouse, Tan Dun John Kersey

• Turnage and Martland Peter Chiinn

• Louis Gruenberg Bret Johnson

• George Rochberg and Hugh Wood Calum MacDonald

• Piano Music by Konrad Boehmer Mark R. Taylor

• Geirr Tveitt Bret Johnson

• Contemporary British Releases Guy Rickards

• Druckman and Bassett Calum MacDonald