Profile

Serge Koussevitzky, a prolific commissioner born 150 years ago, made his mark not only on the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but also on American music.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its first concerts of the Tanglewood season, which is already showing signs of its new leader’s ambitions.

His recordings of Beethoven and Chopin were hailed as classics, but his technical ability sometimes invited controversy.

The composer Matthew Sheeran, brother of the pop star Ed Sheeran, discusses how he translated microtonal electronic music for a chamber orchestra.

Wayne Brown, who recently retired, started his career in Detroit before returning there to run a transformed Detroit Opera.

Recording collections reveal the talents of an essential 20th-century musician who lived through mental illness, Nazism and other tribulations.

The pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a friend and collaborator of Ligeti, is helping the New York Philharmonic observe the centennial of his birth.

A pillar of chamber music for nearly a half-century, the Emerson players bid farewell with Beethoven’s Opus 130 and Schubert’s String Quintet.

Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, which Olafsson recorded for Deutsche Grammophon and is touring this season, is “like a life cycle.”

Understated and unarrogant, Ax can be taken for granted. But he has long been, and continues to be, one of the finest American pianists.