Missouri Classical Music News

One of the best-kept secrets in London was the lecture series Andras Schiff gave in parallel to his electrifying cycle of Beethoven sonatas at the Wigmore Hall. In May a friend managed to get a ticket for me - and I was simply dazzled by the performance he put on - a riveting mixture of erudition, analysis, passion, wit and memory. Schiff talked for more than two and a half hours about three lateish sonatas - and for anyone interested in these peaks of the piano repertoire they were quite compelling.

It seemed such a waste that all this scholarship and revelation should not have a wider audience. I learned from the Wigmore Hall's director, John Gilhooly, that the lectures had all been recorded - and neither he nor Schiff needed much persuading that the obvious place to podcast them was on the Guardian's new arts and entertainment blog. Over the next seven weeks you'll have the chance to download the series of seven lectures.