It was Yehudi Menuhin who said of Enescu that one of the Rumanian's most important qualities as a composer was his humanity. The same could be said of the late Vagn Holmboe: one found that the music was like the man – warm, humane, exceptionally well-balanced, both aurally and in expression. One could not imagine hysterical utterances from either, even when the music is clearly expressing outrage – as in Holmboe's Fifth Symphony. Detlev Glanert, one of the most personable composers I have met, makes a bike impression. He bears little traceof any artistic Ego, although he is very aware of his destiny as a composer. His conversation is easy-going and affable, changing to quiet earnestness when discussing graver matters. These qualities shine through in his music, which covers a wide variety of expressive mood and content, from the straightforwardly abstract (as in the second Chamber Sonata, Gestalt, op.32, of 1995), through the surreal contrasts of Marmormeer (‘Sea of marble’, one of the Four Fantasias for piano, op. 15,1987–8) which originated as a concept in a dream of the composer's, to the main climax of the First Symphony, op.6 (1985) – a graphic, vividly-scored depiction of the terror felt as one's own door is being battered down (see Ex.1).

By mid-1940 Bartók had decided to live in the United States. For how long and under what conditions, he did not really know. But, from his short tour of April and May 1940, he had come to believe that the prospects for his performing, compositional and ethnomusicological work werebrighter in New York than in Hungary, where a Nazi take-over seemed only a matter of time. The Bartóks' departure from their homeland was an unhappy affair, not just because of the myriad hassles of arranging visas and boxing up a lifetime's work, but also because of a lastminute quarrel with Kodály over unexpected directions which Bartók had taken in their joint project on Hungarian folk music. The two would, in fact, never again directly communicate.

An enormous architect-style desk with a heavylooking cherrywood top stands on slender curved metal legs, which give it a light-weight appearance. This is the centre of the composer's work room, just outside the city of Kassel in the middleot Germany. Here are created edifices of sound, pencilled in tiny calligraphy on gigantic manuscript pages. These are the compositions which are being accepted and performed in numerous music capitals of the world. The writer is Matthias Pintscher, who must be counted as one of the most outstanding personalities among the new generation of composers. His phenomenal talent has been compared to that of Wolfgang Rihm, who is 20 years older.

• The Masterprize Final Martin Anderson

• Per Nrgrd's Second Symphony Peter Quinn

• Der Gerettete Alberich William Mival

• Iindberg does L.A. James Harley

• Toronto: Murray Schafer's Viola Concerto Paul Rapoport

• Turku: Nordgren's Fourth Symphony Christophy Schlren

• Birmingham: Raymond Head's This We Call Being Calum MacDonald

• Westminster Abbey: Prt's Triodion Peter Quinn

• Westminster Cathedral: Roxanna Panufhik's Westminster Mass Martin Anderson

• Munich: Hosokawa's Vision of Lear John Wamaby

• Finding the Key: Goehr's Selected Writings Mark Cromar

• Uncommon Ground, Common Subsoil: Michael Finnissy Geoffrey Alvarez

• Messiaen, Trait and Tombeau Christopher Dingle

• Nielsen and Sibelius Peter Palmer

• Professional Dancer: George Butterworth Lewis Foreman

• Korngold the Last Prodigy (with a CD roundup) Martin Anderson

• Bartk Viola Concerto Facsimile Malcolm Gillies

• Classical Modernism and Frtwngler Peter Palmer

• The Search for Thomas F. Ward Michael Lister

• Henze's Undine and Nindi Symphony Guy Rickards

• Elgar 3 Calum MacDonald

• Howard Skempton, accordion Mark Cromar

• Nyman's Concertos Peter Quinn

• Frankel's Concertos Guy Rickards

• Philip Martin Sarah Noon

• Holliger and Carter Peter Palmer

• lszlo Lajtha Bret Johnson

• With a Minimum of Means Mark Cromar

• Bantock's Sappho Mike Seabrook

• Italian Chamber Music (2) Tristram Pugin