WHAT’S ON: Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, The Sage Gateshead, 7.30pm on Friday October 9. Haydn, Mahler and Brahms. Box office: 0191-443 4661.

REVIEWS: Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Deux-Elles DXL1133) The Fibonacci Sequence have produced a superlative account of Messiaen’s work first played to an audience of 400 fellow prisoners of war. The slow movements for cello and piano and violin and piano are played with utter conviction and intensity.

Highly recommended.

Emil Gilels (BBCL 4260-2) One of the greatest interpreters of Beethoven, Emil Gilels opens with a robust reading of Piano Sonata No 21 Waldstein. It includes the lesser known Variations on a Russian Dance and Variations on an Original Theme.

The album is rounded off with Weber’s Piano Sonata no 2. The second album (BBC Legends4261-2) features a sparking account of Scarlatti’s Seven Piano Sonatas, as well as Debussy’s Pour le Piano and Beethoven’s Sonata no 27.

Sanderling (BBCL4262-2) Kurt Sanderling directs a lush account of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, recorded live with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra in 1975.

Sanderling’s rendition of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony is quite superb.