Every so often, a piece of music simply grabs you by the arm and drags you with it when you're least expecting it. I don't suppose that anyone could consider a piano trio by Vítězslav Novák to be exactly mainstream - his works aren't played all that often even in his native Czech - and while Bohuslav Martinů is considerably better known, his piano trios wouldn't feature on the list of works considered "safe" by concert promoters.

If you're an opera lover, you need to know about the Met Player. It's the Metropolitan Opera's new venture into web broadcasting, and went live last Thursday, October 22nd.

The long awaited London debut of American violin virtuosa, Rachel Barton Pine, has finally arrived.  The concert on the 11th November 2008, in which she will be playing Brahms’ violin concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, promises to be an unforgettable experience.

Just to prove that nothing is new under the sun:

It transpires that Queen Elizabeth I was a keen dancer, who would dance four Galliards before breakfast. The dance was very energetic, and undoubtedly set her up for a hard day of politics and governance. So if the creators of the modern aerobic dance workout think they were doing something original - they got beaten to it by 400 years or so!

This comes to you from a Radio 3 programme on Renaissance dance music. Sadly, you can't get to it on Listen Again any more, but the playlist is still up on the site:

Classical guitar students are brought up playing the music of Francisco Tárrega, especially his 15 preludes, which are delightful miniatures: charming, relaxing, wistful. These are not large scale works - the shortest clocks in at just over half a minute, the longest at two minutes - but each has a very individual character.

With your child's weekly piano lesson coming round (or violin or oboe or whatever), the inevitable debate rears its ugly head about "how often have you practised this week?". Sadly, classical music demands many hours of practice: even international stars seem to spend a terrifying proportion of their waking hours practising, regardless of how much native talent they have.

The answer to the question "how much practice do I need" depends largely on what standard you want to achieve. If you just want to learn a bit about the instrument and become competent to play a few pieces nicely, you'll get away with an hour or three a week. If you want to play in a band or orchestra without making a fool of yourself, you'll need more. But how much do you need to become a real expert, a world-class performer?

Since the summer, Bachtrack has had a substantial number of concert listings in the US, including the major orchestras and opera houses. With this week's release of the site, you'll notice a country flag in the top right hand corner, together with a "Change" link that lets you switch between UK and US content. This is in line with our intentions to be a truly multi-national site.

Probably our last Prom of the season, and a rare chance to see Rattle and the Berlin Phil, playing a challenging programme: Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie.