In 1969 at the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution the Yellow River Piano Concerto, commissioned by Madame Mao, received its highly politicised premiere. Despite being banned from Chinese musical life in 1976 it has slowly filtered back into the musical mainstream in a country with a huge...

Although every instrument has a history of extreme techniques, the piano seems to have attracted more than its fair share of people wanting to see how far it, and they, could go. From Beethoven, who was known for destroying pianos during the course of a performance, through to John Cage (who...