The January 2012 issue of Gramophone is now available.

Rob Cowan explores the music of Béla Bartók, the Hungarian composer whose music gripped, challenged and enthralled him as a 14-year-old – and has continued to do so ever since. David Patrick Stearns, meanwhile, assesses the recordings of Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in the Gramophone Collection and names his leading versions.

We also profile the greatest concert halls built in the past decade – see our Gallery View for more details – with contributions from Esa-Pekka Salonen and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Composer John Rutter writes the Diary, the Session Report catches up with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic as they record Rachmaninov, we look at works by Sir Lennox Berkeley from the 1940s in the Specialist Guide, and delve into recent changes and events in our News Analysis.

And of course we unveil our selection of the best new releases of the month (you can listen to excerpts in the Gramophone Player) – read reviews of all these and many, many more recordings, written by the finest critics.

Gramophone's January 2012 edition – on sale now. Or why not subscribe to the digital edition?