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In its opening concert of the season, the Philharmonia gave two of Sibelius' symphonies with two modern pieces by a pair of Iceland's finest young composers, which made for rewarding listening.

Neo-Romanticism, Modernism, and Post-Modernism run delightfully amok in the second night of the New York Philharmonic's Barbican residency.

In an innovative concert experience, John Adams curated a night of living composers to shine the spotlight on his favorite new works, answering the question: “Who’s on John Adams’ playlist?”

In “Far from Home” reed quintet Calefax and the Nederlands Kamerkoor performed music around the theme of loneliness, loss and exile.

Yuja Wang joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, demonstrating dramatic tempi and searing emotion throughout their program.

For 24 years, the festival of Dark Music Days has fuelled imagination with contemporary music, thanks to the initiative of the Icelandic Composer’s Union. And with the advent of a glamorous concert hall in the midst of crisis and bankruptcy, the glittering Harpa, the crowds have grown in numbers every year.

“It is impossible to find anyone in the world today who is young and not ill,” muses André Breton in Chiaki Kawamata’s novel Death Sentences. “Youth itself is a kind of disease.” There is in youth something that exerts a powerful hold on the imagination. Its freshness, its arrogance, its promise – all of these building a magnetic aura that exerts a powerful hold on our consciousness.