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Intriguing and theatrical Kagel, followed by rich Beethoven from the Quatuor Renaud Capuçon in the opulent Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Kagel's startlingly vivid piano trios proved this composer is worthy of a lovingly curated retrospective.

If there were a gold medal for programming at Musikfest Berlin, it would go to last night’s concert with the RIAS Chamber Choir, Ensemble musikFabrik, and a host of other musicians, gathered under the baton of James Wood.

How strange. I was engrossed throughout the London Sinfonietta’s performance of Mauricio Kagel’s The Pieces of the Compass Rose last night, and I have no idea how to describe it. Each of the eight pieces in this remarkable cycle for “salon band” is titled after a point on the compass – and each is, essentially, an evocation of that point. Or perhaps I mean “direction”, or “place”.

The 1960s and 70s are famous for breakthrough developments in rock music, but the story was really no different for the field of art music during those decades. The advent of electronics seems to have instilled in composers a fresh thirst for sound-exploration and conceptual writing.

In a pre-performance discussion, the vocal ensemble Exaudi's director James Weeks promised us that they were not just going to stand in a line for their Kings Place performance. And they were true to his word; the singers performed from all parts of the intimate Hall Two and created an immersive, involved listening experience.