No exploration of the relationship between spirituality and 20th-century music can delve to any sorts of depth without discovering the figure of Olivier Messiaen, the religiously-influenced composer par excellence in a century characterised by the emancipation of art from religion.
Top-class orchestras have top-class musicians, and top-class musicians have legions of fans. If not legions, certainly a platoon or two: the Wigmore Hall was packed last night as the Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra took to the stage to perform Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E flat, Strauss’s Sextet for strings from ‘Capriccio’ and Schubert’s divine String Quintet in C.
