Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Violin Concerto in B minor

Music by Berlioz, Walton and a recent work by Dai Fujikura are each revealed to have restlessness at their cores, leading to highly different forms of energy and lyricism.

A disconcerting and expectation-defying premiere from Barry, followed by lyrical and virtuosic Walton from James Ehnes, ending with a majestic rendition of Sibelius' Symphony No. 1 by Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic.

Works of Adès and Walton – both of special significance to The Cleveland Orchestra – precede a lush Sibelius 5 at Severance Music Center. 

Sounding under-rehearsed and unloved, these performances of two great works made for a frustrating evening that could have been so much more inspiring.   

James Ehnes was an ideal soloist in Walton's Violin Concerto, well partnered by John Wilson and the BBC Philharmonic, with atmospheric Bax and a powerful Vaughan Williams 4.

The final pair of Sibelius symphonies is memorably performed by the LPO under Osmo Vänskä, with Tasmin Little as the authoritative soloist in Walton's violin concerto.

Canadian soloist James Ehnes and guest conductor Andrew Litton gave an unsentimental and appealing performance of an all-English programme.

Inspired by the sight of sixteen swans in flight, the great swinging horn call in the final movement of Sibelius Fifth Symphony is one of the most life-affirming moments in the composer’s output. If this ‘Swan Hymn’ glowed rather than blazed brightly last night, it was the journey there which impressed in the hands of Thomas Søndergård, Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

An 'immense glow and sumptuousness' were the words that Richard Strauss, aged just twenty-four, chose to describe the sound at the première of his tone poem, Don Juan, in 1889. 122 years later another young conductor found similar qualities with his orchestra.