Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Prelude and scherzo for string octet, Op.11

Royal Northern Sinfonia hide a feast of quirky, inventive string writing by Shostakovich, Stranvinsky, Mozart and Schoenberg behind a sedate title.

The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO)’s programme of “young high achievers” − Shostakovich and Beethoven − struck a positive chord at the Tonhalle this week.

As my seatmate remarked to me after the concert, it is strange and wonderful to hear Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich, who befriended each other late in life, begin to sound alike in their old age while remaining unmistakably themselves. I agreed.

A feast of Russian chamber music was what was on offer for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s latest concert. Featuring music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky in a program entitled Russian Visions, the ACO with guest soloists Steven Osborne and David Elton provided an evening of music which was visionary, electrifying and intense in equal measures.