Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Stephen Bell

Following the recipe of the New Year Concert from Vienna, the CBSO demonstrated their ability, but not much originality in this predictable programme. 

Grieg's Piano Concerto played by Tom Poster and the Hallé under Stpehen Bell was the highlight of a popular programme of Nordic favourites by Grieg and Sibelius

Sparks were flying on Friday night, and not only from the feet of the Unthank sisters and fellow clog dancing Prommers. Sam Lee said it: “the folking Albert Hall”.

A new commision for the woodwind soloists of the Britten Sinfonia was the inspiration behind this beguiling lunchtime affair, consisting entirely of music for woodwind quintet spanning nearly 100 years.

A kids’ TV format transferred to a Proms concert offered plenty of entertainment for the target audience, but precious little music.

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and Britten Sinfonia succeeded in creating a dynamic and captivating programme at Milton Court, with a series of works conceived as a whole and leading up to Britten's Serenade.

After the overture, whose two movements, fast and slow, were adequately dispatched by a suitably small orchestra, the audience mistook the arrival of an orchestral horn player as that of the soloist himself, and burst into applause, which turned to laughter as the mistake became obvious.