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

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.