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At Sunday’s Philharmonia Orchestra concert, guest conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens paired the Requiem with the composer’s autumnal Clarinet Quintet.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment takes on its biggest ever challenge under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski.

The sheer contrast between each movement, the ferocity of the orchestra and the dynamism of Vasily Petrenko made for a whirlpool of a performance – dangerous, dark and occasionally tranquil. 

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra gave an oddly-staged, at times erractic, performance of the “Resurrection” Symphony that failed to completely encapulsate Mahler's vision. 

In one of several (pretty outrageous) notes to conductors in the score of his Roméo et Juliette, Berlioz states that “the average listener has no imagination” and, as a result of this, the sixth movement of the work should be cut in 99 per cent of performances.

Every once in a while, I hear a concert that grips me from the first note and doesn’t let go until the very last. Daniele Gatti and the Philharmonia’s performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall was such a concert.There are some caveats to make: I’m not catholic, I’m not very religious and I’m not particularly steeped in the tradition of liturgical music.

The Southbank Centre’s centenary celebration of Witold Lutosławski, titled Woven Words, can easily be overshadowed by the excitement of this year’s The Rest is Noise festival.

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is a monumental piece of music: literally, architecturally and aesthetically. It is a literal monument because of its creation for Coventry Cathedral, that architectural testament to the creative and destructive powers of man.

There was a definite buzz about London’s Southbank Centre on the evening of 16th February, for this was the night of the second concert in the Philharmonia Orchestra’s ‘The Still Point of the Turning World’ series, which began last month to huge critical acclaim (see my review).

Whether intentionally or not, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has done Christianity’s street cred a great service this week. As the St Paul’s protest furore continues to grow, the orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was a reminder that for the composer and countless others, religion is first and foremost about the comfort of spirituality.

It is always exciting to witness the birth of a new piece of composition, all the more so when the soloist is the inimitable Yo-Yo Ma.

En ouverture de leur saison et préfigurant la célébration des 250 ans de Mozart, le Classical Opera, offrait au Barbican un concert de l’inachevé. Un programme monumental et une interprétation fidèle, pour un rendu presque trop soigné.