Knights and angels

‘When chivalry lifted up her lance on high’: both Edward Elgar and Richard Strauss were master storytellers, and you can practically smell the testosterone when Strauss’s Don Juan leaps into red-blooded life. Elgar’s stirring early overture portrays a more courtly world, making it the perfect upbeat to Mozart’s stateliest concerto – a delightful showpiece for international harp virtuoso Xavier de Maistre and the LPO’s own Principal Flute Juliette Bausor. Then discover one of the real hidden treasures from our Isle of Noises: the neglected, radiantly poetic harp concerto Lyra Angelica by William Alwyn. It’s heavenly.