En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Ilya Gringolts

Ilya Gringolts is the soloist is Sergei Taneyev's Concert Suite, the composer's only concertante work for violin.

Ilya Gringolts brings his brand of unspectacular virtuosity to the ACO's latest programme, with the Paganini Violin Concerto no. 1 and Bartók's Divertimento clear highlights.

Ilya Gringolts and Maxim Vengerov gave world-class performances of landmark pieces by Bach and Bartók, with a generous sprinkling of Prokofiev and Wieniawski giving extra sparkle.

An introductory reading by local writer Philip Pullman was an appropriate introduction to the “Dusk to Dawn” concert, one of the last in this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival (themed “Fairytales and Fantasy”). The collision of a light-hearted surface with darker undertones was not just in Pullman’s retelling of the Grimm stories, but pervaded Artistic Director Priya Mitchell’s programming.

Few quotations have surprised, delighted and saddened me as much as this remark by Schoenberg: "There is nothing I long for more intensely than to be taken for a better sort of Tchaikovsky. People should know my tunes and whistle them." This was one of several anecdotes offered by Discovering Music's Stephen Johnson in the pre-concert talk on "The New Century".

I had been greatly looking forward to hearing the Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts at the Wigmore Hall lunchtime recital. A former BBC New Generation Artist, as was his pianist Ashley Wass, I considered him a major talent back then, but hadn’t heard his performance for a while. Happily, he did not disappoint.