En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Alec Frank-Gemmill

Early and late Beethoven in the closing two recitals of Wigmore Hall's Beethoven Festival Weekend. 

The second of five concerts in the (deep breath) Autumn 2013 International Music Seminar Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Tour saw the musicians giving their all for a BBC Radio 3 recording at the acoustically sensitive St George’s Bristol.It’s not often that you see such an age range among musicians taking to the stage.

This second of two SCO Britten centenary concerts saw its subject juxtaposed with two living British composers and Mozart. Cynics might consider the closing Symphony no. 40 in G minor (1788) a reward for surviving the rest of the programme’s modernity.

How do you like your Baroque? Extreme – all gut strings and not a chin-rest in sight? Or mid-twentieth century – molto vibrato with saxophone obbligato? There is, of course, a half way house, and in last night’s packed Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, the SCO steered firmly towards it, producing several agreeable surprises along the way.

I would be surprised if, by the end of the evening, I'd been the only one to suspect a hidden pun in the programme's title, 'In The Steppes of Central Europe'. All three pieces shared a dance element. You would expect this from Kodály's Dances of Galánta.