Artiste: Lisa Milne

Thea Musgrave given deserved attention by Guildhall musicians, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony orchestra in Total Immersion at the Barbican. 

A year of theatre refurbishment leaves Scottish Opera with only three and half full productions this season, so the spotlight turned firmly onto this Don Giovanni from director Sir Thomas Allen, designer Simon Higlett and lighting designer Mark Jonathan.

RSNO concerts begin, for me and around 100 others, with the pre-concert talk. I'm especially glad of these when new to a work, such as Mendelssohn’s 1846 Elijah. A talk by those who have prepared the music for us adds something to even the most extensive “presearch”. Sir Andrew Davis, in conversation with RSNO principal trombonist Dávur Juul Magnussen, came across as extremely witty and erudite.