Performer: Basel Chamber Orchestra

Alexandra Dovgan plays piano concertos by Clara and Robert Schumann at the Konzerthaus, but it's the Kammerorchester Basel's performance of a forgotten symphony which most impresses. 

Handel's oratorio Susanna is often considered to be less than consistently dramatic and this performance in the Halle Handel Festival did little to dispel that view.

Heinz Holliger conducted a fine interpretation of Schubert's Ninth, but it was Stephen Hough's performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 that really made the evening.

Hope can spin high-lying musical phrases with a sweetness and suspension that few of his contemporaries can match.

The final stop on the Basel Chamber Orchestra's Australian tour at the Sydney Opera House saw Sol Gabetta in fine fettle as soloist in Cello Concertos by Saint-Saëns and the Latvian Vasks.

It was an evening for showing off. The Basel Chamber Orchestra (being Bartoli and Scholl’s frequent partners) performed Bizet and Rameau, plus a Mozart concerto with conductor Christian Zacharias directing from the piano.