Performer: Edward Gardner

Must individual items in a concert programme form a coherent whole? Not necessarily, but here a Wagner overture, a cello concerto inspired by environmental concerns and an early Mendelssohn symphony don't justify the LPO's marketing.

**111

Stars and symbols, love and loss: Gardner, France and the LPO

Alexander Hall, 28 Sep

“A place to call home” and “Exiles and Dreamers” is how the LPO marketed this concert. No need for such additional flourishes in an interesting juxtaposition of Tchaikovsky, Dutilleux, George Walker and Dvořák.

****1

Gardner and a vast LPO perform Schoenberg's Gurrelieder

Mark Valencia, 24 Sep

With a powerful but not world-beating team of soloists, Gardner and the LPO tackle Schoenberg's sprawling cantata with aplomb – except for one near-catastrophic misstep.

***11

Gardner's Gerontius hits the heavenly heights at the BBC Proms

Mark Valencia, 31 Aug

Elgar's oratorio is treated as a rousing evening’s entertainment rather than an offshoot of the Catholic liturgy, with three stellar soloists.

****1

Salome stoked to red heat by Byström and the Bergen Philharmonic

David Smythe, 14 Aug

Returning to the Edinburgh International Festival after their astonishing Peter Grimes, the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner bring another opera, Richard Strauss' murderous Salome.

*****

Depths and heights in Birtwistle and Mahler from Gardner and the LPO

Roy Westbrook, 06 May

Sir Harrison Birtwistle is remembered by Edward Gardner before a performance of Deep Time, followed by Mahler's Song of the Earth.

***11