Performer: George Li

The self-styled “world’s largest chamber music party” ends an eventful festival with rare early Shostakovich, Grieg’s full-blooded Cello Sonata and Appalachian Spring heard in its original scoring for 13 instruments. 

George Li's belief in storytelling shows in his Caramoor programme of Schumann, Ravel and Mussorgsky. 

Matthias Pintscher revels in Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, once described as a “bath of ice, cocaine and rainbows”, while George Li plays Ravel. 

George Li brings forward unexpected connections in masterly interpretations of works by Ravel and Stravinsky. 

Chinese American Li, once another purveyor of typically scorching performances, is better known these days for his sensitivity and nuance. 

Michael Tilson Thomas had a spectacular debut with Montreal's Orchestre Symphonique. George Li's performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 was breath-taking.