Performer: Basel Chamber Orchestra

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.