Performer: Louis Lortie

In Dublin, Jean-Luc Tingaud and Louis Lortie bring clarity and purpose to two composers often ill at ease with the orchestra.

The French-Canadian pianist replaced an ailing Rudolf Buchbinder, kicking off the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society's first complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle.

Louis Lortie amazes in the Schubert-Liszt Wanderer Fantasy, while The Philadelphia Orchestra under Nézet-Séguin struggles but ultimately triumphs with Mahler's Fifth.

The several empty seats were probably a comment on the current reputation of the composer more than that of the pianist. Both deserved a full house.

Contrasts are fine but they don’t always work: in a programme with a strongly Germanic flavour John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic stretch the boundaries.

In Minneapolis, Markus Stenz and Louis Lortie present time-honored Austro-German symphonic masterpieces in committed and compelling performances.