Performer: Louisa Tuck

The best Brahms chamber music our reviewer's ever heard from Royal Northern Sinfonia, plus a Sibelius quartet that needs to be be heard more.

Cellist Louisa Tuck and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, with guest conductor Paul Watkins, deliver a lyrical and coherent interpretation of Britten's complex Cello Symphony.

Ensemble 7Bridges, directed by Richard Rijnvos, Head of Composition at Durham University, and conducted by James Weeks, brings together some of the North East’s specialist professional performers of contemporary music, supported by Durham University, with the aim of contributing to the development of new music in the North East.

When I collected my ticket for this evening’s Late Mix concert in Hall Two of The Sage Gateshead, I was somewhat surprised to see it marked as unreserved seating. A computer glitch, I thought, until I walked into the hall and found that the usual rows of seats in this small, in-the-round auditorium had been replaced with café-style tables and chairs.

Northern Sinfonia’s season of music by Brahms and Schumann opened on Friday night with the very public statements of their first symphonies, and the following night members of Northern Sinfonia turned inwards to the introspective and private world of their chamber music.Brahms was introduced to Schumann by the great violinist Joseph Joachim, and the three men were great friends.

Three of the four American pieces performed this evening by Northern Sinfonia were written to evoke very particular places, and got me thinking about the evocative power of a well-chosen title.