Performer: Natalia Lomeiko

I suspect that we seek out many of the world’s great soloists beacuse we know what we will get, but we might well seek out Buniatishvili because we don’t.

Of the two major orchestras performing in Auckland, the Auckland Philharmonia consistently has the more interesting programming (in recent reviews I’ve praised them in everything from Messiaen to Bach). It was interesting, then, to hear them in the bread-and-butter symphonic repertoire of Bruch and Brahms.

Eight seasons were performed at St George’s Bristol by the Oxford Philomusica: in this different approach to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, they added Ástor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The concept behind the concert was to combine old and new worlds of classical music, comparing works from the 18th and 20th centuries based on similar structures, and four sonnets depicting the seasons.