Performer: Olari Elts

French clarinettist Raphaël Sévère unearths beauty in Nielsen’s concerto and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta impress in two settings of Pan’s antics at the French May Festival.

Barry Douglas, in his home town, gives an excellent reading of a piece central to his repertoire,while Olari Elts puts the Ulster Orchestra through their paces in a highly colourful Petrushka.

Vasks’ Viola Concerto receives its Scottish première with Maxim Rysanov and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as they explore music and nature in the Baltic, Rome and America.

Every once in a while, as a reviewer, you are so utterly transfixed by a performance that it becomes an incredible effort to wrench yourself back into reality in order to put pen to paper, such is the visceral impact. And so it was with Christian Tetzlaff’s performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Si le jeune violoniste suédois fait fort belle impression dans le Concerto de Tchaïkovski, Olari Elts déçoit à la tête de la phalange estonienne dans un programme étrangement pensé.