Alina Ibragimova at Wilton’s Music Hall

Louis Andriessen’s new opera is a masterly expedition into the grand and grotesque mind of Athanasius Kircher, polymath and fantastist, but it is hampered by a clumsy libretto.

The Institut Français’ three day festival “It’s all about Piano!” kicked off cinematically at King’s Place, with Mikhail Rudy’s compact double bill of Metamorphosis and Pictures at an Exhibition.

From Three Screaming Popes to Pictures at an Exhibition, a pair of works inspired by paintings frame a violin concerto by Béla Bartók at London's Southbank Centre. 

Virtuosic Alina Ibragimova joins the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal for a dynamite performance of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, while youthful conductor Hankyeol Yoon leads polished Rachmaninov. 

Iván Fischer and Alina Ibragimova transform familiar works into a vivid experience. From Beethoven’s Violin Concerto to Strauss’ Josephs Legende, the orchestra dazzles with colour, energy and cinematic intensity.

Alina Ibragimova and friends join forces at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in two powerful chamber works composed at the height of the Second World War.