Multi-media stress test for Antwerp’s new Queen Elisabeth Hall

Flemish orchestra deFilharmonie came to Amsterdam on a sunny Sunday morning and brought even sunnier music with them. Lead by Jaap van Zweden, who knows the Concertgebouw like no other, they played a program containing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, two works of incredible high energy that left many a concertgoer with a smile on her face.

Inspired by Annie Ernaux’s The Years, Philip Venables’ new opera widens the canvas to take in the whole of Europe’s postwar generation. 

Though ambitious and occasionally arresting, this revised and expanded take on the Purcell classic suffers from subtraction by addition.

Soprano Claron McFadden's pellucid voice tremendously contributed to the structural and sonic richness of Widmann's Versuch über die Fuge.

Always with an eye for the unusual, The Hebrides Ensemble surpassed themselves brilliantly with a lively programme of Amerian influenced music, including Elvis on bassoon.

Martijn Padding's opera Laika is let down by its libretto, which illustrates that though authors may write successful novels, this doesn’t necessarily imply they can also produce good theatre texts.