Serenity and Seriousness: Joy and James Lisney at St John's, Smith Square

Winter has struck Bristol pre-emptively this year, and finding a nice, warm place to hide on a Sunday morning is a good way to lessen the hold of its icy clutches.

Imagine, for a moment, that you're an 18th century German or French baron deciding what you're going to do with your evening. You might do worse, perhaps, than to invite a couple of dozen friends to your well-appointed sitting room, and bring in one of the great musicians of the day to talk to you about his favourite music and play it to you.

In his first New York appearance since the termination of his contract as BSO Music Director, Nelsons courts public sympathy and makes some thrilling music.

The sparkle of Max Bruch's Fecond Violin Concerto and the drama of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony overcome the gloom of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s dark forebodings. 

Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge is paired with Haydn's Die sieben letzten Worte, a journey from agony to transcendence in which the agony proves the more honest companion.