Late Style: Brahms and more with Jonathan Biss at Milton Court

Stepping in to replace Stephen Kovacevich, Jonathan Biss’ Schubert alternates between insight and impatience.

Jakub Hrůša conducts a magnificent Shostakovich 11 and, just after the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a work by one of the many Jewish musicians who perished there.

Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give an extraordinary, terrifying account of Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony, preceded by a Classical-Romantic tussle in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. 

Early Beethoven doesn't convince, but Karina Canellakis’s rendering of Shostakovich 8 pulls no punches: raw, frightening, even chastening

A boldly curated programme, showcasing two ambitious orchestral works premiered during the last two years, proved to be a most stimulating evening. 

Exhilarating playing, but speed isn’t everything as Jonathan Biss opens his Beethoven cycle in London.