Songs of Travel at the Wigmore Hall with Roderick Williams and Gary Matthewman

We anticipated a Ukrainian barihunk singing Tchaikovsky, but ended up with an English rose singing Strauss.

The sharp linguistic and enunciative abilities of Romanian mezzo Adriana Festeu are as impressive as her singing. Accompanied by Nico de Villiers, she launched “Leeds Lieder+ From Europe to America – A Day of Song” in the morning at Leeds University’s Clothworkers Hall with “Songs My Mother Taught Me”. She dealt very convincingly with Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs in Czech, followed by 5 Lieder, Op.

MacMillan's large scale choral work offers a rich variety of texts and musical ideas, the composer conducts the BBC Symphony with unerring precision.

British vocal talent adds some very British glamour to the closing Avrotros Friday concert featuring Elgar's most famous oratorio. 

Jack Furness directs a terrific new Queen of Spades at Garsington – haunting and harrowing.