Venue: Beethovenhalle, Bonn

Jos van Immerseel and Anima Eterna present a rich programme full of colour and transparency.

At first sight the choice of programme and musicians for this pre-Beethoven Festival concert was a bit odd. Music by Verdi, Richard Strauss and Dvořák played by La Scala's Filarmonica, under the direction of Oxford-born Daniel Harding.The title of the evening – "La Scala on the Rhine" – gave a hint. The Milanese orchestra was on a short tour – to Bonn on Saturday and Dresden on Sunday.

Bonn is all about Beethoven. His image is everywhere – on one of the first statues built in Germany for a musician in 1845 in the main Munsterplatz by the cathedral, in the tourist office regalia, in directions to the house where he was born in 1770 (now a museum), in the month-long, annual Beethoven Festival, in the 2,000-seat Beethovenhalle, and, most especially, in the orchestra.

Selbst in den technisch-räumlichen Gegebenheiten der Beethovenhalle erlebten die Zuhörer ein Festival- und Zyklusfinale wie man es sich nur wünschen kann.

Kämpferisch, feierlich, merkwürdig: von französischer Politik und österreichischer Überraschung am Beginn Europas des 19. Jahrhunderts