Venue: Konzerthaus, Vienna

Argerich sprinted through technical runs with her characteristic articulation and breathtaking technique, and made Prokofiev's Third seem like child’s play.

Christiane Karg is the resplendent soprano in a wonderful performance of Mahler's Fourth at the Konzerthaus.

...the perpetuum mobile character building to a raucously joyous finale that elicited genuine, generous applause.

Despite some fascinating, impressive and often beautiful moments, the consistent refusal to give the audience time to applaud, pause and digest what they had just heard turned the evening into a wash of death songs.

Grimaud married incredible precision and rigour with moving sensitivity and ease. She led the listener clearly through the score without dropping a detail, but never gave the feeling that she was micro-managing.

Hannigan plays with expectations, opening with a single spotlight after a complete stage blackout to dramatic effect, and I am pretty sure she was rocking slippers on stage. 

After Jan Lisiecki gave an immaculate interpretation of a perennial Mozart piano concerto, Sebastian Weigle revelled in the brassy bravura of a symphony which remains virtually unknown in the city where it was composed over a hundred years ago.

After a 34 year hiatus from the Konzerthaus stage, the Toronto Symphony gave a knockout performance that had everything in spades