Work: Concertino for piano and small orchestra

Royal Northern Sinfonia and their Music Director designate Lars Vogt brought the idyllic side of Romanticism to Sage Gateshead last night, revelling in luxurious textures and melodies that sang of happy, fulfilled love for family.

Auckland Chamber Orchestra returned to Raye Freedman Arts Centre with a typically eclectic programme. The pieces were performed in reverse chronological order, from Ligeti of the 1950s back to Wagner of the 1860s, via Poulenc and Janáček.

Now this is how you put together a program of contrasts! Members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, on this night anchored by the presence of Pierre-Laurent Aimard, led us through a series of wild, compact, adventurous, and sometimes severe works by Bartók, Janáček, and Ligeti, before turning after the intermission to – what else? – Mozart’s G major Piano Concerto, K453.