Work: Hungarian Dance no. 2 in D minor

Alexandre Bloch and Royal Northern Sinfonia throw down a challenge to any listener who thinks that Brahms is comfortable and easy with a radical reading of his Fourth Symphony.

Maxim Vengerov and Polina Osetinskaya’s marathon of Brahms sonatas showed off the composer at his most lyrical and dramatic. 

There was something for everyone in Maxim Vengerov and Itamar Golan’s recital programme at the Barbican last night. The music of nine different nations was represented in a multicultural extravaganza of shifting horizons, moods and styles.