Work: String Quartet no. 2 in F sharp minor, Op.10

Alison Bell joins Britten Sinfonia to wow at Wigmore Hall in the fourth of the orchestra’s lunchtime chamber series, including Schoenberg's String Quartet no. 2.

Billed as “The soundtrack of the 20th century”, The Rest is Noise season of 2013 has now commenced at the Southbank Centre. Concert programmes scheduled throughout January have focused on the Second Viennese School and its infamous break with western tonality.

Previously, for me, the term “Chamber Orchestra” has meant an ordinary orchestra, only smaller: apart from the sound being somewhat thinned out and consequently cleaner, I don't expect a fundamentally different experience. Or, didn't, that is, until last night at Cadogan Hall, where I saw the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the first time.