Work: String Sextet in D minor, Op.70 "Souvenir de Florence"

Two fascinating and hugely entertaining recent pieces started a superb concert by the strings of the Manchester Camerata, joined by Jess Gillam in Glazunov's Saxophone Concerto and the Brodsky Quartet in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. Tchaikovsky crowned the concert.

Chloë Hanslip gives a searing performance of Shostakovich's Violin Sonata in orchestral garb, as if carved from blocks of solid granite.

This is no Liederabend with singers taking their turn to file up to the piano. It’s a fully staged drama in which baritone Vladislav Sulimsky’s character reflects on his past loves and losses.