Work: Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra

Andris Nelsons returned to his Shostakovich cycle with an easy-going Sixth Symphony, followed by an exhilarating Suite for Variety Orchestra. Jean-Yves Thibaudet delighted audiences with Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F.

An imaginative RSNO programme sandwiching fusionist Gershwin between unbelievably contrasting Shostakovich, seasoned with a little re-titling.

New Year’s concerts have never been that appealing to me: I am not a great lover of Viennese waltzes and that is what most of them consist of. But fortunately this year the Holland Symfonia had a New Years concert with a twist: Russian fireworks.