Work: The Seven Last Words of Christ, Hob XX

Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge is paired with Haydn's Die sieben letzten Worte, a journey from agony to transcendence in which the agony proves the more honest companion.

Sir Simon Rattle steers the LSO through a sequence of Haydn’s most forward-looking pieces while Denis Kozhukhin, as a late stand-in, is immense in Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto.

This Lenten concert given by Currentzis and MusicAeterna at Vienna’s Konzerthaus was certainly solemn and atmospheric – the auditorium was shrouded in darkness from beginning to end.