Wegener, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review – on the revolutionary road to Mahler

★★★★ WEGENER, LPO, JUROWSKI, RFH  On the revolutionary road to Mahler

How to blow away the schmaltz, and recover the shock, of an iconic work

For better or worse, because of Visconti’s classic film the Adagietto of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony now inevitably means Venice in its gloomiest moods. So there turned out to be a grim timeliness in a performance on an evening that coincided with the most devastating “acqua alta” to flood the city in half a century. Yet, in keeping with everything he does with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski’s reading at the Royal Festival Hall made us think afresh about an iconic work and dispel its more hackneyed, reach-me-down associations.

'The Academy and I': composer and viola-player Sally Beamish on a special relationship

SALLY BEAMISH on her special relationship with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields

On composing anniversary pieces for an ensemble she knows from the inside

I was 13. It was a Saturday, and Mum was working. On this occasion she asked if I’d like to come along and bring a book. I was wearing a dress I’d made myself – psychedelic orange and pink, with red edging. It was 1969. I don’t remember what the book was, but I know I didn’t look at it once that day.

Williams, LPO, Alsop, RFH review - sleek lines and pastoral tones

★★★★ WILLIAMS, LPO, ALSOP, RFH Power and precision in all-British programme

Power and precision in all-British programme, but the music retains its poetry

The London Philharmonic’s Isle of Noises, a year-long festival dedicated to music of the British Isles, drew towards its close with this programme of Butterworth, Elgar and Walton. Marin Alsop was a good choice to lead, especially for Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. Although well-known for her performances of British music, she’s not one to wallow in pastoral whimsy.

Daniil Trifonov, RFH review - devil in the works

★★★★ DANIIL TRIFONOV, RFH Devil in the works

Electric-shock Scriabin in a programme mostly dominated by a wilful virtuoso's personality

For the first 20 or so minutes and the second encore of this generous recital, I turned into a Trifonite, in thrall to the 28-year-old Russian pianist's communicative powers. Has Scriabin, in an imperious sweep from early to late, ever made more consistent sense?

The Apostles, LPO, Brabbins, RFH review - Elgar's melancholy New Testament snapshots

★★★★ THE APOSTLES, LPO, BRABBINS, RFH Elgar's melancholy New Testament snapshots

Perfection of movement and solo line-up in a problem oratorio

The Apostles is a depressing work, mostly in a good way. Elgar's one good aspirational theme of mystic chordal progressions is easily outnumbered by a phantasmal parade of dying falls, hauntingly shaped and orchestrated. After The Dream of Gerontius, this ostensibly more clear-cut oratorio has less sense of form; it's fragmentary or modern, according to taste.

Jambinai, Purcell Room - launching K-Music Festival with a wall of sound

★★★★ JAMBINAI, PURCELL ROOM Launching K-Music Festival with a wall of sound

This year's opening offers a powerful melding of Korean folk and post-rock

K-Music has become one of the highlights of the autumn cultural calender since it launched in 2014, bringing an eclectic range of Korean artists and bands, from pop and rock to jazz and folk, and all the gradations between. Next Sunday Korean Pansori opera comes to Kings Place, while Park Jiha’s beguiling looped soundscapes come to Rich Mix on 17th October, and Kyungso Park returns to the Southbank with her zither-like gayageum and new band, SB Circle on 29 October.