BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Runnicles, Royal Albert Hall

Donald Runnicles: projecting a focused orchestral sound into the Albert Hall vasts

A glowing programme of works both English and international from Scots on top form

What a quintessential Prom: a quartet of works by English composers which aspire to international status, and in three cases wholly succeed, performed by the BBC's Scottish orchestra at world-class level under its homegrown but deservedly globetrotting chief conductor Donald Runnicles. And doing what the Albert Hall, if handled properly, assists in doing best - not the noisy stuff, but the secret rapture of four increasingly sublime slow movements welcoming us in from the Victorian colosseum's vasts.

Josefowicz, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Knussen, Royal Albert Hall

Matthews' concerto bores, Birtwistle ejaculates prematurely and Stockhausen goes mad

"Stockhausen's festive overture from 1977 opens the programme," declared the Proms website cheerily. Come again? Festive? Stockhausen? From my limited but largely enthusiastic knowledge of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen - much of which is about as festive as Auschwitz - I assumed that this must either be a big misunderstanding or a lively, perhaps German, joke. It was both.
 

The Concert

Charming but uneven: a fake Bolshoi orchestra plays in Paris

Give any masterpiece of classical music a central role in a film - and everything else straightaway faces the highest standards of comparison. In Radu Mihaileanu’s The Concert, it's the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and from the opening frames the music delivers everything it should – though whether it’s enough to hide other noises (clunking in the script department being only one of them) is another matter.

BeauSoleil, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Custodians of Cajun culture: BeauSoleil

Cajun kings are joined on stage by Meltdown curator Richard Thompson

Our story begins in the early 1970s, when a young fiddler from Louisiana named Michael Doucet was making rock music. Then one day he heard a song by Fairport Convention: “Cajun Woman” (from the band’s Unhalfbricking album). He was shocked and delighted that an English group should be taking an interest in a strand of music that seemed to be fading into obscurity. In a sort of Proustian moment, he inhaled the fragrance of “Cajun Woman”, his interest in the music of his native region was awakened, and Doucet began to immerse himself in the folk music of France and of his home state, where French music and culture have survived ever since the influx in the mid-18th century of Arcadian settlers (Cadiens; hence Cajun) from Nova Scotia.

Nigel Kennedy's Polish Adventure

Tracking down Nigel Kennedy for BBC One's Imagine

Brilliant though it was to be shooting an Imagine film for BBC One, we did experience the occasional tremor of foreboding about making a programme with Nigel Kennedy. We (that's me and director Frank Hanly) had a bit of previous with Nigel - I'd done several print interviews with him, and we'd shot a couple of short films with him for EMI.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Fischer, Royal Festival Hall

Precision, charm and wit from the COE - and two Fischers for the price of one

Rossini provided the lively curtain-raisers to both halves of this Chamber Orchestra of Europe concert, streamed live to Aberdeen where Shell, the sponsors, have something of a vested interest in keeping their employees entertained. The liquid gold on this occasion was of the legato variety and not one but two Fischers ensured that it flowed freely and purposefully. Ivan Fischer is quite simply one of the most perceptive and persuasive conductors on the planet; Julia Fischer (no relation) is the epitome of German cool and precision. She plays the violin rather well, too.

Classical Music CDs Round-Up 8

Rhapsody in black and white: the Paul Whiteman Orchestra

From sackbutts and serialism: this month's releases sifted and sorted

This month the selection varies from sackbutts to serialism, by way of condensed Wagner, Elgar conducted by the much-missed Vernon Handley and music from both Shostakovich and a disciple of his. Among contemporary music there is Osvaldo Golijov’s lively setting of the Passion story and the young German composer Thomas Larcher and the great Henri Dutilleux. There are also more delights from Swiss master Frank Martin. Violin pyrotechnics are supplied by Ysaÿe. But we begin with vintage Gershwin, and that famous looping clarinet.

MacMillan premiere, Repin, LSO, Gergiev, Barbican Hall

Dazzling Vadim Repin proves James MacMillan's tumultuous Violin Concerto is here to stay

"There is not one idea," wrote that intemperate critic Eduard Hanslick about Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel, "that does not get its neck broken by the speed with which the next lands on its head." Rather a compliment, I've always thought, and certainly so as applied to James MacMillan's new Violin Concerto. As soloist Vadim Repin and conductor Valery Gergiev whirled us tumultuously through its hyperactive songs and dances, there was so much I wanted to savour, to hear again. That won't be a problem.

Christian & Tanja Tetzlaff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall

Christian Tetzlaff: 'with his light clean tone he sounded not like a celebrated soloist but a melder, a listener and a joiner-in'

Rapt chamber music from three people united in Schumann's great trio

Chamber music is a highly motivational experience - here is a group of instruments of quite different qualities parading, fighting, ganging up, inviting each other’s new ideas, dialoguing, and all this variety heightening the build-up to the moment when all instruments proclaim unanimity in a grand finish, or (even better) huddle up in mutual creative conspiracy and conjure a mysterious little spell that makes the outsider long to be part of it. All of which was present last night in both the performance and the music of Robert Schumann’s third Piano Trio, played by the Tetzlaff siblings, Christian on violin and Tanja on cello, with Leif Ove Andsnes at the Wigmore Hall.

Szymanowski Focus, Wigmore Hall

'Poland's most imaginative composer after Chopin': Szymanowski by Witkacy, 1930

Polish dreamer overshadowed by Bartók and Janáček in a packed chamber programme

Poland's most imaginative composer after Chopin, and his natural heir in the realm of sensual reverie, certainly knew how to yoke a full orchestra to his dreams and fantasies. Yet the work by Szymanowski I've most longed to hear in concert is the three-movement Mythes for violin and piano. A recording of it by Kaja Danczowska and the great Krystian Zimerman quickly acquired cult status in the 1980s. So it seemed like a heaven-sent gift to hear it live in the hands of an even more rounded violinist, young Norwegian Henning Kraggerud, and another maverick Polish pianist, Piotr Anderszewski. They could hardly have made a more dazzling case; yet by the end of the concert it was clear that a single dance theme in an early quartet by Bartók, rigorously developed, was worth more than all the Szymanowski in a packed programme.
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