Jeremy Denk, Wigmore Hall

JEREMY DENK, WIGMORE HALL Panorama of musical history reveals surprising connections

Panorama of musical history reveals surprising connections

Medieval to Modern – Jeremy Denk’s Wigmore Hall recital took us on a whistle-stop tour of Western music, beginning with Machaut in the mid-14th century and ending with Ligeti at the end of the 20th. The programme was made up of 25 short works, each by a different composer and arranged in broadly chronological order, resulting in a series of startling contrasts, but punctuated with equally surprising, and often very revealing, continuities.

Lichfield Festival 2016

LICHFIELD FESTIVAL 2016 Premieres and surprises in a Staffordshire cathedral

Premieres and surprises in a Staffordshire cathedral

You know, of course, why you should always choose the left leg of a roast partridge? Because that’s the leg the bird stands on when resting: it’s plumper, tastier and altogether more succulent. These things matter, and in Jean Francaix’s extraordinary 20-minute a capella showpiece Ode à la gastronomie they’re elevated to the level of a religion. “It’s very French”, Robert Hollingworth warned us before this performance by I Fagiolini at the 2016 Lichfield Festival – and he wasn’t joking.

Matthias Goerne, Daniil Trifonov, Wigmore Hall

MATTHIAS GOERNE, DANIIL TRIFONOV, WIGMORE HALL An exceptional recital, combining symphonic weight with chamber intimacy

An exceptional recital, combining symphonic weight with chamber intimacy

If you needed further proof of the intelligence, the thoughtfulness of Daniil Trifonov’s musicianship, the programme for his four-concert residency at the Wigmore Hall would go a long way towards providing it. How many young soloists of Trifonov’s standing would choose to turn song-accompanist for an evening of lieder? And how many, having done so, would deliver so generous and self-effacing a performance?

Brahms: A German Requiem, ENO Chorus, Wigglesworth, St George's Hanover Square

BRAHMS: A GERMAN REQUIEM, ENO CHORUS, WIGGLESWORTH, ST GEORGE'S HANOVER SQUARE Interiority as well as intensity in a classic work

Interiority as well as intensity from the ENO Chorus in a classic work

There aren’t many opera choruses I’d want to hear singing Brahms’ Requiem, and still fewer I’d rush to hear. But the Olivier Award-winning ENO chorus is a different beast altogether – as responsive and flexible of tone as it is skilled with an all-out musical punch – and more than capable of finding the interiority as well as the intensity in this choral classic.

Royal, Wood, SCO, Spanjaard, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Fresh Haydn, contradictory Brahms

I expect that there will be a sense of mild disappointment within the ranks of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra that its great Brahms season did not come to quite the conclusion intended. As readers will know from last week’s review of the Fourth Symphony, a herniated disc meant that Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati had to pull out of both that concert and also last night’s performance of the Deutsches Requiem (he has also withdrawn from Glyndebourne performances of Wagner's Die Meistersinger).

Virtuoso Violinists at the BBC, BBC Four

VIRTUOSO VIOLINISTS AT THE BBC, BBC FOUR Nicola Benedetti takes a fascinating archive voyage around her instrument and its heroes

Nicola Benedetti takes a fascinating archive voyage around her instrument and its heroes

Virtuoso Violinists was an hour of unalloyed informative pleasure that toured televised highlights of great violinists playing great music. Its painless excursion into the western classical canon reminded us why the BBC is the NHS of culture, and we delighted here in a guide who proved as accomplished a presenter as she is a performer of genius.

Classical CDs Weekly: Bartók, Brahms, Copland, Wien-Berlin Brass Quintet

CLASSICAL CDS WEEKLY A pair of violin concertos, uncut Americana and chamber music for brass

A pair of violin concertos, uncut Americana and chamber music for brass


Brahms: Violin Concerto, Bartók: Violin Concerto No 1 Janine Jansen (violin) Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano (Decca)