Doric Quartet, Wigmore Hall review – sombre reflections

Late quartets of Mozart and Britten delivered with gentle but sustained intensity

With the wealth of online performances during the pandemic, it is easy to forget the regular offerings from the Wigmore Hall. The Hall found itself in a better position than most, as it was able to present its autumn schedule largely unchanged, the only programming issues arising from international travel limitations for the performers. And the finances somehow permitted them to give concerts even without audiences when restrictions dictated, but broadcast everything live on webstreams.

Christine Rice, Julius Drake, Wigmore Hall review - songs of love and death

★★★★CHRISTINE RICE, JULIUS DRAKE, WIGMORE HALL Songs of love and death

A great mezzo's journey from cradle to grave

It began as a Christmas present in the bleakest of winters. In December 1939, as war engulfed Europe, Bertolt Brecht sent a poem to the exiled Kurt Weill in New York. Weill set it as a bittersweet gift for his wife Lotte Lenya. “Nannas Lied” – the song of a an ageing, resilient, seen-it-all prostitute – tells us (via Brecht’s nod to François Villon) that the worst as well as the best never lasts forever: “Where are the tears we cried last night?

Stephen Hough/Lucy Crowe, Anna Tilbrook, Wigmore Hall online/BBC Radio 3 review - the end of the beginning

HOUGH/CROWE, TILBROOK, WIGMORE HALL ONLINE/BBC RADIO 3 The end of the beginning

Comfort and joy as live performance returns to top chamber music venue - at a distance

After a devastating drought, even a light shower can feel like something of a miracle. Under normal circumstances, a 60 minute lunchtime piano recital from the Wigmore Hall would represent wholly unremarkable business as usual for BBC Radio 3.

The Turn of the Screw, Opera North, OperaVision review - claustrophobic visions of terror and beauty

★★★★ THE TURN OF THE SCREW, OPERA NORTH, OPERAVISION Claustrophobic visions

Strongly-cast revival keeps the ambiguities of Henry James's ghost story in play

Feeling stir-crazy right now? Imagine being confined to one room with a half-crazed housekeeper, two dysfunctional kids and two increasingly insistent ghosts, plagued by nightmares, unable even to get out into the garden or walk down to the lake.

Frang, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - hearing the silence

★★★★★ FRANG, LSO, PAPPANO, BARBICAN Timely, shattering Britten and Vaughan Williams

A timely, daunting programme of three great works by Vaughan Williams and Britten

Three deep-veined masterpieces by two of the 20th century's greatest composers who just happened to be British, all fading at the end to nothing: beyond interpretations of such stunning focus as those offered by violinist Vilde Frang, conductor Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra, these works could ask for nothing more than intense silence from the third point of what Britten called the magic triangle with composer and performers - the audience.

Watkins, Clayton, Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review - a rainbow cornucopia

★★★★★ WATKINS, CLAYTON, SALONEN, PHILHARMONIA, RFH A rainbow cornucopia

A modest new masterpiece by Mark-Anthony Turnage fits snugly in a perfect programme

Horns fanfared, coasted and chorused through yet another Philharmonia winner of a concert to match the impressive planning of its Weimar season last year and no doubt a plan close to the heart of principal conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who started his musical life as a horn-player.