There's Runnicles - Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper

Last time we came to Berlin, it was to hear the man himself work his magic with Wagner's Ring, so it was good to hear him flex those same muscles again, this time in a new production of Lohengrin.

The title role had gone through several changes. Initially it was to be filled by Marco Jentzsch who did not impress as Walther in Glyndebourne's Meistersinger, then a few weeks before the run began it was announced that Klaus Florian Vogt would take his place. Unfortunately, the morning of the performance we attended found Vogt indisposed and Stefan Vinke standing in for him. You would not have known from his performance, so assured was his command both of the staging and of the vocal part. There were occasional cracks in his voice but overall not much to quibble about in a strong reading. Most crucially, he held sufficient force in reserve to deliver a powerful final scene.

Kozena, Kaufmann, Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker's dazzling Carmen

Berlin's Philharmonie impressed me greatly on my last visit, both for its design and its acoustic. If anything, my second trip leaves me more impressed. Initially I was concerned we'd been shortchanged on our tickets: pretty well side on with many of the band facing away, this did not seem like the second price bracket from the top. And yet excellent seats they proved to be, not only providing a fine view of both conductor and soloists but also seemingly not suffering acoustically. Sit in the nearest equivalent seat in Edinburgh's Usher Hall and you'll struggle to hear the cellos properly.

We were there to hear a concert performance of Bizet's opera Carmen, conducted by Simon Rattle and with soloists Magdalena Kozena and Jonas Kaufmann in the lead roles. It is far from being my favourite opera, but when performed as well as this, it made for a thrilling evening.

From Bach to Beamish, a weekend of playing and singing by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra

For various reasons it's been a little while since I was last at a Scottish Chamber Orchestra concert, and longer since I reviewed one. To make up for that, this weekend I found myself at two within less than twenty-four hours, and rather fine they both were.



At the centre of Saturday's programme was a piece that had jumped out at me when the season was announced this time last year: Sally Beamish's new percussion concerto. It attracted me in part because I like to support new music, but also because percussion concertos are generally rather fun as they tend to showcase a range of textures beyond that which one normally gets (they are normally also enjoyable to watch). Beamish's Dance Variations did not disappoint.

Dvorak's Rusalka at the Royal, or Much Ado About Nothing

If you have been reading the papers you might be forgiven for imagining that something provocative and exciting is going on down at the Royal Opera House. It seems the production was offensive enough to some to provoke opening night boos, and sufficiently engaging to others to provoke one fellow critic to denounce the booers as philistines (boulezian). As far as I could see there is nothing here to get particularly excited about.

Part of the problem is unquestionably the opera's story. Now I must confess that owing to a rather exhausting week at work I fell asleep during part of Act One but aspects of the story do seem a bit obscure. It concerns a water nymph, Rusalka, who wants to experience human love. A witch, Jezibaba (who in this production resembles a fairly decrepid elderly Eastern European bag lady with a cat which undergoes remarkable transformations in size) agrees but says she must sacrifice her voice. According to the synopsis if she then does not attain love she will be cursed by the water powers. Naturally enough, having initially ensnared the Prince, he promptly loses interest. Rusalka's voice is apparently restored by conversing with the water goblin, Vodnik whose motivations in the piece seemed confused. In Act Three it appears the prince is also cursed by having abandoned her, Rusalka having killed herself in despair appears to him, and kills him with a kiss before commending his soul to God. Among other problems quite why it is speaking to the water goblin that establishes she has not attained love, and why God is suddenly introduced into the equation at the end were particularly notable.

The production team faced with this relocate the action from woods, pools and fairy tale castles to a brothel. Beforehand I had expected, given reactions, to feel that this was violently at odds with the text. This was not how it struck me. Some of it seems to work fairly well – the idea of the other water nymphs as rather bored prostitutes, Jezibaba as the forbidding Madam. The production also benefits from the fact that the directors are capable of creating the right tensions between the characters at certain points – most successfully when relations are breaking down between the Prince and Rusalka in Act Two. However there are incongruities, Rusalka appears in mermaid costume at the beginning, and the water goblin's costume and appearance doesn't ever quite seem to fit with the brothel setting in which the nymphs are placed. In Act Three there are outbreaks of performers being given silly things to do by the director, the nymphs/prostitutes ransacking Jezibaba's handbag, Jezibaba messing around with a lot of high heeled shoes while Rusalka is lamenting her fate but these are far less serious than in many productions. The biggest problem to me is that the sordid setting does conflict with the unearthly beauty that the text implies Rusalka possesses for the Prince, and overall there is a sacrifice of fairy tale magic which might possibly have strengthened one's emotional engagement with the characters.

Opera North's Norma or, By God there's something in this Bel Canto Business

I am normally not a particular fan of bel canto, and I am definitely not a fan of Christopher Alden as a director. I hadn't heard of any of the singers involved and it was therefore once again the completionist in me which drove me to book for a three hour opera I hadn't seen in the middle of the working week at a destination which public transport does not make it easy for me to access (and indeed the vagaries of public transport infuriatingly forced me to leave before the end of the performance). However, for once my vice was proved a virtue. This is a stunningly good evening of opera and anyone within striking distance of the remaining performances in Nottingham or Newcastle should not miss it.

A number of things combine to make this evening. The first is that the two leading ladies – Annemarie Kremer (Norma) and Keri Alkema (Adalgisa) are exceptional. To begin with I was a little more taken by the latter, but Kremer grows in power as the evening progresses. Both have the necessary dynamic range for these challenging parts going from exposed piano sections (magical in the second act as Alkema pleads with Norma not to sacrifice her children) to raging fury (again Norma's call to arms was spell-binding). This vocal prowess is matched to real electric stage presence from both women even when, as is occasionally inevitably the case this being a Christopher Alden production, they have been given silly things to do by the director.

Next to them the remainder of the cast inevitably has a bit of a struggle to keep up. Luis Chapa makes a creditable fist of Pollione and while one might sometimes wish for a bit more beauty of tone and a bit less sense of effort he brings off the ensembles well and gives a nicely judged acting performance going from pretty utter cad in Act One to somewhat redeemed cad in Act Two. James Creswell as Oroveso delivered his Act Two aria with good heft and presence, and otherwise hovers around looking suitably menacing.

ENO's The Tales of Hoffmann, or in which Offenbach falls at the first hurdle

One of my vices is that I am a completionist. I had not previously seen Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann and I will always try and see an opera I haven't seen before at least once. Unfortunately, this one proves to be for me an opera I don't feel any need to see again in a hurry. Thus, although I also thought there were some musical and production issues it was the work itself which I think was most at fault.

The big problem with this opera is that it fails the first Dr Pollard test for a great work of art. That is it pretty completely failed to make me care about the fate of any of the protagonists. For those of you unfamiliar with the work it is about the poet Hoffmann's unfortunate romances. I think, if I have understood it correctly, he is in love (unsuccessfully) with a lady by the name of Stella who wanders around to not much purpose at the start and the end. To explain this love he tells three fantastic tales about three other women (Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta). Apart from the poor consumptive Antonia in Act II I found it all uninvolving. I suppose it's possible that it is trying to say some deep things about the madnesses of love but it did not come across to me here.

Beyond the plotline the work is also not helped by either music or libretto. I found both rather dull. The text didn't help convince me of the sincerity of the characters emotions, the music is a bit drearily the same from start to finish, though I don't think it was helped by Antony Walker's conducting to which we shall return.

The Kronos Quartet at the Hackney Empire, 24 January 2012

Having had the pleasure of their stay in Glasgow last May, I was sorry not to make it down to London for the Kronos Quartet's Barbican residence at the end of last month. But you can't do everything. However, my mother Lucy provides this guest review.



It’s thanks to Where's Runnicles that I discovered the Kronos, first online, then in a recording, and finally yesterday in the flesh, which exceeded all expectations. I think it was the most exciting concert I’ve been to in a long time, partly because all the music was new to me, partly because of the visual interest, and partly because of the sheer passion and virtuosity of their playing. There wasn’t a dud piece, although there were a couple I didn’t like so much. The whole of the second half was taken up with George Crumb’s Black angels, an intriguing mix of sound and images, starting with the four instruments hanging on nooses from the flies, swaying gently. The players contribute vocal noises and play drums as well as the quartet instruments, and part way through the lights come up on three sets of wine glasses, which they also play, producing an other worldly kind of sound. At several points in the piece, three players come together on the stage and play (unamplified) some ghostly echoes of early music – nostalgic and haunting, somehow both suggesting the roots of the music and at the same time conveying a sense of loss and sadness.

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at the Royal Opera, or, A Little in the Shadow of Past Glories

It came as something of a shock to me to discover from the programme note that this production was first done (and I first saw it) in 1993, and that there have already been three revivals. This was likely its final outing and although it doesn't command as a total experience as it did when I saw it in 1993 and 1997, and the experience was further shadowed by the magnificence of McVicar's recent Glyndebourne production, there is still much to enjoy both visually and musically.

The two strongest performers musically and dramatically are Toby Spence (David) and Wolfgang Koch (Hans Sachs). Spence is a lively presence whenever he's on stage, an effective actor with the measure of both the comical and serious sides of the part and sings it very finely. Koch is very good vocally, bringing real (and in my view needed) heft to the street song of Act Two, and having the stamina to sustain the taxing Act Three. Sachs is a part that for true greatness needs a great singing actor and Koch has the makings of that greatness – he improved steadily as the performance progressed and moved me in Act Three especially. If he could conquer his tendency to the declamatory gesture and be a little less obvious in his relations with the audience it would be a really fine performance, if not yet in Gerald Finley's league (in acting terms).

The rest of the cast were generally weaker, but I think this was linked in some cases to the fact that Vick's staging seen in the light of McVicar's just does not have the same depth of characterisation. Thus Peter Coleman-Wright was not as good as my memory of Thomas Allen in the part, nor did he erase Kranzle at Glyndebourne, but some of this is to do with the fact that the production doesn't draw him as strongly, in particularly McVicar's decision to keep him on stage during the Prize Song and through almost to the end packs much more dramatic punch than Vick's having him depart after his failure. It should perhaps be noted here, since I often complain about lack of textual fidelity, that in this instance Vick is of course being faithful and McVicar is not – I still think McVicar's departure was entirely justified!

ETO's Flavio, or A Fine Evening of Emotionally Engaging Handel

A successful Handel production requires a number of things and English Touring Opera's Flavio has them all. To begin with, you need a director and a conductor who understand the point of a da capo aria. Far too often, Handel operas are ruined by directors who conclude that a da capo aria is dull and therefore feel impelled to impose a lot of pointless business on it, and by musical directors who aren't able to conjure the necessary shape and changes of mood. Fortunately neither director James Conway nor conductor Jonathan Peter Kenny fall into these traps. Conway consistently directs his principals with intelligence. He understands that these arias must be allowed to tell their stories, that you have to work with Handel's pacing not ignore it. In the pit Kenny has the right sense of colour and movement to bring each number musically alive through the medium of the consistently fine playing of The Old Street Band.

Such sensitivity from director and conductor would avail nought if the principals themselves were not up to the challenge. Fortunately they are, espcially at this performance where the challenge for two of them was mulitiplied well beyond what any soloist should expect to need to cope with in an evening at the opera. In the supporting roles Mark Wilde (Ugone) and Andrew Slater (Lotario) do a nice job of flouncing and obeisance with Slater especially fine in his aria in Act Two commanding his daughter Emilia (Paula Sides) to reject the man she loves. Clint van der Linde as Flavio is a suitably ghastly monarch. Moving on to the lovers, Kitty Whately (Teodata) gives a beautifully characterised performance of the flirt, briefly seduced by the idea of becoming queen, who nevertheless proves faithful to her lowlier lover in the end. Among many beautifully judged moments, I was moved by the aria in which her lover is forced, a la Cyrano, to woo her in the King's name. Jake Arditti (Guido), the male half of the other couple sang the fast sections of his arias very well but tended to disappear beneath the band in the B sections (though this may have been a problem of balance which in the Stalls at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln, is not always perfect). However, the standout performance of the night came from Paula Sides as Emilia and Vitige. Before you ask, this is not a normal doubling. It was announced at the start of the evening that Lina Markeby was suffering a throat infection and that Sides and Whately would share the singing from off-stage, while the Assistant Director Anna Tolputt would act the role on stage. For Sides in particular this was assuming a heavy amount of singing with arias off-stage several times being followed by arias on. To her credit there was no sense of strain, or loss of power in her depiction of Emilia which was beautifully sung and very moving.

Sakari Oramo and Anu Komsi kickstart the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Sibelius cycle

In the annals of mad Where's Runnicles dashes in search of high culture, Friday's trip to London to hear Sakari Oramo conduct some Sibelius is probably only edged off the top spot only by a mid-festival literally flying visit to the Proms in 2007 to hear the man himself conduct Götterdämmerung. (Certainly at 25 hours between departures, it edges out my brother's trip to hear Louis Lortie's extraordinary Liszt at Snape of which, with hindsight, I am extremely jealous.) Originally, I had intended to stay in London all weekend, but then I discovered James Lowe was to conduct the Rose Street Ensemble in Edinburgh on Saturday in a programme including Poulenc's organ concerto. Being a big fan of both Lowe and the RSE, this was not to be missed either.

Why on earth would you want to know any of that? I mention it to underscore just how exciting a prospect I think the opportunity to hear Oramo in Sibelius is - namely that it's worth a trip that in effective terms probably made mine the most expensive ticket in the hall. I also say it because, with a not especially full hall, I wonder if some of London knew what they were missing. Indeed, I'm doubly envious as this is the second Sibelius cycle the city has enjoyed in the last couple of years (not too long ago the LPO did one under Osmo Vanska), whereas we haven't had one in Scotland since 2006 (though we are getting a couple of symphonies this year).

Sibelius didn't arrive until the second half of the concert, which instead opened with Arnold Bax's Tintagel, named for a village on the Cornish coast. From the powerful and glittering opening onwards, through the satisfyingly swelling climaxes, Oramo made a powerful case for the composer. The piece contains some fine writing, particularly the surging strings, fittingly evocative of the sea. Indeed, visual stimulation is a quality the piece shares with much of Sibelius's output, if not perhaps quite so strongly. There are other nice touches too, such as some fine brass fanfares. The piece does sprawl a little, though Oramo kept a tight rein on it. All in all, it made an effective start to the evening.

Ticciati and the SCO open their season with the Symphonie Fantastique

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is popular these days, Robin Ticciati's outing with the SCO being, by my reckoning, the third in the Usher Hall in the last twelve months (though I attended the Glasgow performance). In many ways it was the most successful, certainly trumping Dutoit's overly hard driven account at the festival. Indeed, go back only a little further and all three of Scotland's main orchestras have performed it with their present chief conductors.

Ticciati brought a nice dreamlike quality to the opening, but also plenty of drama, not to mention the fierce and impressively precise attack of the strings. Then there was the ball of the second movement, which danced along nicely, building an ever more intense and frantic energy as it progressed. That said, I would have preferred a slightly broader tempo at the outset, allowing the harps in particular a little more room to bloom. There were small quibbles with the third movement too; not with the rich cor solo from Rosie Staniforth, but rather the answering oboe of Robin Williams. This was fine in all but its location: not placing it offstage rather punctures the poignancy of the cor's final unanswered calls. You couldn't, however, complain much about the final two movements, thick with excitement and drama, vividly descending into drug fuelled madness as Ticciati drove the orchestra on to the thrilling conclusion.

Here's Runnicles, with Beethoven, Strauss and Elgar

Time was when you had to wait a couple of years for the chance to hear Donald Runnicles conduct in Scotland; nowadays you can easily hear him twice in a week (indeed, three times if you fancy a trip to Aberdeen and don't mind hearing one of the concerts a second time).

After MacMillan's St John Passion in Glasgow, Sunday night in the Usher Hall saw a more conventional programme. At its head was Beethoven's Egmont overture. From the grandeur and weight they brought to the opening bars onwards, this proved to be a fine curtain raiser. Heft early on was balanced by a lightness of touch elsewhere. Add to that the ferocious attack of the strings and the thrilling excitement of the finale and it was just what was needed to get the pulse racing.

Strauss's Four Last Songs, something of a Runnicles favourite, followed. The performance had a lot in common with that which they gave at the Proms recently. There was the same well judged and richly textured orchestral playing, but unfortunately there was also a similar weak link: the soloist. Michaela Kaune's voice was rather thin and generally didn't ride well over the orchestra (in fairness to her, I was under the overhang in the dress circle and while I don't think this causes problems with orchestral sound, I think it may not be ideal for voices). On the occasions when she did rise above the BBC SSO, it sounded forced. Most crucially, she didn't convey the weight of emotion that the songs need.

The Auld Alliance - Stéphane Denève starts his final season as music director of the RSNO

The programme Stéphane Denève had chosen to open his final season in charge of the RSNO illustrated the year's major theme more effectively than any press launch, that being the musical links between France and Scotland. So it was that they began with Debussy's Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire. Well, almost. Actually, things kicked off with Meggernie Castle, said popular theme. It was not, however, played by the RSNO, but rather by three members of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland: Craig Muirhead, Scott Wood and Iain Crawford. Standing at the top of a colourfully lit organ gallery, they certainly looked very fine. They sounded very fine too, if you like the bagpipes. I fear, though, even when played this well the tone of the instrument is not one I care for. Still, it was interesting to hear the original tune before we then heard it from the fine flute of Katherine Bryan. But in the hands of Denève and the orchestra, the winds especially, I much preferred it.

Debussy was followed by Bruch, but still with a distinctly Scottish flavour in the form of his Scottish Fantasy. The soloist was that favourite of local audiences Nicola Benedetti. Despite her regular appearances here, I think this is actually the first time I've heard her live, as other things keep arising that get in the way of the concerts. She played beautifully and was equally at home in both the slower passages and the work's more exciting moments. Beneath her Denève and the orchestra provided sensitive accompaniment. Yet, as a soloist, I didn't find she had quite the individuality or flair that marks out my favourite performers.

Here's Runnicles, with MacMillan's St John Passion

In James MacMillan's St John Passion, Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra had opted for a bold statement to open their 2011/12 season, their third with him as chief conductor. The ninety minute choral work had the programme to itself and it was refreshing that so much new music didn't seem to have put the punters off, with Glasgow's City Halls more or less sold out.

I was likely with the majority in never having heard it before, because while MacMillan is Scottish this marked the first performance here of a piece premiered some three years ago. In part my ignorance is down to a failure to do my homework: a little while ago I did pick up Colin Davis and the LSO's recording, but for various reasons I have not got round to listening to it yet. That said, while familiarity and knowledge can in many ways enhance the listening experience, it must also be said that there is nothing quite like hearing something for the first time in a live concert.

Salonen and the Philharmonia PLAY Kullervo

I was actually in London primarily for family reasons this weekend, but even if Sunday's Philharmonia season opener hadn't been a neat fit, I would have made the journey south to hear it. The reason was simple: Sibelius's Kullervo. This early choral symphony is not performed all that often - I last heard it during the BBC SSO's cycle of the symphonies in 2006; most recorded surveys of the symphonies omit it. Yet its neglect is surely unjust. Driving melodies, searing drama and wonderful choral and orchestral climaxes, it has them all in spades. What an opening concert it would make for, say, the Edinburgh International Festival.

But I digress. Esa-Pekka Salonen directed an extremely persuasive reading, with an excellent sense of the work's structure, keeping his powder dry early on, thus ensuring that the later climaxes had full impact. As he managed with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Edinburgh recently, he delivered a performance that was not only fearsomely dramatic but extremely graphic and full of violence. After that performance someone I spoke to remarked that he brought out new details. I do not know that score well enough to comment, but he certainly highlighted things in the Sibelius that haven't struck me before, such as the orchestral accompaniment when Kullervo's sister tells of her time picking fruit or the delicate open to the finale.

He was aided by stunning playing from the Philharmonia, both at the quieter moments and in those thrilling climaxes, and in his well judged transitions between the two. This was apparent at many points, such as a jump in the first movement from beautifully soft pizzicato basses to blazing brass. While this was perhaps a little too blazing for one or two members of the chorus who found themselves just above the tuba (and could be seen with a finger in their ear at one or two points) it was glorious in the stalls.

The Royal Opera House, 2011-12 Season

Astute readers of the major cultural blogs will have noticed that the supposed ROH 2011-12 season reveal last week was preceded by a reveal a few weeks earlier to high ranking doners and pretty completely run down by intermezzo. As the information was not formally in the public domain we have held off writing it up till now.

Top billing in what is a bit of a mixed season for me, is the new production of Berlioz's still criminally neglected masterpiece Les Troyens. David McVicar is generally reliable (though his big test for me will be the upcoming Glyndebourne Meistersingers) so we should be spared a production too at odds with the music and text. Musically the line-up is exceptional with Jonas Kaufmann as Enee, the wonderful Anna Caterina Antonacci in the key role of Cassandre (who I last saw in Charles Mackerras's blazing concert performance of Maria Stuarda in Edinburgh), Eva-Maria Westbroek as Didon (who I last saw at Christmas in the Royal Opera's magnificent new Tannhauser). There is every hope then of a production and performance which will do this wonderful work true justice.

The premier of Judith Weir's new opera, Miss Fortune, also looks exciting. I regret that I have never seen any of Weir's operas live (a mark of how bad British companies are at sustaining new work in the repertoire), so I'm looking forward to rectifying this. Paul Daniel has been a bit variable of late (unlike others I didn't particularly rate his direction of the ENO's diabolical Lucrezia) but he is perfectly capable of directing a commanding performance. The pick of the singers is unquestionably Jacques Imbrailo, who was an outstanding Billy Budd in last summer's Glyndebourne production.

The BBC SSO launch their 2011/12 season (and here's Runnicles to tinkle the ivories)

After Mahler and Wagner, Donald Runnicles has made a somewhat bolder choice to open his third season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, selecting a newish work receiving its Scottish premiere: James MacMillan's St John Passion. If the brief snippets I've heard from the LSO's recording are anything to go by, it should be quite something. To perform it they are joined by the London Symphony Chorus, who premiered it, and also the BBC Singers and baritone Tommi Hakala. Discussing the season, Runnicles described the work as having a rare level of spirituality, though he also suggested that it isn't necessary to share MacMillan's Catholic faith to fully appreciate it.

The only shame is that it's not one of the concerts coming to the Usher Hall. As was the case last year there are three, all with Runnicles. They lean slightly conservatively. In addition to the absence of MacMillan, the programme that features Brahms' Alto Rhapsody and his 1st symphony, along with Schumann's 4th, has been shorn of Detlev Glanert's new work. Something similar happens with the last concert of the three: where in Glasgow they get Osvaldo Golijov's Mariel, we get Mozart's clarinet concerto (though in the hands of Martin Fröst it should be rather special). And the works that we are getting should be real treats. After the glorious Bruckner 8 Runnicles did last season, the 7th is not to be missed. Ditto the first concert, which they don't get in Glasgow, which features Strauss's last four songs with Michaela Kaune and Elgar's 2nd symphony.

The 2011/12 Scottish Chamber Orchestra season

Today the Scottish Chamber Orchestra launch their 2011/12 season, and rather exciting it is too, striking a good balance between the bankable and more adventurous works.

With his performances of L'enfance du Christ and Le Mort de Cleopatre, principal conductor Robin Ticciati, now entering his third season with the orchestra, has shown himself to be a dab hand with the music of Hector Berlioz. As such, it's nice to see the composer feature prominently, and with repertoire outside what one might generally associate with a chamber orchestra. So it is that the season opens with the Symphonie Fantastique, which will be the SCO's first performance of the work. Later in the year we get the love scene from Romeo and Juliet, Les Nuits d’été and Rêverie et Caprice. In a similar vein, it's also nice to see some Ligeti, who featured in Ticciati's first season, such as his Hamburg Concerto and the Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments.

However, by far the biggest single chunk of the season is given over to the ever bankable Beethoven. On the one hand, it does feel a little safe to be programming almost complete cycles of the piano concertos and symphonies, the Mass in C and more. Yet there hasn't been an overabundance of Beethoven in recent seasons, the present one having featured just two symphonies and an overture. And the SCO have fine pedigree with the composer, as anyone who witnessed their 2006 survey of the symphonies under the late great Charles Mackerras can attest.

The RSNO launch their 2011/12 Season

As many readers will doubtless be aware, the forthcoming 2011/12 season is Stéphane Denève's last as music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It is understandable, then, that his final season is something of a celebration of his tenure. More than just understandable, this is rather a good thing, for it is an excuse to do lots of what he does best: showcase French composers, both the familiar, such as Debussy, Berlioz and Ravel, and also the less so, such as Joseph Canteloube and the young Fabien Waksman.

Of these, centre stage goes to Claude Debussy, whose 150th anniversary coincides with Denève's departure. Rather than simply using this as an excuse to give us La mer and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (though both make an appearance), the conductor will present all of Debussy's orchestral works as well as making a studio recording for release next summer.

This is complimented by an Auld Alliance strand, tying together Scottish and French music and, at its best, music from one country inspired by the other (such as Berlioz's overture Rob Roy and Wallace's suite from Pelléas et Mélisande). I'm glad that the themes are stronger this year than last: great concertos and great symphonies were a bit too vague and generic. That said, I think it's a slight stretch to tie Mendelssohn's 3rd and Bruch's Scottish Fantasy into this one.

Great Performers at the Barbican in 2011/12 (and more)

In parallel with the LSO's announcement of their next season, the Barbican have published details of their other classical programming. While the Great Performers strand will doubtless draw the most attention it isn't what has me most excited, which is this. It seems that the BBC Symphony Orchestra are doing a Sibelius cycle next year, which is good news to begin with. The icing on the cake, though, is that concert of the 3rd symphony and more under the baton of Sakari Oramo. Not only is he one of my favourite conductors and Sibelius one of my favourite composers, but, for my money, he is one of the finest Sibelians around today (those with Spotify can hear his CBSO recordings here). The remainder of the cycle is in other hands.

Following this, the next thing to grab me is also a British orchestra - the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with their chief conductor Andris Nelsons and soloists Sarah Connolly, Toby Spence and James Rutherford in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.