Performer: Vilde Frang

Iván Fischer mixes things up for Schubert's “Great C major” Symphony with an unusual seating arrangement. 

The players gathered at the bar for a Scotch as the credits rolled. After three hours and twenty minutes of note-taking, I decided to follow suit.

In Cologne, Stravinsky's neoclassicism comes up against the echt-romanticism of Schreker and Korngold, ending in a draw.

In these difficult times a reduced audience witnessed a concert of music that didn’t exactly offer much solace, but which possessed a powerful sense of loss and foreboding that seemed entirely timely. 

From the podium, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare’s fine direction and unmitigated athleticism were part and parcel of the excitement.