A performance to melt your audio interconnects


First the bad news about this evening's BBC Radio 3 live broadcast of the Britten Sinfonia's concert. On the Radio 3 programme schedule page the final work is perversely attributed to Schubert alone, whereas it is in fact Schubert arranged by the infinitely more mediagenic Mahler; while elsewhere on the programme listing page inverted priorities prevail and the presenter receives solus billing ahead of the musicians and composers. Now for the good news. Based on last Sunday's Norwich concert the Britten Sinfonia's white-hot performance is likely to melt the interconnects of your audio system. Stand out in a consistently outstanding evening was Berio's rarely heard Duets for Two Violins. But the new Piers Tattersall work justifies its place among much bigger names, the neglected Mahler arrangement is a "must hear", while Henning Kraggerud's Mozart persuasively argues that authentic performances are a silly convention.

* BBC Radio 3 are broadcasting the Britten Sinfonia concert at 7.30pm on Friday October 7. You can hear my 2009 podcast with Britten Sinfonia co-leader Tom Gould here.

Header photo shows the Britten Sinfonia and Henning Kraggerud in the serendipitously named Anfiteatro Simón Bolívar in Mexico and that is Tom Gould in the fetching white shorts. Image credit Britten Sinfonia. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter.

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