Berio, Bartok, Prokoviev, Stravinsky.....chamber works on BBC Radio 3

You can hear some great chamber music - some familiar works, some less well-known: all taken from concerts we gave in Cambridge back in the 2006-07 season - next week on BBC Radio 3. During Afternoon on 3, when five of this year's Proms get early repeats, the interval slots will include Berio's Folksongs (at c.4pm on Monday 4 August), Prokoviev's Overture on Hebrew Themes and Stravinsky's Three Songs from William Shakespeare (at c.3.45pm on Tuesday 5 August), Falla's Harpsichord Concerto (c.4.10pm on Wednesday 6 August), works by Bach and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (c.4.05pm on Thursday 7 August), and Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale Suite and Bartok's Contrasts (at c.3.55pm on Friday 8 August). If you miss these gems when they are broadcast they will be available for a further seven days on iPlayer, and I'll put the links up as next week progresses in our Recent Broadcasts slot.

It's snowing in Krakow

Plan A had been to travel from Cambridge to Krakow by train, mainly as an early experiment in thinking about touring orchestras' carbon footprints. It would have taken me some 12 hours longer than the players to get here, but it seemed worth trying. Plan B, however, rapidly took over following two invitations to Helsinki. So Thursday evening was spent at Finlandia Hall hearing Olli Mustonen direct a recent work by Rautavaara, Prokoviev's 6th Symphony, and play and direct Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 24. Mustonen is a very individual artist, crystal clear in the Mozart, and well able to draw out the dark moments of the Prokoviev (supposedly a celebration of the end of the War); he also has a steak dish named after him at the restaurant we went to following the concert. The Britten Sinfonia blog has always had a culinary streak running through it, so I'll give more details when I get back to England.

Then early on Friday morning to Fazer Artist Management for a traditional Finnish pre-Christmas glogg party (basically a mulled-wine with vodka).

Failing hopelessy on the emissions front, it then took three flights to get to Gdansk to catch the midnight sleeper train to Krakow. Richard Causton (whose new work we are premiering in our Britten Sinfonia at Lunch concert tomorrow at noon at the Filharmonic Hall) has arrived, and the players are due in later. In a new collaboration with the Academy of Music here, there will be an open rehearsal this evening, and Ricahrd will run a composers' workshop on Monday morning.
Our UK audiences can hear the concert in Birmingham on Monday, Cambridge on Tuesday, at the Wigmore Hall in London on Wednesday, and in Norwich on Thursday.
John Bickley

'Filigree dexterity, superbly controlled'

Our Monday night concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall attracted an enthusiastic audience (and a number of national critics), rounding off our tour with Imogen Cooper. Sponsored by 'one' (the railway company), the evening included an electric performance of Prokoviev's Classical Symphony, directed by leader Jacqueline Shave, and an illuminating interpretation of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no.4, given by Imogen Cooper.

The Times wrote: 'it remains a treat to listen to orchestral players who spark off each other with such enthusiasm. That was as true in the Beethoven as it was in the first half of the concert, when Jacqueline Shave directed from first violin. First came the pearly luminosity of Harrison Birtwistle’s Bach Measures, Bach organ vignettes laid bare in teasing arrangements for strings, brass and woodwind. And then the acidic wit of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, poured out with filigree dexterity, superbly controlled.' You can read Nick Kimberley's Evening Standard review here.

So, off to Krakow next, and then Birmingham, Cambridge, London and Norwich with Ravel, Mozart and a new work by Richard Causton: Britten Sinfonia at Lunch.