One bar into this timely celebration of his work and the composer's identity could not be in doubt.

A showcase for three young conductors, a malfunction at the printers, and for the first time in my experience no programmes for the audience and the prospect of blind-tasting their talents.

Stravinsky's morality tale is given a spirited and purposeful reading by singers and orchestra alike

You can teach an old bird new tricks – but they might not be as good as the old ones

Workshopping is all the rage in experimental opera at present, and Tete a tete - with a distinguished history of making magic with limited means – has workshopped Circus Tricks in a wide variety of contexts, with numerous transformations.

The French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet may be in his mid-forties, but he’s going for the slow burn on this side of the Channel: he’s probably better known to audiences in Beijing (where his Beethoven has caused a sensation) and in the Lofoten islands of Norway (where he runs a piano festival) than he is to audiences in Britain.

The week in culture

Sir Colin Davis's vim and vigour has always seemed so eternal that it was strange, not to say difficult, to discover him conducting now from a chair.

Sir Colin Davis’ vim and vigour has always seemed so eternal, so unaffected by the advancing years, that it was strange, not to say difficult, to discover him conducting now from a chair.

Pascal Dusapin’s ‘String Quartet No 6’ is scored for the unusual combination of string quartet plus orchestra, and has two subtitles: ‘Hinterland’, and ‘Hapax’ (ancient Greek for ‘once’).

Sometimes one needs to read programme-notes in advance, sometimes it’s wise not to. It was definitely a mistake to read what concept-choreographer Klaus Obermaier had to say about the ‘live 3-D visuals’ he was going to impose (with the aid of a dancer) on the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’.

When the Arts Council axe fell last week, the Britten Sinfonia was one of the few musical clients to emerge significantly richer, in recognition of its ground-breaking work both abroad and in less culturally-favoured parts of Britain.

Malcolm Smith was one of those unsung heroes whose efforts glue the fabric of musical life together. Joining the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes as manager of the Hire Library in 1969, he got to know thousands of musicians, whose decisions often depended on his efficiency. If you were a conductor or orchestral manager planning to perform, say, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or an opera-house intendant putting on Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, it was Smith and his team who made sure the performing material – the parts the musicians put on their music-stands – was up to date and delivered on time.

In 1918, Edward Elgar underwent a highly dangerous operation for a 61-year old man in those times – the removal of an infected tonsil. Recovering consciousness after sedation, he asked for a paper and pencil, and composed the melody that would be the first theme for his Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85.