Bavouzet, BBCSO, Stasevska, Barbican review - ardent souls in mythic magic

★★★★ BAVOUZET, BBCSO, STASEVSKA, BARBICAN Vivid realisation of fantastical masterpieces by Bartók, Ravel and Janáček

Vivid realisation of fantastical masterpieces by Bartók, Ravel and Janáček

Not to be overshadowed by the adrenalin charges of the Budapest Festival Orchestra the previous evening, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska gave a supercharged triple whammy of masterpieces. They even had a pianist to match the Budapesters’ Igor Levit, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. He seemed as delighted with Stasevska and the players as they were with him; the post-performance embraces spoke volumes about communicative kindred spirits.

Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer, RFH review - anger unleashed, fantasy finessed in Prokofiev

★★★★ LEVIT, BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, FISCHER, RFH Instant communication from Berlin-based pianist and Hungarian army of generals

Instant communication from Berlin-based pianist and Hungarian army of generals

A showstopper for starters followed by dark depths, a quirky compilation after the interval: it’s what you might expect from Iván Fischer and his 42-year-old Budapest Festival Orchestra. All Prokofiev, too: the sort of thing we used to get from Valery Gergiev and visiting Petersburgers. Yet while Gergiev’s alliance with Putin means he’ll not be here again, Fischer has balanced criticising Orbán and keeping his Hungarian orchestra on the road.

Jessica Duchen: Myra Hess - National Treasure review - well-told life of a pioneering musician

★★★★ JESSICA DUCHEN: MYRA HESS - NATIONAL TREASURE On a pioneering musician

Biography of the groundbreaking British pianist who was a hero of the Blitz

Myra Hess was one of the most important figures in British cultural life in the mid-20th century: the pre-eminent pianist of her generation and accorded “national treasure” status as a result of the wartime lunchtime concert series at London’s National Gallery, which she singlehandedly masterminded through 1,698 concerts between 1939 and 1946.

Chamayou, BBC Philharmonic, Morlot, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - blasts of Boulez, magical Ravel

★★★★ CHAMAYOU, BBC PHILHARMONIC, MORLOT Blasts of Boulez, magical Ravel

Celebration of the two French masters continues in big bangs and gentleness

The second of the Philharmonic’s Boulez-Ravel celebrations (birth centenary of the former, 150th of the latter) brought Bertrand Chamayou back: after his performance of the G major piano concerto in January, this time it was as soloist in the Concerto for the Left Hand, with Ludovic Morlot on the podium.

Biss, BBCSO, Hrůša, Barbican review - electrifying Shostakovich at a crucial time

★★★★★ BISS, BBCSO, HRUSA, BARBICAN Electrifying Shostakovich at a crucial time

The Royal Opera's next music director achieves blazing results in a rich programme

At the end of an exhausting week in which Holocaust Memorial Day struck a more urgent note than ever as fascism started tearing through the USA, parts of this concert were bound to hit hard. That they did so to the power of 100 was thanks to the extraordinary impact of Jakub Hrůša, now recognised as one of the greats by British audiences as he waits to take up the full-time reins at the Royal Opera. The BBC Symphony Orchestra burned for him in fullest focus.

Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall review - colour and courage, from Hardanger to Majorca

★★★★ LEIF OVE ANDSNES, WIGMORE HALL Colour and courage, from Hardanger to Majorca

Bold and bracing pianism in favourite Chopin and a buried Norwegian treasure

Forthright and upright, powerful and lucid, the frank and bold pianism of Leif Ove Andsnes took his Wigmore Hall audience from Norway to Poland (or rather, Paris and Majorca) with a final stop in France. A recital that began with two large-scale Norwegian sonatas – one a remarkable discovery – culminated in the ostensibly remote sound-world of Chopin’s 24 Preludes, part-written on the Balearic island.

Roman Rabinovich, Wigmore Hall review - full tone in four styles

★★★ ROMAN RABINOVICH, WIGMORE HALL Full tone in four styles

Fascinating Haydn, Debussy and Schumann, odd Beethoven

Is this the same Roman Rabinovich who drew harp-like delicacy from one of Chopin’s Pleyel pianos, and seeming authenticity from a 1790s grand which may have belonged to Haydn, both in the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, Surrey? He clearly cares about the possibilities of any instrument on which he plays, so the natural consequence is maximum sonority on a modern Steinway. Too cultured to deafen, as Beatrice Rana did in this small space, he still compels you to listen to every note.

Album: Jon Batiste - Beethoven Blues

Beethoven's hits reimagined by the American musical celebrity

Beethoven’s renown in his own day was not just as a composer but also as an improvising pianist. He wrote in a letter in July 1819 that “freedom, and to move forward is the purpose of the world of art, as it is of the whole of creation.’