Woodrow Wilson's attempts to forge a new international order based on principles of democracy, equal respect for sovereignty and an intergovernmental league with robust powers were futile. His namesake, John Wilson, guest conducting Ireland's National Symphony Orchestra last night, succeeded in forging the musical equivalent, ensuring that even the San Marinos of the orchestra had their full and clear say. 

Don't be fooled by New Ross. This quiet Irish country town on the tidal River Barrow with narrow medieval streets, hilly terraced houses and Norman churches has always been outward-looking.

Steve Reich is 90, which feels a bit wrong as his music has always been so youthfully vibrant – as has he. There are a lot of celebratory concerts taking place in London at the moment, and this seemed the most appropriate one to go to: Music for 18 Musicians, perhaps the summatory work of early minimalism.

Shostakovich declared Britten's War Requiem and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde the two greatest large-scale works of the 20th century. I don't dispute it, and always thought that each should only be heard once every three to five years, keeping their impact fresh. This, though, is my second War Requiem of 2026, and it couldn't have been more different from the first on Good Friday at the Baden-Baden Festival.

Thomas Adès is an extraordinary polymath. Best known as a prodigious and multifaceted composer, he also has an international conducting career and – by the way – is a brilliant pianist. Last night at the Wigmore Hall was the first time I have heard him live at the keyboard and – having been in the past sometimes unconvinced by his conducting – would actually now place his piano playing as the second of the three strings to his bow. I would love to hear him play more.

Brahms’s A German Requiem – not a Requiem Mass at all – is a sequence of seven choral/orchestral movements, with baritone and soprano soloists, suffused with thoughts of peace and consolation. It’s quite hard to bring off with the necessary combination of firm confidence and soothing serenity, and the soloists have relatively little chance to affect the overall impression – that’s all down to the choir and orchestra.

Since first collaborating with violinist Jack Liebeck during lockdown, Voces8 have built up a sizeable repertoire for this unusual pairing. At Kings Place on Thursday night they gave us a full recital of it, adding a new commission, Deborah Pritchard’s Dante’s Rose, to what they already have. Their singing was, as always, terrific, and the sympathy with Liebeck apparent, his rich but never overstated sound an ideal foil.

This Hallé programme had two knights of the realm on its title page: Sir James MacMillan, composer, whose Symphony No. 6 was given its world premiere, and Sir Stephen Hough, who appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto.

Ten concerts in seven different East Lothian churches, starting with a winter journey and ending in tears from Dowland: these would be riches enough for any top festival. But this was only the last four days of a nearly two-week programme. Simon Thompson has already covered now-regular visitor Jeremy Denk in Mozart piano concertos and vivacious Concerto Copenhagen in Haydn symphonies.

The impressive sight, the huge sound and the powerful immediacy of no fewer than 107 young and energised players tightly packed onto the Cadogan Hall stage (plus wind and thunder machines and cowbells up above in the hall’s former organ loft) is not easily forgotten.

Odyssey Festival Orchestra is daring to do something different and, after four years of existence, is doing it very well. It is a London-based orchestra made up of players between the ages of 18 and 30, presenting dramatised concerts of large orchestral works.