Fischer, LPO, Jurowski, Royal Albert Hall

I was there last night and I thought that the Shostakovich was simply incredible. I say this as rather a huge Julia Fischer fan, but I felt last night, more than any previous occasion on which I've seen her in concert, that we were in the presence of a violinist who has to be considered alongside the greatest in history - surely? I'll probably be accused of overstating the case, but I don't know another violinist playing today who is so technically secure but so intense interpretatively. Maybe Kavakos. An interesting point, though, is that I've now heard her play the Ysaye three times as an encore in the past year, and she's never sounded happy playing it. She very nearly fell of the finger board in the first furious descending passage last night and it wasn't as good as I'd imagine she could play it. My partner, who's a professional violinist, said she thought she sounded a bit bored of it. I'll be interested to hear how she plays the 1st sonata in today's lunch time prom. I also wanted to comment on Kraggerud's performance of the Tchaikovsky the other night - I've read nothing but high praise for his performance. I heard it on the radio and it seemed quite different to me – and to another violin-playing friend who heard it. It sounded really rough on the radio, with Kraggerud fudging technical passages (I wonder if these were swallowed by the orchestral part in the hall) and generally being quite out of tune. I agree, though, that it was from a musical point of view an enjoyable performance - I was just surprised that no one commented on what seemed to me to be quite big technical problems. I concede, however, that performances can sound quite different in the hall to on the radio - I've often been surprised listening after how different it can sound, to the extent that you wonder if you've been to the same performance!