Musical memories

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Adès Royal Albert Hall, London ***

Baroque moderne

BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Benjamin Royal Albert Hall, London * * *

Music machine

New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Kurt Masur Barbican Hall, London

Modernist romances

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Mariss Jansons Barbican Hall, London *****

Back to the beginning

Anne-Sophie Mutter London Symphony Orchestra Kurt Masur Barbican Hall, London ***

Two types of beauty

Brahms, the nostalgic classical-romantic, and Stravinsky, the sharp-edged, forward-looking iconoclast, seem to inhabit different musical worlds, and rarely turn up together in concert. But here, the combination of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Brahms's German Requiem worked surprisingly well.