Twin Violin Concertos Benedetti and Zosi
You know the way it is. You don't hear a concerto for ages and then two come along. I found myself in Cork on Thursday evening and arrived just in time for Nicola Benedetti's performance with the NSO at Cork City Hall. She looked stunning in red satin and her playing is spirited but also very seductive . She looked a little uncomfortable when not playing and I gather she had been ill and unable to play in Limerick. Having arrived late , my son Jack and I sat near the back of the hall and the sound was not as poor as expected . We met bass player David Whitla who spoke about the Montreal Jazz Festival which Jack hopes to get to later this year.

I spent a few days in Garmisch Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps with my sister and our daughters. I went along to hear the North West German Symphony Orchestra . The Kongresshall Theatre is really cosy there . It is like a rustic version of the Barbican, lined in pine . The soloist was a very young man Edoardo Zosi from Milan who played a concerto by Samuel Barber in this his centenary year and very splendid he was too.

I was a little surprised to hear the cor Anglais player practicing her big solo for the New World symphony on stage during the interval anticipating its exposition in the second movement somewhat.