The orchestral playing was stunning with fantastic sonorities found in the wonderfully colourful music, not all particularly subtle admittedly but, boy, is it exciting, not least in its depiction of barbarism here – the Victory of Spartacus section left you gobsmacked.

It's not all noise, the sinuous Roman Courtesan Dance clarinet solo, for instance, and a wonderfully-played Spartacus/ Phrygia adagio, the balletic Simonov almost prostrating himself (so caught up was he) when the famous tune blazed forth passionately and grabbed at the heartstrings at its third and last appearance.

There was also a notable, far from anonymous harp player, as she had been in Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko, music Simonov knows well and got another graphic performance out of his young orchestra.

Freddy Kempf turned in a passionate account of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with Simonov and his Muscovites in lush, effulgent accord.

Kempf's playing had its usual range of colour and dynamics and was full of character, poetry and meaningful phrasing, even in the tremendous finger dexterity in the last movement's virtuoso writing, while the second was beautifully shaped and purposefully understated.
Bernard Lee

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