Beyond comprehension

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Belief and Beyond Belief’ season is drawing to a close, without making it in any degree clearer what it was supposed to be about. Many major works have been played, and the season will end with Eschenbach conducting Beethoven’s Ninth. But then any series of concerts with a pretentious name ends in that way; in fact, I have devised several imaginary series of that kind myself, and will gladly forward the details to any orchestra looking for a grandiose rubric. I would be grateful if whoever devised the name of this current season would tell me what ‘Beyond Belief’ means. There is no need to find excuses for programming a series of more or less monumental works and, as Andris Nelsons showed earlier in the season, if you’re able to elicit a great performance of a Bruckner symphony from an orchestra that is a justification.

The pre-penultimate concert had an old-fashioned feel about it: an overture, a vocal excerpt, and after the interval a symphony.