Noriko Koide (b. 1982) is a Japanese composer and "is currently a member of an avant-garde pop duo, Kishibojin Fumin Girls, and a multi-dimensional art group project that focuses on eroticism". Wow. Her eleven minute piece "Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain" was originally commissioned for the BBC SO in 2022 and premiered in Japan. It reminds me in concept like a Japanese formal garden, carefully structured and laid out, but possibly a little underwhelming. It wasn't helped by the audience in the Hall having a surfeit of coughs and sneezes, which accompanying a very subtle quiet piece were very distracting. As a curtain raiser it was ok, but it was a relief to be launched into the Beethoven C Minor piano concerto played well by up and coming Canadian soloist Jan Lisecki. Maybe me being fussy, but it seemed to lack a little of the paced emotion I associate with this work. Elgar's Enigma was as lovely as ever, and bread and butter for the BBC SO. Elim Chan ( 陳以琳; b. 1986) (picture) is a Hong Kong-born conductor, and currently chief conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.

The Bells (Колокола), Op. 35, is a choral symphony by Rachmaninoff, written in 1913. The words are from the poem The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe, very freely translated into Russian by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont. It is a wonderful work, one of the composers favourite pieces, and a choral masterpiece.