I recently attended, at the Festival Hall, a concert from the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Marin Alsop , and I noted both Alsop’s “characterful, ebullient” leadership and the orchestra’s “transcendental musicianship”. The same musicians return in February to perform the First Symphonies of Beethoven and Elgar in a concert that promises to be both energetic and exciting. The following day, in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Alban Berg Quartet will play Haydn, Berg and Schubert.

When I last saw the group, almost a year ago, I enjoyed their Beethoven interpretation but noticed a suggestion of coarseness creeping into the rest of the programme. I look forward to investigating further this coming February. I also cannot wait to hear the St John Passion in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with Mark Padmore , Michael Chance and Carolyn Sampson among the soloists. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment accompany.