CRITIC’S CHOICE

Michael Smith Stamford

It was quite a canny move by the Proms controller to couple James Macmillan’s Viola Concerto with Bruckner’s (pictured) Sixth – a perpetually underrated instrument and the composer’s most unfairly overlooked symphony – in one concert by the BBC Philharmonic. Let’s hear it for the little guys! Both were terrifically performed, though as I melted at home in Lincolnshire on the hottest day of the year while the audience enjoyed the new Albert Hall airconditioning, I do wish I’d heard it live rather than on the radio!