CRITIC’S CHOICE

Misha Donat

When it comes to big orchestral works, there’s nowhere else in London that can match the Royal Albert Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonic in Mahler’s Seventh Symphony under their charismatic conductor Kirill Petrenko made for a thrilling BBC Prom this summer. Critics sometimes complain that the symphony’s more intimate middle movements sit oddly between the gargantuan outer panels, but the contrast is precisely what’s needed. The whole thing held a packed audience spellbound.