LSO/Gergiev | Classical review

Barbican, LondonJames MacMillan's recent music has been at its best when at its least didactic. His Violin Concerto, written for Vadim Repin, who gave its premiere with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, avoids sermonising in favour of a reversion to the Dionysian wildness of such works as his football-inspired The Berserking. It's also essentially a big virtuoso concerto in late 19th-century mould, reminiscent in its contours and shape of Sibelius, though in opening his slow move...

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