Julia Savage

Associate artists at Spitalfields Music Summer Festival this year, the Early Opera Company and Christian Curnyn performed Handel's rarely-heard oratorio Susanna in Christ Church last week. This was a performance to satisfy Handel fans of all level of knowledge.

This concert from Crouch End Festival Chorus, Hertfordshire Chorus, the Dessoff Choirs from New York, and the London Orchestra da Camera celebrated the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The singers did themselves justice, and the concert presented an opportunity for reflection.

This year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music closed with an excellent concert from the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and soprano Carolyn Sampson at St John's Smith Square. With a convincing nautical theme, the concert was a real coup, and it was  privilege to attend.

This unusual programme was the brainchild of Onyx Brass, currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. Part of Bach Unwrapped, the brass quintet explored arrangements of music by Bach and Shostakovich, alongside some new commissions as well.

English National Opera's revival of Jonathan Miller's 1930s La bohème was faithful to this production's honest sentimentality. With a dramatically strong cast as well, this is a production to catch if you can.

Performing in memory of the late Sir Colin Davis, Richard Farnes conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and a top cast in a concert performance of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw at the Barbican last week. Happily, this was a performance of which he would have been proud.

Britten Sinfonia players presented a variety of works at Wigmore Hall, focusing on the relationship between Benjamin Britten and his teacher Frank Bridge. Also featured was a new work, Divertimento by young composer Ryan Latimer.

Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum is a major new exhibition on two of the most important towns that were subsumed in the pyroclastic flows from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It provides a detailed, honest and frank insight not only into citizens' lives, but also into their lifestyles and attitudes. 

There are insufficient words to describe how wonderful this performance was: the Los Angeles Philharmonic's third concert at the Barbican, conducted once again by Gustavo Dudamel, featured some truly outstanding playing, particularly in Stravinsky's The Firebird.

The Brussels Philharmonic's visit to Cadogan Hall featured works from Beethoven, Bartók, Debussy and Ravel, providing a most enjoyable evening of pan-European music.