Ears suitably pricked, we settled into the Shostakovich, marvelling at the nervous intensity in Kopatchinskaja’s playing, but also at her tight bond with the orchestra, especially remarkable in a fractured and worried work tottering between deep sorrow, grimacing humour and hollow jollity. This was an exceptionally thrilling performance and it drove the audience close to frenzy.
There was, however, the interval and our Beethoven music lesson. Dissection of the Fifth Symphony’s motifs, rhythms and trajectory underlined features doubly apparent in the lean and nimble performance that followed. But nothing in the illustrated talk alerted us to the special glory in Aurora’s account: the clarity of the orchestral textures and the nuanced woodwinds.