The French period-instrument ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, conducted by its founder and director Jérémie Rhorer, made its UK debut on Tuesday 28 June, in an all-Mozart concert at the Barbican Centre in London. Accompanied by the vocal expertise of the acclaimed chamber choir Les Éléments, the ensemble, which specialises in the music of Mozart, Haydn and French repertoire from the turn of the 19^th century, performed Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and his Mass in C minor, featuring an international cast of soloists including Sally Matthews, Ann Hallenberg, Rainer Trost and Nahuel de Pierro.

The Daily Telegraph’s Ivan Hewett commented on the performance: ​“What really marked this performance out as something special was the way it caught the music’s grandeur and minatory force. The hallmark was clarity combined with spacious tempi, so we could feel Mozart’s grinding harmonic clashes impacting on our nerves as well as our ears. All in all a marvel.”