★★★★☆
Igor Stravinsky conducted dry performances of his own music, almost robotic at times. If you wanted to hear the other extreme — his great dance scores delivered in performances bursting with character, colour and charm — you would have been mad to have missed the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s visit to London.
Under its founder, Ivan Fischer, Hungary’s leading orchestra has always had an extrovert and libertarian personality: the opposite of the people running their country at present. The pandemic has done nothing to tame this maverick spirit. I caught the first of two Stravinsky programmes and was dazzled by Petrushka and captivated by Jeu de cartes, his 1937 ballet score for Balanchine — which is surprising, because the latter is not one of