On Sunday, 27th February, a group of us went to see Pierre Boulez, considered one of the best composer-conductors since Strauss conduct at the Barbican. He performs and records much Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartok and Debussy, including Wagner's Parsifal and The Ring in Bayreuth.

The first piece, ZeroPoints by Peter Eotvos, was its world premiere. Impressed by Boulez' inclusion of "figure zero" in the score, when conducting his Domaine, Eotvos decided to do the same, putting eight "zero figures" into the score for his piece, never reaching one, but always returning to "zero" and taking off in a new direction.

The Wooden Prince (ballet) by Bartok was a romantic, colourful and expansive piece, requiring a huge orchestra. The driven, energetic score was comprised of three parts, the first being fast and brutal, the second a slow movement and the third a recapitulation of the first with the sequence reversed (something to do with the story of the ballet).

Altogether, it was a really enjoyable evening, to be repeated in ten major cities around the world.

Sam Ellison, age 13, teenage class

Only four of us (Sophia and Kate Dignam, Sam Ellison and myself) represented the BBCM at this concert. Thanks to the LSO, we had wonderful (greatly reduced) tickets in the stalls in the otherwise packed auditorium. Chronologically this Hungarian evening proceeded backwards, concluding with Bartok preceded by Ligeti (influenced by Bartok) and starting with Eotvos (influenced, among others, by Bartok and Ligeti). Perhaps it is not unfair to say that for the listeners the musical enjoyment was increasing as the concert proceeded. The piece by Eotvos (b.1944), world premiere/LSO commission, explores many directions using all available forces in the LSO. On one hearing the piece felt more an instruction in compositional techniques than as a life enriching experience. I felt more at home in the Violin Concerto (written 1990-1992) by the older Ligeti (b.1923) referring to baroque forms. My enjoyment was greatly enhanced by the unassuming, honest, disciplined and virtuoso playing of violinist Christian Tetzlaff.

Bartok's ballet score, The Wooden Prince, is easy to listen to and Bela Balazs's libretto makes a pleasant bedtime story. While I am delighted that such an important musical personality as Boulez includes Bartok in his concert programmes, I could not help feeling that the performance could have gained from (BBCM) studies in folk song/folk dance melodies: in spite of the expertise of Boulez and the LSO, the folk music element of the score was not evoked.

Agnes Kory