Mozart 250 ó Barbican/St Giles Cripplegate, London

bell_emma.jpgErica Jeal [The Guardian, 30 January 2006]
Where were Britain’s great Mozartians on the composer’s 250th birthday? That’s right: Salzburg. Or Vienna, or Berlin – anywhere, in fact, but on a London concert platform. On any other day, the four concerts that made up the BBC’s Mozart 250 – starting at lunchtime and continuing late into the evening – would have seemed like solid if unadventurous programming. But this was a celebration and, with the big hitters noticeable by their absence, it was critically low on glamour.