Concert Roulette: your classical jukebox

This has to be the most musical fun since lockdown began. Solo artists and ensembles all over the world have come together as if on a single platform, playing concert favourites, overlooked music and contemporary sounds.

Concert Roulette is the brainchild of classical innovators Hannah Fiddy and Hanna Grzeskiewicz, who as Alternative Classical showcase many great London performers and venues. These include Nonclassical, Spitalfields Music, the London Sinfonietta, Kings Place and the dynamic composer Gabriel Prokofiev.

To play Concert Roulette, music-lovers can choose a complete lucky dip, or, if the mood takes them, opt for any combination of Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th-century or Contemporary.


Netherlands Bach Society play the Brandenburg Concerto No 4 on Concert Roulette

Then just click Play Concert Roulette, and at random up will come the recording of a great concert from recent years. You might get the Netherlands Bach Society performing a sparkly bright Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 4 – the players stand up to play, for that extra zing. Or the outrageously sexy cellist Stjepan Hauser playing Shostakovich's Waltz No 2 on a steamy summer's evening.

Click again, and you may find the Barbican Quartet playing Schubert's dramatic Death and the Maiden, or travel to Amsterdam to hear Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos at the elegant Concertgebouw.


Croatian cellist Stjepan Hauser is a Concert Roulette artist

Culture Whisper favourite Nicola Benedetti is in the mix, playing the Strauss Violin Sonata in E-flat major, or click again and join Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Khachaturian's breakneck Sabre Dance.

There are hours and hours of fun to be had here. The ever-changing locations, the variety of music and the sight of much-loved and new players makes this a fantastically entertaining resource. Finding your way around the many music streaming offers can be bewildering. With Concert Roulette it's all in one place, and in our new, somewhat predictable lives, it's a treat to be taken by surprise.