When a brass player says he's ill, he's ill...

Singers are always calling in sick. The merest puff of wind can blow a voice into A&E. The tiniest tickle in the throat can leave 2000 people jilted. They build instrumental musicians more robustly, especially brass players, so when David Pyatt told the London Symphony Orchestra, for whom he is co-principal horn, that he has an infected wisdom tooth, that's what he's got.

Sadly it means that on Thursday evening at the Barbican he won't now be performing Strauss's glorious Second Horn Concerto. Composed in the depths of wartime in 1943, it's the piece with which Pyatt won the BBC Young Musician of the Year 22 years ago. The good news is that a replacement has been found at short notice, and not just any replacement. Radovan Vlatkovic, Croatian-born but resident in Salzburg, is one of the most celebrated horn players in the world. His appearances in this country are as rare as hen's teeth. If there's a spare ticket to be found, buy it. The LSO will also be blasting through Ein Heldenleben. Book online.