feature
Stepping into Tchaikovsky Ballet: Swan Lake
Ask anyone who claims to know nothing about ballet to actually name one, the chances are it will be one of Tchaikovsky's.
preview
Eclectic in August: Opera In The City
London's latest festival of small scale opera offers four very different shows, with music from Rimsky to Kurtág, and styles from schmaltz to avant-garde.
Bachtrack guide
Latest news on the BBC Proms
Find out what's coming up next and read the latest reviews from our busy London team.
The Mariinsky Ballet in London: Viktoria Tereshkina adds fire to a dusty production of Don Quixote
© Natasha Razina
Nicola Benedetti lets fly with Shostakovich at the BBC Proms
© BBC | Chris Christodoulou
Splendid performance from Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood Festival
© Hilary Scott
Verismo with a capital V in Opera Holland Park's Zaza
© Robert Workman
Papageno finds his mate in Longborough's Magic Flute
© Matthew Williams-Ellis
Orphée aux enfers taps into 21st-century politics at Karlin Music Theatre, Prague
© Hana Smejkalová
The Mariinsky Ballet in London: Viktoria Tereshkina adds fire to a dusty production of Don Quixote
© Natasha Razina
Nicola Benedetti lets fly with Shostakovich at the BBC Proms
© BBC | Chris Christodoulou
Splendid performance from Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood Festival
© Hilary Scott
Verismo with a capital V in Opera Holland Park's Zaza
© Robert Workman
Papageno finds his mate in Longborough's Magic Flute
© Matthew Williams-Ellis
Orphée aux enfers taps into 21st-century politics at Karlin Music Theatre, Prague
© Hana Smejkalová
feature
The influence of Italian virtuosity on Russian Ballet
From the courts of Italy during the Renaissance to the grandeur of the Russian Imperial Ballet, discover more about the influence of italian virtuosity on Russian ballet
feature
Ballet in Paris: a little History of the French Technique
Origins: from the Royal court of Louis XIV to neoclassicism.
The Paris Opera Ballet company has a long-standing History, dating back to 1662, and the establishment of the Académie Royale de Danse by Louis XIV. At the time, the Academy’s mission was to develop the theatrical dance style performed in court, which noblemen and the King himself took part in.
feature
The foundations of classical ballet: a French affair?
It’s common knowledge that Louis XIV developed the foundations of classical ballet in the late 17th century, during his long and rather extraordinary reign as King of France. But was the French King the true mastermind of ballet technique?
ballet music in concert
How Ballet Music Took Centre Stage
This week's At Home Guide explores how ballet music evolved from a sideshow to a well-respected artform. Click on the links to listen while you read.
preview
Bluebeard’s Castle crowns Hungarian Opera season
100 years after the première of Bluebeard's Castle, the Hungarian State Opera celebrates with not one, but four different productions of Bartók’s opera.
preview
Karabits leads the BSO on musical voyages of delight
Few orchestras in the UK cover as many miles – from Exeter and Portsmouth to Bristol and Basingstoke – although the Lighthouse in Poole has been its central home for decades.
Make Bachtrack your guide to the best classical music concerts, opera and dance performances worldwide. You can search for your favourite composer or performer or read some of the 200 reviews we publish each month across the world.
We recommendSee more...
LondonProm 23
Handel: Israel in Egypt
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; William Christie; Anna Devin; Rowan Pierce; Christopher Lowrey; Jeremy Budd
LondonProm 24
Bach, Ravel, Adams
Philharmonia Orchestra; Esa-Pekka Salonen; Marianne Crebassa; Philharmonia Voices
AmsterdamRay Chen plays Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto
Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Dvořák
Würth Philharmonic; Dennis Russell Davies; Ray Chen
We recommendSee more...
SavonlinnaIolanta
Tchaikovsky
Anton Grishanin; Sergey Zhenovach; Bolshoi Opera; Alexander Borovskiy; Anna Nechaeva; Ekaterina Morozova; Dmytro Popov
BarcelonaIl trovatore
Verdi: Il trovatore
Daniele Callegari; Joan Anton Rechi; Gran Teatre del Liceu; William Orlandi; Mercè Paloma; Artur Ruciński; George Petean
GlyndebourneLa traviata
Verdi: La traviata
Andrés Orozco-Estrada; Tom Cairns; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Hildegard Bechtler; Joyce El-Khoury; Atalla Ayan; Dimitri Platanias
LondonMozart & Salieri / Zanetto
Rimsky-Korsakov, Mascagni
Andrew G. Charity; Pamela Schermann; Time Zone Theatre; Yole Lambrecht; Roger Paterson; Nicolas Dwyer
LondonBach and Vivaldi by candlelight | London Musical Arts Ensemble
Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Marcello, Bach
London Musical Arts Ensemble; John Landor; Gemma Sharples; Christopher Jones; Huw Clement-Evans; Anna Menzies
Latest reviewsSee more...
One for sorrow: La clemenza di Tito at Glyndebourne
A grimly dark setting for Mozart's final opera, Sesto and Tito haunted by childhood memories.
Mischief and melancholia at the Three Choirs
In a concert of two halves, Worcester Cathedral experiences unforgettable pain and pleasure in works by Strauss, Rasch and Janáček.
Mostly Mozart opens in major key exuberance
Enlightenment indeed at Lincoln Center as the Mostly Mozart Festival opens with a gloriouds hodge-podge.
An emotional L'Orfeo for Monteverdi 450
Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Monteverdi 450 trilogy began its Salzburg run with a tear-jerking concert performance of L'Orfeo.
Gemma Bond Dance
I have the sense that we’re only beginning to find out how great a dancer Christine Shevchenko will be.
preview
From Brahms to Bernstein: A rich and varied season
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra's season includes core classical favourites, starry soloists and forays into lesser-played repertoire for the musically curious.
Film music feature
A Flight Through the Music of Joe Hisaishi
As part of our film and game music month, we go deep into the work of Joe Hisaishi, the composer behind Studio Ghibli's best-loved scores.
film music feature
John Williams and his early aesthetic
A brief examination of the partly forgotten musical seeds that led to Williams’ distinctive cinematic soundworld
film music feature
Franz Waxman's film and classical music
Franz Waxman is known for his film scores, yet he also composed classical music. In the year of the 50th anniversary of his death, we look back on his work.
film music interview
RSNO's Film Season Reaches New Audiences
In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the RSNO is bringing swathes of new audience into the concert hall to hear a live orchestra for the first time.
game music interview
Creative haggling with Christopher Tin
Christopher Tin has worked in a whole range of fields, producing works that span film, video games and epic song cycles. Just don't call him a “video game composer”.
FOCUS ON TRAVEL and FESTIVALS: Click here for more information and ideas
round up
Italian music festivals: As prolific as pasta!
Italy has such an abundance of la dolce vita musicale it can be overwhelming, especially in the long, languid summer months when music-lovers, culture-cognoscenti and garrulous gourmands alike can savour the best of what this extraordinary country has to offer.
Round up
Summer music and opera in France
In July and August, Parisians flee the city to the provinces, where stunning landscapes and hundreds of music festivals await them. We explore the rich diversity.
round up
Guide to Opera Festivals 2017
Opera with the stars or under the stars? Country house picnics or rare repertoire in smaller venues? Our 2017 opera festivals guide has something for everyone!
Postcard from Wrocław
The hardest task facing foreign visitors to the fascinating Polish city of Wrocław is how to pronounce it.
Luxury in Mallorca: Formentor Sunset Classics
Opera's current power couple carry off with excellence a mixed programme of opera in an outstandingly beautiful outdoor location.
Postcard from Amsterdam: unassuming riches
When you stroll through the Rijksmuseum, 17th-century burghers peer at you, self-assured and dressed soberly, mostly in black. The first impression these portraits of the superrich give is that their subjects did not much care for ostentatious display.
FESTIVAL PREVIEWS
Preview
BA…CHopin and his Europe international festival 2017
For nearly three weeks in August, renowned international performers and rising stars take to the stage to play the music of Bach and Chopin, and much, much more in this the thirteenth edition of the Chopin and his Europe International Festival, presented by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw.
feature
Theatrical feast: Hipermestra at Glyndebourne
This year's festival opens with the most lavish work of an exceptionally important composer. So why has it languished unperformed for so long?
Interview
Jonathan Crow takes the reins in Toronto
This year’s edition of the Toronto Summer Music (TSM) marks two milestones: along with a celebration of Canada’s Sesquicentennial, it will inaugurate Jonathan Crow’s tenure as new Artistic Director. Crow, 40, is an internationally acclaimed violinist who has served as concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2011.
Interview
Michael Chance on the new Grange Festival
Michael Chance tells us about planned improvements to the festival-going experience and tells us about the operas that will form part of the new festival.
preview
The Varied Sounds of the Dolomites
Taking place every summer in Trentino, the Sounds of the Dolomites festival combines music and nature like never before.
Preview
Wealth of jewels at Toyko's Suntory Hall
Four of the world's great orchestras are all set to celebrate cornerstones of their repertoire in the fabled acoustic of the recently renovated Suntory Hall.
interview
Sir John Eliot Gardiner on Monteverdi
Read our wide-ranging interview about Monteverdi's operas, their cultural context, performing them today and why they remain as contemporary and fresh as when they were written four centuries ago.
interview
Baroque Inquisition: Rinaldo Alessandrini
The prolific recording artist and founder of Concerto Italiano answers our questions about Monteverdi and other music of the period.
Preview
Baroque and Early Music Festivals: the 2017 guide
Whether you're looking for Handel, Bach, Monteverdi, Telemann or mix of all of these; whether you like your Baroque music in a grand palace, an intimate chapel or a state-of-the-art concert hall, our 2017 roundup has something for you.
Celebrating women
Top Six Women Baroque Composers
Following the example of Rebecca Lentjes’ January feature “Top Ten Living Women Composers”, I have made my pick of women composers of the Baroque period in celebration of International Women’s Day.
Best of baroque
Photo gallery: Baroque theatres you should see
Feast your eyes on this marvellous collection of Europe's surviving baroque theatres.
NEW SEASON PREVIEWS
From French wit to Icelandic sagas
For its second season under the leadership of principal conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra offers a wonderfully balanced programme. As well as featuring some of the world’s leading soloists, Icelandic composers and performers are also championed.
An invitation to travel: Opéra de Dijon's 2017-18 Season
Following on from Central Europe, the East and North America, Dijon takes on the flavours of the Iberian world – Spain, Portugal and Latin America
Pleasure in pain: Munich's new opera & ballet season
New productions, including a stellar Parsifal starring Kaufmann and Gerhaher, mix with the standard rich repertory pickings in the Bavarian capital
Blue Roses in Suntory Hall's Chamber Music Garden
Most classical music fans would associate Tokyo's Suntory Hall with its symphonic hall and its great acoustics, but in fact, the venue also has a beautiful wood-panelled chamber music hall named “Blue Rose”.
Netrebko headlines new La Scala season
Few opera singers capture the public imagination like Anna Netrebko. And there are few more glittering occasions in the opera calendar than the opening night of the season at the Teatro alla Scala.
Deutsche Oper's new season
Deutsche Oper has a cornucopia in store for the new season. It promises some bold takes on the core repertoire, several enticing rarities, and a world première by the eminent German composer Aribert Reimann.
Giovanni Antonini takes the reins at Wratislavia Cantans Festival
Giovanni Antonini's latest challenge is the Artistic Directorship of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wrocław Poland, intending to raise its profile on the European scene.
Carry on Cleo: ETO's Baroque autumn
When it is not digging up Donizetti rarities, English Touring Opera can often be found performing Baroque opera. Artistic Director James Conway has decided on a return to the Baroque for its autumn season.
Bite-size opera: The Little Greats
How do you entice people to spend a night out at the opera? How do you grow new audiences? This autumn, Opera North may have a solution.
FOCUS ON OPERA
Interview
Stuart Skelton on tackling Tristan
The Australian Heldentenor shares his preparations for learning Tristan, his thoughts on opera productions and his passionate views about the current state of Opera Australia and ENO.
Interview
Ermonela Jaho on her heartbreaking soprano roles
Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho is renowned for heartfelt performances as some of opera's most tortured soprano roles, especially Violetta in La traviata, the opera in which she sprang to fame in London when she jumped in for an indisposed Anna Netrebko.
Interview
“It’s not a Cinderella story”: Kristine Opolais
Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais shot to international fame in 2010 in Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Bavarian State Opera. She talks to us having recently performed the role in Mary Zimmerman’s much anticipated new production at The Met.
Interview
Crossing borders: Roberto Alagna
Ahead of Vienna's première of Il trovatore, the tenor who crosses borders between France and Italy, opera and popular song, spoke to us about the roles of Manrico and Cyrano, being a gypsy, a hero, returning to Italy, about family and more.
Interview
Creating opera roles: Stéphane Degout
With two new role creations in progress, baritone Stéphane Degout will be back this summer to the Aix Festival for the world première of Pinocchio. He talks to us about the process of creating new opera roles.
Interview
A childhood drama queen: Aleksandra Kurzak
Aleksandra Kurzak tells us about making ten role debuts in a year as her voice shifts from bel canto to the dramatic repertoire she has been dreaming about since childhood.
CONTEMPORARY MONTH HIGHLIGHTS
Retrospective
Remembering the legacy of Pauline Oliveros
“Music is a multi-dimensional, dynamic process unfolding as a relationship between an individual or a group of individuals, and sound vibrations.
Interview
“Not a political composer": John Adams
Taking time out from working on his new opera, Girls of the Golden West, which premières in San Francisco later this year, we spoke to John Adams about politics, Scheherazade.2 and where he sees the future for classical music.
Preview
From Crumb to Kaufmann: Holland Festival 2017 revealed
The Holland Festival has always celebrated and promoted new work and takes its 70th anniversary to both look forward, with plenty of world premières, but also to reflect on its past.
Preview
A guide to contemporary music festivals
There are plenty of occasions to hear Beethoven's symphonies or Mozart's operas throughout the year. But what about the 21st century repertoire? Contemporary music lovers often find it hard to quench their thirst for new music. Thankfully, some festivals specialise in contemporary music, giving to everyone the opportunity to drink their fill.
Retrospective
Keeping the Boulez spirit alive
Daniel Barenboim inaugurated last month the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin. The most interesting feature of the hall lies not in its flowing architecture, but rather in its name: the Pierre Boulez Saal. One year after the French composer death, what is his legacy?
Contemporary focus
Top 10 Living Women Composers
According to online showcase/podcast Listening to Ladies, during the 2015–2016 season, the top 89 symphony orchestras in the US dedicated only 2% of their programs to music composed by women.
Bachtrack announces Classical Music Statistics for 2016: The busiest conductors and orchestras, the most performed works, the most played living composers, most performed operas and ballet. Whatever you're looking for, check the Bachtrack statistics first HERE.