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The Vienna Philharmonic's first concert at this year's Salzburg Festival pairs Oedipus Rex with the Symphonie fantastique, with Esa-Pekka Salonen stepping in for Lorenzo Viotti. 

At MusikTheater an der Wien, Miroslav Srnka’s new opera provess a deeply compelling, meticulously crafted work. It may not uplift, but it sears itself into the memory.

For the first time in its 165-year subscription series, a female conductor leads a Vienna Philharmonic subscription concert. 

Under the baton of Domingo Hindoyan, the Tonkünstler brings Latin America and Dvořák's New World Symphony to the Musikverein. 

Damiano Michieletto directs a slick and frequently hilarious staging of Prokofiev's comic opera Betrothal in a Monastery. 

In a week where Vienna welcomes two new productions of Bellini's Norma, MusikTheater an der Wien sets a high bar with Vasily Barkhatov's staging. 

Omer Meir Wellber’s Mozart-Ullmann mash-up sounds like a terrible idea, but absolutely hits the mark. 

A “baptism by fire”... but not for Klaus Mäkelä, making his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein in Mahler's Sixth Symphony. 

A haunting, musically compelling impression of a woman whose life was shaped by creation, loss, and unfulfilled thirst for personal expression.

Lotte de Beer’s new retelling at the Volksoper reintroduces the element of shock into Bizet's popular opera. 

Karina Canellakis brings her Netherlands Radio Philharmonic to the Musikverein, joined by Emanuel Ax in Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. 

What do you get for the composer who made – and also kind of broke – everything? Arnold Schoenberg’s well-documented phobia of the number 13 aside, he could not have asked for a superior tribute in his 150th anniversary year.

Even if Igor Levit is not quite in his wheelhouse with Brahms, the Vienna Philharmonic plays a home game in the second half with his D major symphony. 

Martin G Berger exhaustively reworks the story and the libretto of Salieri's Cublai, gran kan de' Tartari and throws the kitchen sink at this new production, but not everything lands well. 

In the sacred golden temple that is the Musikverein, Martha Argerich plays Ravel's saucy Piano Concerto in G major, before the Philharmoniker and Zubin Mehta play Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. 

The Estonian Festival Orchestra revels in Dvořák and Tchaikovsky on the Vienna leg of its European tour with Paavo Järvi. 

Lydia Steier's new production of Candide is a kaleidoscopic celebration of Leonard Bernstein's varied musical idioms. 

The first premiere of the new Staatsoper season is a qualified success, led by Eleanora Buratto's superb Suor Angelica and Ambrogio Maestri's masterly Gianni Schicchi in Puccini's triptych of one-act operas. 

Marlene Monteiro Freitas directs her first opera, in which Lulu, if not buried alive, is certainly left completely unrecognizable. 

Vasily Barkhatov directs a new production of Mieczysław Weinberg's rarely staged, massive and unwieldy opera at the MuseumsQuartier. 

Brad Mehldau’s song cycle is a disappointment, the texts selected under the rubric of “desire” proving a major concern.

Despite an incapacitated Ying Fang miming the role of Susanna, the brilliant cast makes Barrie Kosky's new production worth the night out in Vienna. 

“Lima darf nicht Österreich werden!” Offenbach's operetta is set in Lima, but really it’s Vienna in director Nikolaus Habjan uproarious production. 

The French pianist steps in to join the American diva in the Musikverein for a program of French and German art song. 

There is magic aplenty in director Stefan Herheim’s bold recontextualization of Gian Carlo Menotti's holiday opera. 

They may seem like an odd pairing, but Wang and Kavakos defy the naysayers yet again, warming into a fascinating recital in Vienna.

Founded in 1988 by Claudio Abbado, Wien Modern is perfect for the contemporary-music curious, such as this complete traversal of George Crumb's masterpiece, housed in an art nouveau theater on Steinhof. 

In the Brahms Saal, Marc-André Hamelin juxtaposes three Russian composers with Schubert’s long misunderstood final piano sonata.

Herheim’s maiden voyage in his new capacity as Intendant confirms his ability to deftly negotiate a less-than-straightforward work with care and ambition and add his own voice enthusiastically to the mix.

An energized cast delivers in a visually eye-popping production as Monteverdi's opera appears at the Haus am Ring for the very first time. 

A more thoughtful and intentional artist is hard to come by today, and one who graces the Musikverein donning fabulous silver shoes on top of her pianistic gifts must be heaven-sent. 

The tenor and pianist pair Britten and Schubert in their Lieder recital on the stage of the Großer Saal. 

If in heaven there are indeed harps, then it would be hard to imagine a better angel to recruit than Anneleen Lenaerts, who performed Glière's concerto with her Philharmonic brothers and sisters in arms in the Musikverein. 

Pageantry abounds as the popular mezzo-soprano turns the Konzerthaus Wien into a sort of classical music, multisensory varieté.

Director Lotte De Beer's thoroughly realized, aesthetically rich and beautifully executed production of Janáček's masterpiece is anchored by strong performances from Nina Stemme and Svetlana Aksenova.

In much anticipated role (Kaufmann) and stage (Davidsen) debuts, this revival of Peter Grimes at the Staatsoper was much anticipated, despite a production that should be put out to sea without a paddle.

Kavakos’ restless approach was haunting, and during the cadenza he pared back his sound till it was nearly transparent, stopping breaths as we all leaned in. 

Kurt Weill's musical, with its focus on psychoanalysis, makes its Austrian premiere in the city of Sigmund Freud. 

Amartuvshin Enkhbat and María José Siri spar as father and daughter in Günter Krämer's tired production of Verdi's biblical epic. 

Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck’s Notturno is the rarity in an imaginative chamber recital dedicated to nocturnal music and transfiguration.   

Kate Lindsey’s voice is luminous, effortlessly regulated in every register, and intertwined magically with the gleaming soprano of Slávka Zámečníková, a very special new jewel in the Staatsoper ensemble who is every inch a star.

Faust and Méphistophélès pal around like buddies in Castorf's multi-media staging, the devil here less diabolical and more anarchistic party-boy. 

A five-hour operatic marathon as the full, five-act French version of Verdi's epic Don Carlos returns to the Staatsoper after a seven-year hiatus. 

Leoncavallo's opera is a rare example of a tragic, verismo opera where not a soul dies... neither by natural causes nor foul play.  

Argerich sprinted through technical runs with her characteristic articulation and breathtaking technique, and made Prokofiev's Third seem like child’s play.

All the light, tuneful melodies and tuttis of the Ninth Symphony are still somehow Shostakovich, but a Shostakovich during a rare period where he seems to be taking antidepressants.

Keith Warner directs a new opera which packs in betrayal, murder, oppression, freedom, love and the Spanish Inquisition into a mere 90 minutes.

Movement was so effectively utilised in this production, with elements of ballet, modern and Scottish folk melded in true Agnes de Mille fashion.

Sam Brown's sparse production leaves nothing to focus on but the individual protagonists on stage. 

Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo is more than at home in the role of Oberon, and possesses a vocal quality ideal for the scheming king of the fairies, simultaneously eerie and seductive.