Articles by Simon Cummings

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO escort the Symphony Hall audience through environments of safety and danger.

In anticipation of Dutch National Opera’s production in 2019, we talk to Stockhausen’s muse about the challenges and consequences of the composer’s week-long operatic cycle.

Tomáš Netopil directs ideal, ‘non-dairy’ performances of Mozart and Dvořák.

An introduction to the latest iteration of Dublin’s foremost contemporary music festival, the first overseen by artistic director John Harris.

Stunningly fresh performances of ubiqitous classics from Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Simon Rattle returns to the UK in a (self-)portrait concert with the London Symphony Orchestra showcasing contemporary music

A curious combination of Mozart’s “Great” Mass and Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony fill Worcester Cathedral with exuberance.

In a concert of two halves, Worcester Cathedral experiences unforgettable pain and pleasure in works by Strauss, Rasch and Janáček.

Peter Nardone directs the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra in a problematic yet thought-provoking opening concert at Worcester Cathedral.

Sakari Oramo pushes the BBC Symphony Orchestra to breaking point at Symphony Hall

East meets West meets East in a disappointing display of homogenised, sugar-coated music-making in Birmingham

A brief examination of the partly forgotten musical seeds that led to Williams’ distinctive cinematic soundworld

A concert of remarkable clarity, turning the structural challenges of Haydn and Mahler into dramatic virtues.

The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Kristiina Poska strain, discharge energy and ultimately make magic at the annual Estonian Music Days.

John Malkovich’s provocative new music-theatre work reminds us all of the power of music – in the wrong hands.

Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s seven minute Divertimento proves the most emotionally potent in a concert at the Baltic Sea Festival also featuring works by Shostakovich and Górecki.

Esa-Pekka Salonen and Yuja Wang at the Baltic Sea Festival.

Sven-David Sandström’s new chamber opera fails to provide an authentic voice to a trio of 19th-century female mental patients.

Adrian Partington directs a well-managed but ultimately disjointed performance of Mahler’s most idealistically challenging symphony.

Edward Gardner conducts a solemn, emotionally-charged performance of Berlioz’s radical masterpiece at Gloucester Cathedral