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The Lithuanian conductor made Beethoven really sing while violinist, Vilde Frang's spirited interpretation of Elgar's Violin Concerto did not seem quite the finished article.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra brought a fresh approach to Mahler's Fourth Symphony and the harp took centre stage for a change with a concerto première. 

New Music Director, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla reminded Birmingham audiences just how much they have to be proud of with an exciting combination of Lithuanian music and symphonic masterpieces.

Benjamin Grosvenor reminded us what a magnificent piece of music Grieg's piano showpiece is in this sensational performance with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Nicola Benedetti impresses a packed Birmingham Symphony Hall with her commanding performance of Szymanowski's second violin concerto in a thrilling programme with the CBSO.

An all Sibelius concert played with precision and flair by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra fails to provide fresh insights into the composer's enigmatic works but violinist Christal Lee is a soloist to watch.

Ben Gernon impresses with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in an evocative programme of French and Russian music.

Ryan Wigglesworth proves a fine interpreter of not only his own work in his return visit to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Standing in for an unwell Andris Nelsons, Birmingham-born Alpesh Chauhan proved a satisfying substitution for a capacity audience at Symphony Hall.

Stephen Hough made the case for re-appraising Dvořák’s Cinderella Piano Concerto with some fine accompaniment from the CBSO and Andris Nelsons.

Master improviser, Robert Levin, proved an informative and fun guide to a selection of Mozart's later masterpieces, performed with panache by the Academy of Ancient Music.

Benjamin Grosvenor presented a fascinating programme of works, demonstrating a profound musical intellect.

Francesco Piemontesi delivered a most satisfying performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto while Lahav Shani made an electrifying impression in pieces by Prokofiev with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Veteran conductor Walter Weller failed to bring two German masterpieces to life, despite some gorgeous playing from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Fellow Frenchmen Alain Altinoglu and Renaud Capuçon make for fine partners in a rare outing for Berlioz's Harold in Italy. 

Two Eastern European masterpieces were given gripping readings by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner.

Conductor, Andris Nelsons, once again demonstrated his affinity with Richard Strauss in a magnificent performance of his tone poem, Symphonia Domestica.

Rattle's return found the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in glorious form for this performance of two popular masterpieces.

Though impressively performed by the Moscow players, conductor Yuri Simonov's interpretative choices did not always convince in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.

The Czech Pavel Haas Quartet bring their distinctive sound and selfless musicianship to Birmingham, in the first of three concerts featuring Matthew Hunt in Brahms's Clarinet Quintet alongside twentieth century quartets.

Steven Osborne's Mozart with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra captivates whilst Gardner's Elgar does not entirely convince.

Nelsons impresses in Brahms' Third Symphony with the CBSO, while Isabelle Faust's account of Britten's Violin Concerto may have been a work in progress rather than the finished item.

The last time I saw Gustavo Dudamel conduct at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was in August 2005, when he stood in for an indisposed Neeme Järvi, at the age of 24. It’s astonishing quite how much Dudamel’s star has skyrocketed since then: he’s the closest thing the classical music industry has now to a global superstar conductor, and there was a packed hall in Birmingham delighted to welcome him back.

Mendelssohn developed quite a soft spot for Birmingham, even producing a sketched portrait of the city. At the centre of this portrait stands Joseph Hansom's splendid neoclassical Town Hall where Mendelssohn conducted several of his own works, most famously the première of his great oratorio, Elijah.

Every once in a while, as a reviewer, you are so utterly transfixed by a performance that it becomes an incredible effort to wrench yourself back into reality in order to put pen to paper, such is the visceral impact. And so it was with Christian Tetzlaff’s performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

In recent years, the virtouso violinist Nikolaj Znaider has diverted some of his attention to conducting. Mentored by such esteemed figures as the late Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev, he made his London conducting debut in 2011 with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Single-composer programmes can be risky affairs. It is possible to have too much of a good thing, after all. Fortunately, this all-Tchaikovsky programme from the CBSO contained three sufficiently contrasting pieces, ensuring that we did not tire of the melancholic Russian master’s works.

This concert was a triumph of smart programming, combining the third symphonies of Sibelius and Lutosławski, as well as works for soprano and orchestra by these composers – both modernists in their own ways. It was also an ambitious showcase for British soprano Lucy Crowe, who sparkled in every sense (her striking peacock-green dress, finished with gleaming gems, never threatened to upstage her).

The reason for this all-American programme was ostensibly pragmatic: the concert was to coincide with the opening night of the British-American Business Council annual conference. In practice, the programme was a triumph. Significantly, dozens of schoolchildren were present to witness an evening of fine and involving music-making.The concert began with Charles Ives’ Variations on America.

The Budapest Festival Orchestra are a relatively well-kept secret, although goodness knows why. Perhaps it is something to do with their young age (formed in 1983) or their somewhat utilitarian name.

The Czech Philharmonic has had something of an eventful history since its first concert, given under the baton of Antonín Dvořák in 1896. Since then, the orchestra has been conducted by a number of distinguished musicians, including Gustav Mahler.

Though born in America, Stephen Kovacevich has lived in London since moving there to study with the great Dame Myra Hess at the age of eighteen. He clearly has a special rapport with British audiences, as his amiable manner in discussing his encores demonstrated.

Is it possible for us to feel a shred of sympathy for Lulu, surely one of opera’s most notorious anti-heroines, even when she meets her grizzly demise at the coda of Berg’s eponymous masterwork? I think it speaks volumes about the astonishing quality of soprano Marie Arnet’s performance that my answer to this question after seeing Welsh National Opera’s new production of Lulu is a most definite “n

Andrés Orozco-Estrada has been feted as “a brilliant stand-in”, having replaced a number of more well-known conductors at short notice in Vienna, where he studied his craft. He is now the music director of the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna having made an all-important career breakthrough.The Colombian was no stand-in for this concert, however.

Tchaikovsky’s early symphonies are getting a fair bit of exposure at present, both in the concert hall and on disc, thanks to several complete symphony cycles being undertaken in the UK by the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and, here in Birmingham, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Ilan Volkov, a regular guest conductor with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, is a passionate advocate form contemporary and modern music. His programmes with his current orchestra, the Iceland Symphony, and his previous one, the BBC Scottish Symphony, often consist entirely of such works.

The epic Birmingham Beethoven Cycle is a remarkable collaboration, in the 2012/13 season, between the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (who are performing all the symphonies), Town Hall Symphony Hall and a variety of outstanding artists including Leif Ove Andsnes, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Steven Osborne.

The works featured in this concert, composed in 1912 and 1941, might be considered rather old fare for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, but they remain as startlingly original today as they must have seemed back then. It was a pleasure to hear them in the brand new Elgar Concert Hall at the University of Birmingham in all its shiny, wooden splendour.

“The Beethoven Journey” is a remarkable collaboration between pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

In an era in which orchestras are supposed to have lost their distinctive 20th-century sounds, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig is one that retains its characteristic dark hue, with fascinating wind timbres that simply refuse to blend into a homogenised whole. And yet there is refinement and virtuosity to match the world’s best orchestras.