Artikel von Mark Pullinger

Tamás Juronics choreographs the Concerto for Orchestra as a biographical ballet depicting a fragile Béla Bartók rising from his hospital bed.  

Its premiere postponed from Festival d'Aix last summer, Barrie Kosky's staging of Rimsky-Korsakov's political satire finally takes place in Lyon. 

Before the pandemic, it was easy to take concert-going for granted, that communal sharing of classical music. One day after the easing of lockdown, the London Symphony Orchestra returned to its Barbican home to play for an audience for the first time since 15th March 2020. 

In his busy Mariinsky schedule, Valery Gergiev squeezes in a visit to the Munich Philharmonic, joined by poetic pianist Seong-Jin Cho. 

With social distancing restrictions in place, many orchestras had to rethink their repertoire to continue performing during lockdown. Here are the most frequently programmed classical works during the pandemic streaming era. 

With Emmanuel Macron announcing a return to theatres and concert halls in May, the Orchestre de Paris plays for an exclusive – but silent – audience by the Seine.

Eine persönliche Reise durch Leben und Musik von Béla Bartók, von Erinnerungen an das Erlernen eines Instruments hin zu einem Orchester, das der Pandemie die Stirn bietet.

“Who's dead, you or the old man?” asks Leporello after Don Giovanni’s duel with the Commendatore. What if the answer was that they had both received fatal wounds?

Not one, but two piano concertos in the Malmö Live Konsertsalen, with a Finnish filling in Patrik Ringborg's Shostakovich sandwich.

In widescreen and under dramatic lighting, the London Philharmonic Orchestra gives gripping performances of music by Missy Mazzoli and Sibelius. 

Over a century after its premiere, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring still has the power to shock. Vasily Petrenko offers insights, while Tamara Rojo reflects on one of the most powerful choreographies, the version by Pina Bausch.

Manuel Legris, whom Nureyev appointed étoile in Paris in 1986, presents an evening of Nureyev choreographies in Milan. 

This is no Liederabend with singers taking their turn to file up to the piano. It’s a fully staged drama in which baritone Vladislav Sulimsky’s character reflects on his past loves and losses.

Krzysztof Urbański gives neat and tidy performances of three Tchaikovsky works with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, but are they a little too anaemic?

Marking the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky's death, Vasily Petrenko and Vladimir Jurowski discuss the influences of Rimsky-Korsakov on the young composer.

A family treat as Stravinsky's Firebird is played – and painted – in the Paris Philharmonie. 

The 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth is celebrated with a three-concert festival in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Corinna Niemeyer conducts the Orchestre de Paris, which had never played Poulenc's Concert champêtre before, and had only given one performance each of the Sinfonietta and Organ Concerto. Incroyable !

Bergamo’s Donizetti Festival was the opportunity “to give a signal that it’s still possible to stage opera and to do it well.”

Louise Farrenc bucked the trend by composing symphonies at a time when Paris had turned its back on the symphony.