Plateosaurus processional in Hertford Bruckner Orchestra's exhilarating Beethoven

The refurbishment of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, has been completed and it is now, once again, a glorious concert venue, well suited to the performance of a Bruckner symphony. The audience sit in the nave, the orchestra in front of them with the substantial stone organ screen that separates the nave from the chancel as an evocative backdrop.

The Hertford Bruckner Orchestra is really quite an extraordinary phenomenon. It is an ensemble of mainly amateur musicians, centred round Hertford College, Oxford but involving players from the University, the city and elsewhere in the UK – founded principally to perform the symphonies of Anton Bruckner! His symphonies are rarely played outside the professional circuit, so the HBO welcomes anyon

The refurbishment of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, has been completed and it is now, once again, a glorious concert venue, well suited to the performance of a Bruckner symphony. The audience sit in the nave, the orchestra in front of them with the substantial stone organ screen that separates the nave from the chancel as an evocative backdrop.

The Hertford Bruckner Orchestra is really quite an extraordinary phenomenon. It is an ensemble of mainly amateur musicians, centred round Hertford College, Oxford but involving players from the University, the city and elsewhere in the UK – founded principally to perform the symphonies of Anton Bruckner! His symphonies are rarely played outside the professional circuit, so the HBO welcomes anyon

Die Jahrzehnte dauernde Rückkehr des Dirigenten nach Heidelberg avanciert zu einem ergreifenden, begeisternden Fest von Botschaft und Musik, mit dem er interpretatorisch weiter in fast eigener Liga spielt.

Chor und Orchester des Collegium Vocale Gent und ihr charismatischer Leiter Philippe Herreweghe, längst Legenden der historischen Aufführungspraxis, beweisen, dass die Doppelchörigkeit der Matthäus-Passion nicht nur ein Stereo-Phänomen ist.