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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. 

An all-day Beethoven experience European style with both highs and lows: much diversity revealed and exploited but of variable quality.

Fingers and bows fluttered through dance-like figures and virtuosic passages packed with trills with astonishing clarity and brilliance.

This was a rapturous celebration of creative instrumentation, virtuosity and brilliance that completely engaged and energized.

The Singverein and Akademieorchester were joined by Swedish soprano Malin Hartelius and Florian Boesch for Brahms' German Requiem.

Jean Sibelius is purported to have written part of his Symphony no. 5 after having witnessed a large flock of swans take flight from his home in rural Finland. Whether this story is apocryphal or not, the “swan theme” has become part of the Western musical subconscious, with quotations showing up in jazz and pop music for much of the last century.