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In the first of four Schumann recitals, the regular duo partners treat a packed Wigmore Hall to a glorious evening of Lieder. 

The Monteverdi Choir and Dinis Sousa bring a fresh perspective to a performance of Brahms' German Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Andreas Schager is the main reason to catch the latest revival of Otto Schenk's ultra-traditional Tannhäuser.

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO give an orchestral performance to remember, with a fine singing cast, but Simon McBurney's staging dials the bleakness to maximum too early.

A potent rendering of Alban Berg's tale of the traumatised and impoverished war veteran.

The German baritone and his frequent recital collaborator perform tragic evocations of insanity in Lenau settings with intense impact.

Soloists Klaus Florian Vogt, Christian Gerhaher, Amber Wagner and Marina Prudenskaya star in Act 3 of Tannhäuser.

The Bayerische Staatsoper's revival of a controversial production containing Georg Baselitz’s artwork succeeds with strong musical performances led by veterans of Wagnerian operas.

The pleasure of Gerhaher’s comforting persona and his instinctive convergence with Huber’s pianism won over the Wigmore Hall audience – as they invariably do.

Following success in New York and Madrid, Oropesa gives Covent Garden a Violetta that will be difficult to better.

Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck’s Notturno is the rarity in an imaginative chamber recital dedicated to nocturnal music and transfiguration.   

A superb cast of singers is let down by Christoph Marthaler's cold, stilted staging as Reimann's Lear returns to its birthplace.  

Despite extraordinary legato singing and transparent text work, Christian Gerharer offered an oddly mannered interpretation of the Rückert-Lieder.

The German baritone was as extraordinary as ever in a programme with Robin Ticciati and the BRSO in Munich.

A programme of Schubert and Berg Lieder are sung with ultimate mastery, albeit the programme goes long on melancholy and short on variety.

Soloists and choir, headed by a spellbinding Christian Gerhaher, brought real lustre to Schumann’s treatment of Goethe’s magnum opus.

An exquisitely matched pair of sopranos as Susanna and the Countess make up for some quirky casting elsewhere. 

Whether one prefers more raw emotion and large-scale architecture or is thrilled by perfectly sculpted individual masterpieces, this was undeniably chamber music of the highest order.

Huber’s morbid piano here was chilling and pointed the way to a harrowing finale that never quite materialised.

Instead of telling a story of spiritual enlightenment and ultimate redemption through faith, Pierre Audi's reading is bereft of mystery and magic.

Berliner Philharmoniker’s interpretation of Das Paradies und die Peri reaches for the heavens. 

Heinz Holliger’s Lunea, which recently premiered at the Zurich Opera House, is “not an opera”, or so the ground-breaking Swiss composer contends.

Rattle and the LSO give hundreds of moments of individual brilliance in this most symphonic of song cycles, but with both soloists giving grounds for reservation.

Christian Gerhaher’s experience in a role he knows well rescued an evening of mitigated pleasures.

Close to the start of this summer’s Lucerne Festival, Bernard Haitink conducted an outstanding performance of Mozart and Mahler works that span the centuries.

High Romance in a small Midlands town: the Oxford Lieder Festival opening concert launches an enticing series.

Christian Gerhaher demonstrates an extraordinary range of vocal colours in settings of biblical psalms and High Romantic poetry.

Bernard Haitink’s musical insight and interpretative genius continues to mature like a vintage Château Pétrus.

The RCO marked the investiture of Daniele Gatti as its seventh chief conductor with a sampler programme featuring Mahler, opera, and an expansive, glittering version of Respighi’s Fountains of Rome.

Bach in morbid mood and valedictory Bruckner brought to life by young musicians under the baton of Philippe Jordan

The multinational Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra proves that adolescence is no barrier to maturity in profound symphonic music making.

Tim Albery's 2010 production of Tannhäuser, receiving its first revival at Covent Garden, begins with a stylish opening 20 minutes, but thereafter things become rather bland. 

Daniel Harding's love for Schumann's genre-defying work brought some strong playing from the LSO and deeply moving singing from his soloists and chorus.

Gerhaher's glorious rendition of Mozart arias and the crisp sound of the FBO made for a delightful evening. 

A bright evening of the "Mozart Effect" series somewhat dulled by a bizarrely structured programme.

A roster of star performers and a sprinkling of maestro magic turn this semi-staged concert into a memorable event. Shame about the big ideas.

A stormy evening in New York was a perfect setting for an intimate and unforgettable lieder recital by the two long-term collaborators at the top of their game.

The plot revolves around the daily life of a simple German town. But this fine production will make you glad that this is not your story.

The Vienna Philharmonic, the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Diana Damrau and Christian Gerhaher present a sublime Brahms Requiem on a snowy Sunday afternoon. 

Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber make of an evening devoted to the songs of Maher an experience hard to do justice to in words.

The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in collaboration with Peter Sellars, brings their superb dramatic performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion to New York.

Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic give a unique and hugely poignant performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, staged by Peter Sellars.

Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber leave the audience speechless in Madrid with an all-Schumann recital in an evening that will not easily be forgotten.

If this first song recital of the season is any indication of the level we can expect at the Konzerthaus, lovers of Lieder are in for a real treat. Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber set the bar very high last night in a hefty program including Schumann’s Dichterliebe and a dozen other songs, a set of Fauré, and the world première of a song cycle by Jörg Widmann.

With all the attention rightly focused on the demise of the Minnesota Orchestra and the New York City Opera, it would be easy to believe that the musical arts are in dire straits in America. In some ways they are. But from the funding rubble of the financial crisis new groups and new facilities are sprouting too.

The Berliner Philharmoniker may be the world’s business-savviest orchestra. From the handsome program booklets printed on thick, color-rich stock (3€ instead of the customary 2€), to the Sony-sponsored Digital Concert Hall (where one can buy “tickets” to access past and present BP videos), even down to the gold trim on my ticket, this orchestra amply demonstrates its awareness of its reputation as

Among the audience at Thursday night’s Philadelphia Chamber Music Society recital, it seemed few had heard of baritone Christian Gerhaher. They had come for the excellent reason of András Schiff playing the piano. But by the end of the evening it was clear that neither name would be soon forgotten.

My last opera of the year was also my first Wagner: a new Covent Garden production of Tannhäuser, directed by Tim Albery and conducted by Semyon Bychkov.First things first: Bychkov was magnificent.