Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | BBC Singers

David Pountney's vernacular translation and Ruth Knight's vivid staging lent a thrilling immediacy to Shostakovich's chilling opera.

A programme heavily skewed to the balletic saw the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Josep Pons dispatch difficult passages with ease.

Adams, Rachmaninov and Berio are not three easy bedfellows, however Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra pull these strands together remarkably. 

The BBC's annual classical jamboree is launched in fine style with a premiere and a timely revival, conducted by Sakari Oramo. 

 Aaron Lifschitz directs contemporary circus artists, Circa in an exhilarating, ecstatic performance with the London Philharmonic to launch the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival. 

Sakari Oramo continues to champion rare English repertoire, conducting Doreen Carwithen and Malcolm Arnold at the Barbican. 

A BBC day of talks and concerts yields delight and revelation in equal measure. 

The exquisite ensemble of Aurora and BBC Singers in the intimate setting of Kings Place are reason enough to linger longer on earth.

From the chrysalis of a Broadway play and then to film, David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly turns full cycle into an opera by composer Huang Ruo. 

After nearly axing the ensemble last year, the BBC celebrates 100 years of the BBC Singers with a rapturously received programme. 

Kirill Petrenko conducts a magesterial account of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony after a trio of motets by the BBC Singers. 

Chant, Scottish culture and Judith Weir are the focus for this latest BBC Singers programme.

Sir Simon Rattle ends his tenure as Music Director of the LSO with a cry for liberty and arguably the greatest of all farewell symphonies.

The popular Finnish-Ukrainian conductor brings music from Finland and Ukraine to launch the 2023 Proms season, including Sibelius' rarity, Snöfrid. 

Expertly delivered Rachmaninov from Sofi Jeannin and the BBC Singers, with wild virtuosic instrumental and vocal displays from Abel Selaocoe. 

The Barbican and BBC welcome the Finn to the exclusive pantheon of the order of “Total Immersion” – a full day devoted to the music of a single living composer. 

Rarely does a concert entirely devoted to a big Mahler Symphony later acquire a second half, let alone one containing just twenty minutes of a cappella singing. 

A fascinating new companion piece to Elgar's Enigma Variations, from 14 contemporary composers, in celebration of Martyn Brabbins' 60th birthday, performed with enthusiasm by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Canellakis is an elegant conductor who invests so much in the music and inhabits its lilts and thrills with her whole demeanour.

Gimmicks galore in this genre-hopping spectacle from the BBC Singers and world music fusion band Kabantu.

This final concert of the BBCSO’s Total Immersion day dedicated to György Ligeti, proved to be something a revelation, both in terms of the variety of the music and the quality of the performances.

The BBC Singers sounded as ecstatically joyful in the first three parts of Bach's seasonal offering in Chelsea. 

Berlioz was well served in a performance that rose to heights of inspiring dignity and devotional beauty.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's First World War opera both moves and dazzles at the Barbican.

New conductor Sofi Jeannin delights with her fresh thinking on choral concerts.

English choral classics from 100 years ago, contrasted with a confident and effective new piece by Laura Mvula, all given strong performances by the BBC Singers and Sakari Oramo.

Jake Heggie's spectacular vocal writing combine with Terence McNally's perfectly paced libretto to provide intense music drama which forces you to confront darkness.

It's a rare treat to hear Spanish opera in London; Josep Pons and the BBC SO made a worthy case for hearing Falla’s El amor brujo and Granados’ Goyescas more often.

An intriguing programme marked by diversity and novelty from two world-beating ensembles. 

The effervescent conductor took six little-known Czech works into another ether: one in which the footprints are invisible.

Judith Weir's dramatic new choral work receives a convincing world première from David Hill and the BBC Singers at Southwark Cathedral. 

Semyon Bychkov turned in a magisterial account of Mussorgsky's rugged score, aided and abetted by some strong vocal performances.

English National Opera join with the BBC Singers to make Royal Festival Hall debut.

Five years after the composer's death, his musical collaborator David Murphy ensures that Shankar's only operatic work finally gets heard.

At the Barbican last night, Gerald Finley, John Adams and the BBC Symphony Orchestra combined to deliver the heaviest operatic punch I’ve been subjected to all year.

Put Sakari Oramo in front of the BBCSO and invariably something magical happens. This concert included rare repertoire from two of Oramo's favourite Scandinavian composers. 

An excellent performance of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s The Last Supper receiving its Scottish première, with Roderick Williams and Susan Bickley heading a luxury cast.

The 2016 Proms come to a riotous close at the Royal Albert Hall.

This Late Night Prom was a fitting way to remember the man. Such events draw a lighter scattering of musical night owls, minimising the hall and allowing for meditative concentration.

Karita Mattila produces a star turn in the title role, but a pure concert staging does little to bring out the cleverness of the libretto of Janáček’s Makropulos Case.

The ultimate musical misnomer, Rossini's last major work is beautifully sung in the wonderful surroundings of the Chapel of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

A lush programme of Fauré, Stravinsky, and Poulenc is let down by Minkowski's erratic conducting, but is partially redeemed by two of France's fastest rising singers.

A youthful Bellini opera able to stand on its own two feet? Perhaps not, as Adelson e Salvini gets the Opera Rara treatment. 

A programme of personal choices curated by George Benjamin in collaboration with Oliver Knussen – that didn’t quite hang together but with two UK  premières it was a fascinating evening. 

In spite of the not insignificant problems, Opera Rara are utterly convincing that Leoncavallo's Zazà is a work that should be seen and heard more often.

Flags, balloons and musical revelry bring the BBC Proms season to a close. 

How to compare Nielsen and Ives? Possible similarities aside, however, the impact of their work is, on the whole, wildly contrasting.

Stimulating sounds from the Academy of Ancient Music in late night Bach at the Proms. 

A packed Royal Albert Hall cheered as rocker-come-classical composer Eric Whitacre took to the stage for this Sunday matinee.

For modern ears, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy is a curious beast, a hybrid of orchestral, concertante and choral genres and thus quite difficult to programme in a regular concert.