Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Elisabeth Leonskaja

A folk-centred programme delights Berlin's Konzerthaus under the conducting of Joana Mallwitz – with the special participation of soloist Elisabeth Leonskaja.

The contrasts in Brahms' two early piano quartets are highlighted by side by members of the Staatskapelle Streichquartett and Elisabeth Leonskaja.

The final event of the Ragged School Museum Festival saw a programme of Brahms and Shostakovich in the wonderful Victorian museum, tucked away at the heart of the East End.

Early and late Beethoven in the closing two recitals of Wigmore Hall's Beethoven Festival Weekend. 

A pair of A minor sonatas demonstrate the composer's evolution over his lifetime; the Wanderer Fantasy shows the pianist's mastery of phrasing.

The SCO’s strings play as though they had an insight into the composer’s psyche that few could share. 

With combined ages of over 150 years between conductor and soloist, there was no lack of experience on the platform for this Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert.

The last of the renowned ‘Soviet school’ returns to Sydney to play Mozart, where "every note had its own significance and direction".

Traditional August Bank Holiday weather – steady rain – was reflected in the melancholy programme for this lunchtime Chamber Prom.

An eclectic mix of Debussy, Mozart with the doyenne of the Russian school Elisabeth Leonskaja and the riddle that remains Shostakovich's final symphonic statement.

Elisabeth Lenoskaja's ability to execute a perfect phrase lights up a fine performance by the Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

Much-loved favourites wrapped around an assured early Beethoven piano concerto with Elisabeth Leonskaja.

There are some concerts where everything comes together, where the music is perfectly suited to the performers, and the hall is perfectly suited to their playing style. Last night’s concert at Saanen Church, in which Elisabeth Leonskaja joined Wojciech Rajski and his Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra to play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4, was just such an occasion.

Anyone looking for an evening of calm, reflective music would find they’d come to the wrong concert. It was rather like being granted a masterclass in how to represent the infinite nuances suggested by the performance direction “fortissimo”.

For a description of Elisabeth Leonskaja’s formidable and eloquent pianism I find myself drawn to the opening bars of Rachmaninov’s G sharp minor Prelude, given in this concert as an encore.

The popularity of mercurial Elisabeth Leonskaja amongst audiences has never been higher, perhaps because she is one of “the last of the great Russian school” (Sean Rafferty), a performer whose heritage links her to one of the greatest, her friend and mentor, Sviatoslav Richter. Her musical outlook is fiercely independent, and not always to everyone’s taste.