Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Symphony no. 2 in D major, Op.73

2025 Chopin Competition laureate and Massachusetts native Eric Lu makes his debut at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires. 

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

Joined by violinist Maxim Vengerov, the Hungarian orchestra, under Music Director Iván Fischer, is in top form in a program of three highly contrasting pieces. 

Berg's concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” is played with heart-melting beauty; David Afkham and the Orchestre national de Lyon offer pleasant, but unmemorable, Beethoven and Brahms. 

Polished playing and inspirational performances in Basingstoke that underline the exciting relationship between Mark Wigglesworth and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Heaven on Earth from Edward Gardner and Isabelle Faust in the latest in the LPO's ‘Moments Remembered’ series at the Royal Festival Hall. 

Aylen Pritchin is the star actor in the drama of Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto in Edinburgh's Usher Hall. 

Thomas Søndergård and the CBSO take a cool, cursory approach to music by Strauss, Thomas Adès and Brahms, resulting in an occasionally powerful but ultimately skin-deep performance. 

Even if Igor Levit is not quite in his wheelhouse with Brahms, the Vienna Philharmonic plays a home game in the second half with his D major symphony. 

Music by Elgar, Liszt and Brahms form an attractive and scrupulously prepared programme, delivered with great aplomb by Alpesh Chauhan and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Donald Runnicles demonstrates his superior musicianship in a warm, intelligently crafted reading of Brahms' Symphony no. 2 in D major, with Andrea Lam as a sensitive and reserved soloist in Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto.

Brahms’ Second Symphony leads on from where Rachmaninov’s most difficult concerto leaves off as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic presents a balanced programme under Domingo Hindoyan. 

The Hong Kong Philharmonic's performances of Brahms' Second and Fourth symphonies at City Hall prove acoustically problematic under chief conductor Jaap van Zweden. 

Nicola Benedetti dazzled in Szymanowski's Violin Concerto no 2 after the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder had impressed  with a colourful Fountains of Rome. Measured Brahms completed the programme.

Zubin Mehta, Siobhan Stagg and the players of the AWO were on top of their game in works by Webern, Debussy and Brahms, where the connections were as potent as the contrasts.

Expect the unexpected when Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO. There will always be something that works, and sharpens your musical sensibilities, and something that doesn't. Ligeti, Wagner and Jolas vie for attention with Brahms.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Filarmonica della Scalla boldly go into the Romantic repertoire, with mixed results.

The soprano is lifted to lyrical heights by the Filarmonia della Scala and Andrés Orozco-Estrada at the open air Wolkenturm on the final night of the festival. 

David Hill conducted the orchestra in a programme under the heading "Love Lost and Found".

Akiko Suwanai's perfect conception of Mozart, and a smiling Brahms Second from the Singapore Symphony and Mario Venzago.

Outstanding playing from soloist and Staatskapelle Dresden makes this a Prom to remember.

An evening of first-class music making from one of the UK's top orchestras in a varied programme that showed off the strengths of all concerned.  

Wagner and hard-driven Brahms counter a silky smooth performance of Weber's First Clarinet Concerto.

Hugo Wolf once said “Brahms cannot exult”. He should have heard this.

The Berlin Staatskapelle begins their three-concert Sydney series with a thrilling account of Brahms's first two symphonies in Sydney. 

Hrůša and the Bamberg Symphony produce Brahms of glorious warmth; Hans Abrahamsen's Let me tell you displays Barbara Hannigan at her most virtuosic.

On reaching the second instalment of his Brahms cycle, Vasily Petrenko brings a fresh breath of alpine air to Liverpool, while George Li impresses in Rachmaninov’s ever popular Second Piano Concerto.

Paavo Järvi and the Berlin Philharmonic in excellent renditions of seminal works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Lucerne Festival audience recently celebrated a superb solo performance by cellist Kian Soltani, the 2018 winner of the annual Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, who played with the Vienna Philharmonic.

A world première commemorating 9/11 and two works from the core German repertory performed by Paul Lewis and the BBC Philharmonic under Ben Gernon.

Italian sunshine and Austrian spring days evoked in a programmes containing two symphonies at the Royal Festival Hall. 

Bernard Haitink's annual visit to the Boston Symphony brought autumnal Brahms with the Second Piano Concerto and the Second Symphony.

On their return to Sydney, the Australian World Orchestra under Riccardo Muti offer a subdued reading of Brahms’ Symphony no. 2 and a thrilling account of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 4.

With Damrau, one hears every word and her account of Strauss' Four Last Songs was memorable. 

Riccardo Muti brought a Verdian quality to Brahms’ Second Symphony, adding a certain Italian volatility and declamatory grandeur to the music.

With Chung on the podium, the Filarmonica played with a spontaneity that brought Brahms' restless music to life.

If Principal Guest Conductor and Music Director Designate Thomas Dausgaard wore his array of conducting posts as a series of medals on the lapel of his tux, it would weigh him down considerably. 

An able interpreter of the Romantic repertoire, Emanuel Ax has an innate elegance of tone and gesture that make him an ideal interpreter of Mozart's D minor Concerto.

Igor Levit gave a splendid account of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 4 in G major, and a performance of Brahms' Second Symphony was played with enthusiasm by the visiting NDR Radiophilharmonie.

The Chicago Symphony make up for the loss of their city's other team earlier in the week, knocking one out of the ballpark in the heart of Los Angeles.

This was the second of Bernard Haitink’s Barbican appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra mostly drawing on the Austro-German orchestral tradition in electric and efficient perfromances. 

In music of Mahler and Brahms, David Afkham, a gifted young German conductor, was not afraid to bring forward a personal view

The conductor guided us on a tour through a museum where Erkki-Sven Tüür, Mozart and Brahms reside in spheres of different shades and spaces – and yet each remain enclosed in a prefigured structure.

A refined Emperor Concerto from Igor Levit complemented a welcome return to the LSO by Fabio Luisi, exuding calm control and infectious enthusiasm in Brahms' second symphony.

Stutzmann displays her customary thoughtfulness and musicianship in Beethoven and Brahms, while violinist Zorman and cellist Elschenbroich deliver a remarkably satisfying Double Concerto. 

The Slav pianist brings his informal vision of Bartók to Symphony Hall.

Rousing performances of Beethoven and Brahms from Karl-Heinz Steffens and the Philharmonia came either side of a polished, but slightly reserved, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker play Dvořák, Brahms and a UK première.