Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | 1812 Festival overture in E flat major, Op.49

The CBSO’s newly-announced Chief Conductor delivers a jaw-dropping season opener featuring French and Russian music full of emotional contrasts.

A questionable performance of Schumann's Violin Concerto was redeemed by lively interpretations of Beethoven's Third Symphony and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

Rachmaninov's The Bells proved the highlight of Prom 43, with fabulous soloists and huge choral forces who stole the show in the third movement.

Having resoundingly declared not two weeks ago that I had never seen the CBSO perform so well, I am forced to admit that the orchestra have once again outdone themselves.

The Hollywood Bowl’s annual “Tchaikovsky Spectacular with Fireworks” has become, along with Labor Day, something of a marker denoting the unofficial end of summer in Los Angeles. When bidding farewell to summer, one may as well do so with a bang—in this case both figuratively and literally. Tchaikovsky. Fireworks.

The moment I walked into the Avery Fisher Hall on Monday night, a pervasive air of festivity was palpable – the players in the orchestra wore white jackets, lighting was colourful and the audience was chatty.

I have to confess that an event like this is not within my normal musical radar. My music reviewing and listening is predominantly serious classical, and most of it is for a specialist part of that wide repertoire. So it was a slightly brave, or foolhardy, idea to offer to review one of these musical spectaculars at my local castle.

Une programmation cohérente et originale, une prestation imparfaite mais sincère, des idées nouvelles : le concert Empereur de l'ONDIF, avec ses trois campagnes napoléoniennes, fut un concert intelligent.