Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Concerto in E flat major for chamber orchestra "Dumbarton Oaks"

Cavernous acoustics hamper individual lines in the latest concert in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's “Baroque and Beyond” series.

Aspiring young conductors literally have to face the music in a second half showcasing their skills, while their teachers kick off proceedings with chamber music presentations of Estonian composers. 

Exhilarating performances from The Philharmonia in a trio of Russian composers brought to life by Alpesh Chauhan, with Jess Gillam as a distinguished soloist.   

Stravinsky came off more like a distillation of Mozartian than Bachian abstraction and the musicians responded with glee to the music's circus atmosphere.

A performance meant to celebrate Stravinsky’s heritage proposed several works brimming with energy and wit that should be present in the concert life not only during anniversary seasons.

An ideal homage to the "Swiss Stravinsky" on the 50th anniversary of his death.

A slightly left-field American-themed programme gave Santtu-Matias Rouvali scope to explore, and excel, in the Philharmonia’s exciting return to the Royal Festival Hall.

Works by Stravinsky and Mozart launched this year’s Lucerne Festival, whose theme is “Childhood”.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet shines in Belfast, playing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major.

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. 

John Woolrich is a publically undervalued contributor to British musical life. This evening’s concert attempted to celebrate as many of the man’s musical guises as possible.

Stéphane Denève’s astute dramatic sensibilityis to the fore in dance-related Prokofiev, Poulenc and Stravinsky in Philadelphia.

Akin to medieval knights of old, the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes is on a quest called “The Beethoven Journey”. Collaborating with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, this stop on the journey in Dublin was enthralling.

I have come to look forward to the variety of repertoire often presented by Mark Eager and the Welsh Sinfonia, often mixing more familiar works with other, less-prominent compositions. This evening’s short and simple concert offered a programme in this very vein: four 20th- and 21st-century composers with somewhat different yet complementary styles.

The seemingly endless variety of conducting styles in existence intrigues me. This is particularly striking when one conductor displays three styles, in as many pieces, in a single concert. Joseph Swenson (Conductor Emeritus of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra) began this programme by guiding the SCO through Stravinsky's Concerto in E flat, 'Dumbarton Oaks' (1937).

It was hard to believe, listening to this evening’s Late Mix concert at the Sage, that three out of the four pieces played had in fact been substituted at the last minute after a soloist’s sudden illness meant that the original programme couldn’t be performed. Especially as all three pieces retained the spirit of adventure and exploration in which the Late Mix series specialises.

Due to the snow, I arrived to the Barbican too late to catch Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks. However I made it in time for the premiere of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Oboe Concerto (BBC/Borletti-Buitoni Trust co-commission).The concerto is a highly varied piece which displayed some interesting composition techniques and contained a difficult part for the oboe.