Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Don Quixote, Op.35

Gustavo Gimeno leads the Toronto Symphony in a programme of absorbing musical abstraction and storytelling, let down by a banal new trombone concerto.

Hans Graf and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's evening of Richard Strauss showcases the German Romantic's enormous emotional range.

The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder bring details and affection to Strauss' Don Quixote and Elgar's second symphony.

Husband and wife join together with the Ulster Orchestra in Ulster Hall, at the beginning of a year-long féile pairing the music of two twentieth-century giants of symphonic repertoire. 

The US première of Jörg Widmann's Partita featured alongside Mozart and Strauss in Andris Nelsons' carefully chosen program.

Rafael Payare, in his first appearance with the RPO, has musical encounters with Don Juan and Don Quixote, and a Mozart symphony provides a suitable contrast.

Barenboim's strangely blank Strauss thankfully led to a thrilling Tchaikovsky 5 in tribute to Jacqueline du Pré.

François-Xavier Roth conducts sparkling, refreshing accounts of Debussy, Schumann and Strauss in the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln season-opening gala.

Outstanding solos, orchestral discipline and novelties in musical arrangement made for another quality symphonic experience from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Last night in Sweden: Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra make a performance of Strauss' Don Quixote to remember at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Sir Andrew Davis also led superb performances of Delius’ Brigg Fair and Strauss’ Don Quixote, with Mark Kosower and Wesley Collins as soloists.

Tonight's concert featured an international array of artists, but was held together with a heavy dose of Spanish flavour.

The world première of Giya Kancheli’s Nu.Mu.Zu is the blow-your-socks-off highlight of an evening that includes colourful playing of Falla and Strauss.

Veteran conductor Walter Weller failed to bring two German masterpieces to life, despite some gorgeous playing from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Despite Richard Strauss' few connections with Leipzig, the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly offered a vivdly characterized tribute to the composer on his 150th anniversary, from an affectionate Don Quixote to a witty - and furiously paced - Till Eulenspiegel. 

Maurizio Pollini, Caudius Popp, and Felix Schwarz shine in an evening of Strauss and Brahms with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin. 

The program was dubbed “Romance at the Phil”, but the music presented was hardly the sort to set lovers’ hearts aflame. It could even said to be a touch staid. There was Mendelssohn and Mozart in the first half. Richard Strauss is closer to the mark – this is the composer of Salome, after all – but it was his jovial Don Quixote that closed out the night.

Canada has been taking an active role to build concert programs featuring its own musical talents. One proponent organization of this is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Led by a team of dedicated administrative individuals, volunteers and musicians, the TSO provides an indispensable platform to showcase our Canadian talents to the community at large.

At what age is it time for a conductor to gracefully hand on his baton and stop polishing his concert shoes? André Previn last night appeared on stage at the Barbican in a pair of very shiny shoes indeed, but they didn’t help him onto the rostrum any quicker.