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

Lorenzo Viotti and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra open Festa Summer Muza, Tokyo's equivalent to the BBC Proms, with an alluring programme of Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Works by Boulanger and Shostakovich pay off handsomely before Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, shaped with dynamic control and visceral energy, crowns a vividly played concert.

A new leader takes over that BSO's concertmaster chair that Malcolm Lowe occupied with distinction for more than three decades

The 37-year-old Hong Kong native brings her calling card, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, to colorful life during a conducting tour through the United States. 

Charlotte Corderoy impresses in her Cadogan Hall debut with a trio of 19th-century Russian classics, featuring pianist Martin James Bartlett playing Tchaikovsky.

The UK premiere of Dessner's Piano Concerto is followed by a lavishly gorgeous account of Scheherazade. 

Tianyi Lu draws on the individual and collective virtuosity of the LPO to make an impressive debut in Rimsky-Korsakov, while Tom Borrow underplays the imperial qualities of Beethoven's “Emperor” Concerto. 

Lera Auerbach's Icarus serves up lots of flavours without much meat, but the RSNO's new principal cello makes a first class soloist debut with them in Shostakovich.

Gerstein shows his virtuosic brilliance with speedy Rachmaninov while Jaime Martín and the NSO bring oriental magic to Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite.

On paper this looked entrancing: a French conductor with Armenian roots assaying a score of oriental splendour. It was the first half, however, with Dutilleux and Debussy that satisfied more.

An all-Russian programme from Alexander Malofeev and Dan Ettinger, held at the Teatro Politeama in Naples as the San Carlo is temporarily closed for refurbishment.

Sir Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia give fine performances of works by Rossini, Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov. 

On her Proms debut, Ariane Matiakh spins tales from The Arabian Nights in two versions, along with the world premiere of a harp concerto inspired by the life of bees. 

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is reunited with its former Chief Conductor for an all-Russian evening in Cheltenham Town Hall as the festival opens its 77th season.

A standard programme of overture, concerto and symphonic suite, but with mixed results: Kerem Hasan and the RPO bring out all the vibrancy in Rimsky-Korsakov whereas Fumiya Koido disappoints in Beethoven.

In Atlanta, conductor Robert Spano, mandolinist Avi Avital and composer Jennifer Higdon ignite fiery performances.

The orchestra's programme of French and Russian classics exploring the myths of the Mediterranean and Eastern worlds proves a hit on tour in New York.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted a never-better Philadelphia Orchestra in a program that also included a benchmark performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

Michael Schønwandt brings style to Scheherezade and Strauss, while Kirill Gerstein plays Ravel with lashings of Gallic élan.

It was in the return of the love theme that was initiated with the greatest delicacy that elevated the movement from the whimsical to the sublime.

Showcases of pure virtuosity by Denis Matsuev and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Leonard Slatkin, in performances of both Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade at Ravinia.

Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is every inch the warhorse asScheherazade, yet with Ott there was never a sense of routine.

Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall was plunged into luscious sunshine with music from across the Tropics. The first half was filled with the sounds of Latin America before a nautical Arabian tour.

Zubin Mehta and the Berlin Philharmonic have an extraordinary relationship lasting over five decades. In three performances in the Philharmonie, Mehta paired a piece from the core of his romantic repertoire with a new percussion concerto.

An evening of different musical flavours, but none, as yet, are quite distinctive on the palate.

Jakub Hrůša and Simon Trpčeski with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra impress at Lincoln Center with a programme of works from Central and Eastern Europe. 

A globally-connected journey of exoticism: Yu Long delivers with Scheherazade.

Gustavo Gimeno conducts a program anchored by Scheherazade as well as a cello concerto by Ginastera, featuring Cleveland Orchestra principal Mark Kosower.

Robert Spano led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra closed out its regular season with a thrilling Scheherezade.

Simon Trpčeski tackles a solo piano arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral masterpiece along with gentler Grieg and Mendelssohn. 

The latest concert in the LPO's “Changing Faces: Stravinsky’s Journeys” series focussed on storytelling of the symphonic kind. 

Thomas Søndergård's Scheherezade is overactive, but their concerto soloist is one of the family

After hearing three exhilarating and razor-sharp Philharmonia concerts this season under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jakub Hrůša, this performance with regular guest conductor Yuri Temirkanov felt decidedly “Old School”.

Under the indefatigable Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Orchestra took to the Cadogan Hall stage for the first of two colourful programmes pairing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov with his pupil, Igor Stravinsky.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by James Gaffigan, with two stellar soprano soloists, deliver a maritime-themed programme of pieces by Korngold, Anders Hillborg and Rimsky-Korsakov.

The Orchestre Pasdeloup contributes tales to the Philharmonie's Mille et une Nuits festival of music inspired by the Orient. 

Paul Jacobs bring Rouse's Organ Concerto to DC.

Lalo's sunny slice of Seville formed the centrepiece of a programme by the BSO and James Gaffigan that completely lived up to its seductive “Exotic Spice” billing.

Irish mezzo soprano Rachel Kelly joins the Ulster Orchestra in an evening of richly coloured orchestration and exotic flavour, conducted by Jac van Steen. 

Thrilling Franck, good clean fun in Rimsky-Korsakov and an impressive Berliner Philharmoniker debut from Nikolai Lugansky in Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody.

The Istanbulite audience of symphonic music made a huge step forward in their sound worlds thanks to BIPO and the piano duo Ufuk & Bahar Dördüncü.

Susanna Mälkki had another memorable outing with the CSO in coloristic works of Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov along with a Bartók violin concerto commanded by Gil Shaham.

Orchestral fairy tales and a Rachmaninov concerto make for satisfying fare at Symphony Hall, Birmingham.  

Harriet Krijgh and Gustavo Gimeno excel in their Liverpool debuts, and the RLPO earn a rapturous reception for a ravishing Scheherazade, destined to remain long in the memory. 

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov with Sunwook Kim and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

I’m not sure where Sinbad was sailing to in the St Petersburg Philharmonic’s Prom last night, but he sure wanted to get there in a hurry. A frenetic – and thrilling – performance of Scheherazade displayed great impetuosity. 

A double bill at the Birgitta Festival staged Scheherazade and the Polovtsian Dances, both performed in costumes and on sets based on the original designs dating from around 1910.

This was a concert that provided the opportunity for so many individual musicians to shine and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s shone brightly, showcasing its truly amazing talent. 

Thanks to wild talent of soloist and conductor, a strikingly new take on some familiar work and a standout concert in Houston Symphony's season so far.