Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Rhapsody in Blue

Two works by Shostakovich sandwiching Rhapsody in Blue made for an exhilerating concert from the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Melbourne

The National Youth Orchestra of Germany end their UK tour in Edinburgh with playing of Technicolor brilliance and fearless confidence. 

Colourful Americana demonstrates the many strengths of the Sinfonia of London at the BBC Proms. 

A powerful enthusiasm for ideas links highly contrasting works by Ives, Gershwin, Zappa and George Lewis, in a thrilling evening conducted by Ilan Volkov.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin invites the Marcus Roberts Trio in place of a traditional soloist, and the group brings a freewheeling, improvisatory touch to Gershwin's masterpiece. 

The RLPO and their Chief Conductor start the new season with American swagger as Paul Lewis joins them for two jazz-infused piano works. 

Pianist Ray Ushikubo turns violinist in his star turn with the Kansas City Symphony and Thomas Wilkins. 

The season's first subscription concert celebrated the broad diversity of American music, focusing on composers and artists often excluded from concert halls in the past.

A round-robin of Philadelphia Orchestra soloists in the original jazz-band orchestration of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue provides an ideal partnership for pianist Aaron Diehl's elaborations on this iconic work. 

An evening in which the piano – in some cases two, in others three – took centre-stage with members of the Osokins family.

Daredevil piano playing and luscious Stravinsky at the 47th Istanbul Music Festival.

Works by Still and Ellington make their welcome appearance at Disney Hall, but the presentation left a bit to be desired. 

It was a concert of two halves for RSNO's Bernstein tribute.

In the year of the centenary of Claude Debussy's death, pianist Denis Kozhukhin gave a heady and colourful performance of music by Debussy and George Gerswhin, a composer deeply influenced by his French counterpart.

On 4th October, the Philadelphia Orchestra opened the Carnegie Hall season with an all 20th-century American program featuring George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

This unusual program had the unlikely pairing of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, for which Kirill Gerstein was a brilliant soloist. 

An engaging soloist, passionate conductor and fantastic orchestral playing made light work of a slightly lop-sided and overlong concert. 

Marin Alsop made belated subscription debut with the CSO Thanksgiving weekend with a varied program contrasting 20th and 21st century British and American works with Dvořák's tragic Seventh Symphony.

A packed Royal Albert Hall cheered as rocker-come-classical composer Eric Whitacre took to the stage for this Sunday matinee.

An action-packed, generous concert by the Orquesta Filarmónica de Mexico UNAM conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig at the Cadogan Hall.

In Amsterdam, Mariss Jansons conducts the Concertgebouw orchestra in a selection of six stunning rhapsodies for large orchestra.

Hitchcock’s Norman Bates meets Bartók’s death defying Miraculous Mandarin, by way of Schoenberg angular 12-tone Piano Concerto - with the odd man out being Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. 

The Philhamonia Zürich’s concert of great American orchestral and song music meant a magical mix of the familiar and iconic. 

An imaginative RSNO programme sandwiching fusionist Gershwin between unbelievably contrasting Shostakovich, seasoned with a little re-titling.

In a quiet backstreet just a couple of minutes’ walk from South Kensington underground station stands the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni. It is one branch of a global network that exists to promote cross-cultural dialogue and to showcase the best of French culture, be that through food, media, or music.

Friday evening’s concert in Sydney was one of the most entertaining concerts I have been to in a long time. The concert was entitled A Gershwin Tribute, but might just as well have been called A Gershwin Celebration, or perhaps evening A Gershwin Party. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra was on sparkling form under British guest conductor and pianist Bramwell Tovey.

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra are at once to be commended for colourful programming, and this evening’s concert was an excellent example of their facility in imagination. Tonight the audience dreamed with Debussy, swung with Gershwin, were lulled and bathed in the Spanish sunshine by Granados and, finally, blown from their seats and into the streets with Mussorgsky.