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Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Met Orchestra emerge from their orchestra pit onto the stage of Carnegie Hall last Thursday to strut their considerable stuff as a star attraction.

Conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Latvian Andris Poga reveals a surer hand in Shostakovich's final symphonic statement than in the partnering of Nina Stemme in Wagner, where her big voice often missed the essential intimacy.

The final date in their recital tour brought the Norwegian soprano and pianist to London for a programme where Grieg outshone Strauss and Wagner.

The Scottish conductor held the podium and the piano bench in an expansive program that included Wagner, Britten, Debussy and the Georgia-based composer Carlos Simon.

A deep-dive into the world of 14th-century Persian poet, Hafez, and his influence on song across the centuries. 

Forget powerhouse “hojotohos” and sandblasting brass. Elīna Garanča and Christian Thielemann offered more intimate portraits of these composers at the Großes Festspielhaus.

In the second concert of the new season, maintaining the highest musical standards, the Ulster Orchestra flourish in a highly considered programme.

Katya Apekisheva and friends made a persuasive case for Hummel's Piano Quintet to be heard as a transitional grand romantic concerto deserving of belonging in such august company.

With Malcolm Martineau, the Latvian mezzo delivered poise and polish and transcendent Rückert Lieder. 

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, with their Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes and the British soprano Emma Bell, embrace the cause of Wagner and Bruckner in the heart of the Mediterranean.

Awkard programming but fine musicianship from the Nash Ensemble and Christine Rice as part of its 'German Romantics' series.

The New Zealander Heldentenor makes a welcome return to Auckland for Wagner's erotic song cycle. 

Continuing its interesting series “Myths and Fairytales”, the Royal Philharmonic gave colourful interpretations of the Hänsel und Gretel overture and Peer Gynt.

In Wagner and Strauss, the beauty and power of Mattila's voice, still fresh and flexible, left the audience reeling in a recital that was a showcase for technique and artistry.

A stunning Sieglinde from Mattila eclipses Kaufmann's restrained Siegmund; Pappano conjures exceptional detail and drive from the LSO.

Migros Kulturprozent Classics recently treated the Zurich audience to a triple bill of distant musical cousins: Rossini, Wagner and Rachmaninov.

An ambitious new Austrian symphony is dwarfed by the proven might of Wagner and Strauss in the BBC Symphony Orchestra's latest Prom.

Bryan Hymel and Irene Roberts explored the boundaries of love in the latest splendid performance in the Rosenblatt Recitals.

If ever there were a voice that required the big hall of the Musikverein, it would be that of Nina Stemme. 

Being a chamber orchestra doesn't stop Royal Northern Sinfonia and guest conductor-performer Christian Lindberg from tackling Wagner and Sibelius. 

A supremely entertaining and highly descriptive Symphonie fantastique from Lothar Koenigs and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Christine Brewer close Wagner bicentenary celebrations at the Barbican by showing his influence on Strauss, Webern and Berg on December 20th.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Yannick Nézet-Séguin score personal triumphs with l’Orchestre Métropolitain in their first concert together in thirteen years.

In his 2011 book Verdi and/or Wagner, currently doing the rounds in libraries across the UK for obvious reasons, Peter Conrad devotes the best of 400 pages to essentially draw all sorts of divisive lines: the sensual Italian song versus the cerebral German symphony; the radically different conceptions of tragedy (“Tragedy in Wagner is an act of will […] Verdi’s characters, unlike Wagner’s, would p

There are few London venues that manage to combine a real sense of intimacy with an international roster of artists quite as well as Julius Drake’s concert series at Middle Temple Hall. In this recital he was joined by German soprano Annette Dasch for a programme that began with a complete performance of Schumann’s Kerner Lieder.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra's arrival at the Proms with their musical director Yannick Nézet-Séguin was popular, selling out seats and drawing a full arena crowd. There was an atmosphere of anticipation for a famously enigmatic conductor and a colourful programme. The concert didn’t disappoint with its marriage of Tchaikovsky and Wanger, and the cryptic Symphony No.

This concert, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth, opened with that composer’s most influential phrase – the beginning of the prelude to Tristan und Isolde wherein the Tristan chord, which is reputed to have had such an unsettling effect on the harmonic language of all who followed, first stole upon the ears of 19th-century music lovers.

Little-known fact no. 1: Antonio Pappano made his conducting debut at the Norwegian National Opera, conducting La Bohème in 1987.Little-known fact no. 2: Antonio Pappano was music director of the Norwegian National Opera in the early 90s.These are probably big reasons as to why he chose to come to this part of the world to celebrate his 25th anniversary as a conductor.

The orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House rarely gets out of its pit, but when it does, it plays at Carnegie Hall. Carnegie has a rather different acoustic to the Met – much more closely-held, much more intense – and its unforgiving glare occasionally presented one challenge too many for the MET Orchestra. Still, they acquitted themselves well in this matinée.

Juanjo Mena launched the BBC Philharmonic’s season with an all-Wagner programme which, despite some small faults, featured some excellent playing.The main issue was soprano Brigitte Hahn’s projection, particularly in the Götterdämmerung finale.

Strauss’ Don Juan has a long tradition as one of the Vienna Philharmonic’s more dazzling curtain-openers but a recent tendency, even with Gustavo Dudamel, who conducted this work with the orchestra last autumn, has been for more subdued accounts which downplay the brilliance and virtuosity of the orchestral writing.

Two of the world’s most sought-after opera singers giving Lieder recitals on the same night. The kind of painful choice which Viennese musical institutions and their chaotic schedules throw up all too regularly. I went for Nina Stemme over Jonas Kaufmann on the basis that she gives fewer solo recitals, despite harbouring reservations about how her big voice would fare in this repertoire.