Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Symphony no. 1 in C minor, Op.11

The first of three concerts in a Mendelssohn cycle sees Sir András Schiff and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment tackle the composer's First and Fourth Symphonies, preceded by the Piano Concerto no. 1.

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra excels in a concert of works by youthful composers, with Rafał Blechacz playing Chopin. 

Jump-in concerts can occasionally advance career prospects. Jonathan Bloxham with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen demonstrated the lightness of Mendelssohn in C minor but seriously underplayed the darkness of Schubert in B minor.

In a vibrant Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra program, two repertoire staples were paired with an early Mendelssohn symphony that deserves to be better-known.

The Incontri in terra di Siena festival's incoming artistic director, Alessio Bax, goes down a storm with Beethoven's "Emperor".

Shakespeare's Nick Bottom, who claimed “a reasonable good ear in music” would surely have approved of these performances at the Barbican Hall.