Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Symphony no. 8 in C minor, Op.65

At the George Enescu International Festival, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony plays music without consolation by Sibelius and Shostakovich. 

Karina Canellakis brings her Netherlands Radio Philharmonic to the Musikverein, joined by Emanuel Ax in Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. 

Early Beethoven doesn't convince, but Karina Canellakis’s rendering of Shostakovich 8 pulls no punches: raw, frightening, even chastening

Michael Seal, Boris Giltburg and the CBSO present an evening of glamour and horror, pairing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the unforgettable anguish of Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 8.

Nobuyuki Tsujii joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's ever-popular First Piano Concerto before Vasily Petrenko conducts a thrilling Shostakovich 8. 

Jurowski and Martin Helmchen underline how much Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 25 in C major looks forward to the “Jupiter” Symphony and to Beethoven. 

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the Dallas Symphony in a Sibelius tone poem and a Shostakovich symphony, both works of great tragedy.

Semyon Bychkov produces a gripping and soul-searching Shostakovich Eighth while soprano Elena Stikhina makes an impressive UK debut in Tchaikovsky.

In the second instalment of his Strauss and Shostakovich exploration, Payare directs the Ulster Orchestra in two hugely contrasting works premiered in times of conflict.

An enjoyable and vivid performance representing music spanning three centuries of history

A first performance of Weinberg for the NSO and a thoroughly fearsome Shostakovich Eighth.

Edge and bite in Bartók from Zimmermann, followed by intense but restrained Shostakovich from Valčuha and the Philharmonia.

Shostakovich's Eighth dominated another memorable City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra programme. 

One repressed, one who struggled, and one who got away: Jurowski, Andsnes and the Russian State Symphony delight with varied programme of Russian composers at the Konzerthaus.

Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony turn their attention to Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony in their ongoing series “Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow”. 

An austere yet emphatic Fidelio, focussed and detailed Schoenberg, followed by an affecting, powerfullly bleak Shostakovich Eighth Symphony from Jusrowski & the LPO.

The New York Philharmonic, under the baton of Jaap van Zweden, served an appetizing pairing: Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante was the hors d’oeuvre, and Shostakovich’s triumphant Symphony no. 8 was the entrée. 

With an artistic director forced to cancel in the middle of a weekend of concerts, duty called on his assistant conductor - and she clearly had done her homework.

Works from Magnus Lindberg, Prokofiev and Shostakovich set the tone for an exciting forthcoming season from the LPO.

The UK-Russian Cultural Year is launched in London by the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, in a programme of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. 

Once again, Gergiev drew the best from his musicians: fantastic woodwind solos, impressive brass calls, extreme nuances within the strings - and an extreme dynamic range.

There is not much in common between the symphonies of Schubert and Shostakovich, but tonight La Verdi drew together two more rarely heard examples of these works under a theme of “turning points”.

I find it difficult to remember the last time I attended a concert in which I was met with just about everything that I wanted to hear, settled alongside facets of performance that I hadn’t yet encountered. Perhaps tonight was, indeed, my first such experience.Thomas Søndergård’s rendition of Poulenc’s Gloria realised everything that I find I intuitively hope to hear from it.

What a wonderful season the BBC Symphony Orchestra is having. Adventurous, not fashion-conscious programming, and a crispness in the playing that is quite distinctive and utterly refreshing. And whoever had the idea to feature the works of Michael Tippett, in Britten’s centenary year, needs to be promoted.

Music works that have become popular over the ages are not necessarily the cleverest pieces, the most original works or even the most musically interesting. Instead, it is often music that affects the listener in a way beyond the expected that piques people's interest.