What to put with Beethoven's greatest statement on the universality of the human spirit? The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Sakari Oramo, Neil Ferris and Andreas Haefliger make a case for renewal.
A happy occasion as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Sixteen and Genesis Sixteen with Harry Christophers conducting in the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Fifth Symphony at the Edinburgh International Festival.
In an all-Rachmaninov evening, Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra open the 2019 festival with a brilliant exploration of the relation of music to power.
Barrie Kosky’s visually stunning and very finely sung Eugene Onegin from Komische Oper reaches Edinburgh, a triumphant showcase for soprano Asmik Grigorian.
To read this review in the original English, click here.Дон Кто? Лучше всего забыть о Сервантесе, когда речь идет о балете «Дон Кихот», особенно о постановке Алексея Фадеечева трехлетней давности, впервые показанной в театре Ковент-Гарден в 2016
Painting pictures in music can often be stimulating. In a programme inspired by the sea and by pictorial art, Elim Chan, Catriona Morison and the BBC NOW reveal the underlying colour.
Calum Robertson’s clarinet, Anna Michels piano and Sally Carr’s soprano capture the charm of contemporary Scottish compositions, and introduce Lori Laitman’s soulful new work.
A new, successful production by Leiser and Caurier supports a great cast of Rossini specialists, with Teresa Iervolino, Paolo Bordogna and Davide Luciano in the lead roles.
A fascinating new companion piece to Elgar's Enigma Variations, from 14 contemporary composers, in celebration of Martyn Brabbins' 60th birthday, performed with enthusiasm by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
There was vibrancy and subtlety in these cultured performances of Schubert and Lutosławski, with Martha Argerich still showing how it’s done with ‘that’ Tchaikovsky concerto.
A dramatic setting in Davos was the backdrop to both a premiere of an compelling work recently commissioned by the Davos Festival and a Schubert masterpiece.
There were no unorthodox interpretations in this program, which featured The Cleveland Orchestra’s associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee in Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, just excellent, straightforward music making.
Using the misogyny and violence of Rigoletto to hold up a mirror to contemporary corruption, Lindy Hume's production overcomes its inconsistencies with a vivid blend of theatrical and musical values.
When two internationally acclaimed sopranos, two internationally acclaimed mezzos, a brilliant world-renowned conductor, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the music of Richard Strauss align all the elements of a magnificent, thrilling evening have gelled.
Robert Carsen's riotous production of Rinaldo returns to the Sussex Downs, a schoolboy fantasy colliding crusading knights with St Trinian's bad girls.
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.
Mezzo Joan Busby, bass Brian Bannatyne-Scott with pianist Walter Blair and reader Joshua Manning in a delightful wildlife soirée at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The War of the Romantics – Brahms v Wagner – from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nathalie Stutzmann, followed by an energetically powerful Mozart Requiem with the BBC National Chorus of Wales on fine form.
As he does when his spirit is most honestly invoked, Schumann spoke directly across the ages through Moraguès and Pinto-Ribeiro, and in the process allowed the two musicians to reveal the dimensions of their own love for music.
Malcolm Arnold’s overture Peterloo presents the tragic events of the beginnings of the trade union movement. The melodramatic tragedy of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake closes the evening, after Juan Pérez Floristán makes his Proms debut.
The Takács Quartet performed quartets by Beethoven and Mozart with insight and energy. Pianist Jeremy Denk joined the ensemble in Dohnányi’s lushly romantic Piano Quintet.
Francesca Zambello sets the whole opera as a flashback, showing, during the prelude, the heroine surrounded by doctors and nurses in a sanatorium for patients dying from tuberculosis.
Eldar Nebolsin, Corey Cerovsek and Gary Hoffman did not completely answer whether Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio is chamber music that wants to be a ballet score or vice versa, but the intoxicating beauty of their playing banished all doubts of whether the answer mattered.
Andrey Boreyko’s Blossom Music Center program included Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto with Francesco Piemontesi and a rare but convincing performance of Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau.
