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The Oxford Philharmonic offers uninspiring renditions Bach and Mendelssohn, highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of the orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. 

Oxford Lieder's theme may be 'Winter into Spring', but in Schubert’s Winterreise, snow lies deep throughout with nary a glimpse of warmer prospects.

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

With a cast of six and orchestra of seven, Waterperry Opera treats us to a new chamber opera, and one with music by Mozart.

The final day of Oxford Lieder's 80-event festival was framed by two recitals taking us from the world of German folklore andDes Knaben Wunderhorn, to the pain and drama of romantic entanglements. 

Had the piece been much longer, pianist, instrument, audience and hall would surely have been consumed by some Pentecostal fire. Which is more or less what the composer had in mind.

Here was singing and playing to live long in the memory.

Julius Drake’s torrential postlude capped an evening in which he had been superb throughout.

Jonathan Dove's witty Jane Austen chamber opera received a standing ovation from an ecstatic audience: quite the opening salvo for a brand new summer opera festival. 

Bampton’s “mission to rescue unjustly neglected classical period opera” is vindicated once again with a fresh, fun account of the near-lost original source for Rossini's La Cenerentola: Isouard's Cendrillon. 

Impeccable musicianship from the string soloists of the Oxford Philhamonic in stirring accounts of Brahms' String Sextet in G major and Strauss' Metamorphosen.

I suspect that we seek out many of the world’s great soloists beacuse we know what we will get, but we might well seek out Buniatishvili because we don’t.

Wet English summer weather may have driven Bampton's pacy revival of Salieri's wickedly funny La scuola de' gelosi indoors, but rain could not dampen the sheer fun ahead. 

Valery Gergiev's late withdrawal meant Marios Papadopoulos, music director of the Oxford Philharmonic, stepped into the Russian's shoes. 

Oxford may well be far from the coast, but it played host to a bracing French voyage last night at the Sheldonian Theatre.

Fifty years on, Argerich is still the legendary tigress of the keyboard, yet more besides.

An old instrument, a veteran star singer, and a late rose all bloom at Oxford's annual songfest.

High Romance in a small Midlands town: the Oxford Lieder Festival opening concert launches an enticing series.

Two little-known 18th-century operas are given inventive new productions featuring some promising young singers.

This small, fun, fast-paced comedy, probably the UK première of Salieri's neglected fairytale, makes for a glorious garden opera evening at Bampton (and touring). 

Christoph Prégardien's spacious account of Die Schone Mullerin displayed his characteristically radiant sound and instinctive musicality, but was marred by flaws as the song cycle progressed.

After Marios Papadopoulos' propulsive account of Brahms' Third Symphony, Nigel Kennedy joined the Oxford Philomusica to give an unpredictable and inconsistent performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto.

A world première of Gabriel Jackson's The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ proved an exciting event for those one hundred or so people who made the effort last Friday evening to attend the opening concert of the fifth Merton College Passiontide Festival.

Coupling Busoni's arrangements of Bach with Beethoven and Liszt with Mussorgsky, Paul Lewis's programme ranged from inward contemplation to thrilling drama. Despite his elegant lyricism and nuanced readings, the recital was slightly marred by some surprising technical flaws.

A rare performance of Bruckner's Overture in G minor introduces luminous Wagner and lively Beethoven from the Hertford Bruckner Orchestra. 

Maxim Vengerov began his residency with the Oxford Philomusica with a chamber recital accompanied by the orchestra's director Marios Papadopolous. This passionate concert was delivered with panache and a smile.

In his introduction to the programme, the orchestra’s Music Director Marios Papadopoulos says that it is the energy in Beethoven’s music which captures his attention, and this was certainly conveyed in the Oxford Philomusica’s performance of the piece.

The Carducci Quartet’s appearance in the Holywell Music Room marked the halfway point in the Oxford Coffee Concert’s Autumn series. This late-morning concert saw the ensemble pair two D major quartets, from 1781 and 1949. It was the latter which received the more convincing performance, with the quartet clearly more engaged with Shostakovich’s troubled utterance than Haydn’s lean textures.

After Renée Fleming was forced to withdraw due to a family emergency, soprano Sylvia Schwartz stepped in to perform with the Oxford Philomusica on the way to the Vienna Staatsoper. At just two days’ notice, Korngold, Zandonai and Leoncavallo were traded for Puccini, Verdi and Lehár.

It was by coincidence that Tuesday’s Oxford Lieder Festival concert fell on Johann Mayrhofer’s 226th birthday. The Austrian poet was second only to Goethe in the number of texts chosen by Schubert, and the programme was a selection of the composer’s settings from 1817-1824. The lieder chosen for the recital fell under two themes: songs based upon classical myth, and those inspired by nature.

The penultimate concert in a three-year project to record the complete songs of Hugo Wolf, this Oxford Lieder Festival concert’s programme was based around settings of Goethe.

With a last-minute change of conductor from the excitable Andris Nelsons to the more reserved Jac van Steen, one might have forgiven a not exactly revolutionary performance. Last night’s concert was meant to be the first half of Nelsons’ Brahms cycle with the Philharmonia in the Sheldonian Theatre, part of Music at Oxford’s series, but illness unfortunately prevented him from performing.

Oxford becomes much quieter outside of the university terms, and this was reflected in audience numbers for Saturday’s concert. Although the evening did not pan out as expected, those who were in the Sheldonian still came away having heard some brilliant performances.

Oxford’s Coffee Concerts are a perfect recipe for a slow-paced morning. Preceded by complimentary coffee in a nearby café or pub, the series brings chamber music to the historic Holywell Music Room and finishes in time to let the audience find a spot for Sunday lunch.

“The name Stradivarius had an air of magic to me.” Virtuoso violinist James Ehnes’ statement manages to capture the air of reverence which underpinned Friday’s Music at Oxford concert. The gala marked the opening of the UK’s first Stradivarius exhibition at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, and two violins from the exhibition were on temporary release for the evening.

Oxford May Music has been fusing arts and science for six years now. Thursday’s concert was evidence of this interdisciplinary ethos. Themed around “The Planets”, the evening combined a two-piano version of Gustav Holst’s suite with a talk by physicist Brian Cox.

Just a few weeks after the announcement that Oxford would be hosting the UK’s first major Stradivari exhibition this June, Maxim Vengerov gave a phenomenal performance on one of the Italian craftsman’s instruments. Performing on the ex-Kreutzer instrument made in 1727, Vengerov’s performance with the Oxford Philomusica was unforgettable.

Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre was nearly full for the concert on Thursday night. Billed “Russian Greats”, the programme mixed the familiar fare of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich with a world première by the Oxford-based composer Chris Garrard.

The refurbishment of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, has been completed and it is now, once again, a glorious concert venue, well suited to the performance of a Bruckner symphony. The audience sit in the nave, the orchestra in front of them with the substantial stone organ screen that separates the nave from the chancel as an evocative backdrop.

The level of anticipation for Saturday’s Oxford Philomusica concert was high, although not necessarily for the reasons you might expect: several minutes passed after tuning before the concertmaster emerged from the wings of Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. Although the Sheldonian may be somewhat lacking acoustically, the building’s grandeur more than makes up for it.

Oboist Christopher Redgate pulled a number of facts out of the bag in his pre-concert conversation with composer Michael Finnissy. The performance would see the newest oboe (the Howarth-Redgate model) played in Europe’s oldest concert hall (Oxford’s Holywell Music Room).

The theme of tonight’s concert, revealed the programme notes, was that of “marking time and preserving timeless values” – Christmas being a season that connects the past with the present.

Oxford Town Hall was certainly decked with boughs of holly for last night’s Christmas special. Featuring the twelve-piece Orchestra of St John’s and a carol-singing choir, the scene was set for a cosy evening away from the cold and drizzle outside. Maybe the best way to describe this concert is by comparing it to a festive CD.

With his centenary year fast approaching, Saturday night’s concert was a celebration of all things Britten. The festivities have certainly begun in style in Oxford, with Nicholas Cleobury leading the Oxford Bach Choir, the English Chamber Orchestra and soprano Elizabeth Atherton in some truly outstanding music-making.

Drawing names such as Sarah Connolly and Dame Felicity Lott to the dreaming spires, the Oxford Lieder Festival has defined itself as a leading musical exponent on an international level. It was fitting, then, that Alice Coote and Julius Drake should open the final weekend of the eleventh festival.

Handel’s Jephtha is an oratorio, rather than an opera. However, the story is one of high drama and emotion, and thus the work lends itself easily to operatic adaptation.

An introductory reading by local writer Philip Pullman was an appropriate introduction to the “Dusk to Dawn” concert, one of the last in this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival (themed “Fairytales and Fantasy”). The collision of a light-hearted surface with darker undertones was not just in Pullman’s retelling of the Grimm stories, but pervaded Artistic Director Priya Mitchell’s programming.

The Oxford International Piano Festival comprises a two-week long series of workshops and concerts, hosted by Oxford Philomusica and featuring pianists of international esteem, among them Andreas Haefliger and Sergei Babayan. It was Menahem Pressler, now in his 88th year, who gave the closing piano masterclasses and performed in the closing concert at the Sheldonian Theatre.

Mention the name 'Lulier' to even the most informed of Baroque music enthusiasts, and the chances are that they will be stumped.

After fifteen years of trying to persuade us that Byrd’s lesser-known works are just as worth listening to as the famous ones, I felt that the Cardinall’s Musick could have come up with a more exciting programme of his celebration of Easter.