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An American conductor in charge of music from the New World: a world premiere by Augusta Read Thomas and Charles Ives' celebrated "place pieces" set the scene for a symphony bathed in nostalgia and memories of the Old World.

The Junction Trio offered thrilling performances of an eclectic program of Zorn, Ives and Beethoven. 

David Hill took the helm as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra opened its account with arrangements of Bach and Mahler, an Ives masterpiece and an ebullient Beethoven 7.

From Fauré and Duparc to Barber, Ives and Copland, the Canadian bass-baritone and Julius Drake explore a range of song.

Dudamel starts off the inaugural concert in the LA Phil’s Ives symphony cycle. 

The Boston Symphony Orchestra offered a reading of Beethoven's “Pastoral” Symphony that ideally suited the bucolic surroundings.

It's possible to have nothing but admiration for Mark Morris as a choreographer, yet his actual dances I often find pedestrian with a limited vocabulary. The works are interesting to see once, to see what he can do with classical music that has no obvious dance rhythms, but I rarely want to see them again.

Plenty of mustard with Ives' beguiling Americana and intelligent Beethoven from Kirill Gerstein.

MTT was back in Los Angeles for another spell as guest, this time bringing to local audiences one of his specialties of the house. 

In a failed mash-up, the Houston Symphony performed only the first movement (the three-minute “Prelude: Maestoso”) of Ives’ Fourth Symphony and continued attacca into the 80 minutes of Mahler's "Resurrection."

The Minnesota Orchestra’s visit offered a chance to hear Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and Ives’ Symphony no. 2, though the former suffered somewhat from an absence of spark.

A programme of new music and 20th-century classics reflects on loss, war, inhumanity and redemption. 

Dudamel led the Vienna Philharmonic in an impassioned Ives Second but lacked the precision and control to achieve the full dramatic effects of Tchaikovsky's Fourth.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, joined by cellist Gautier Capuçon, presented modern, post-war masterworks in their first of two nights in Stern Auditorium.

A quartet of American composers drew some notable performances from the London Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Southbank Centre’s Belief and Beyond Belief series. 

Mixed results in Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s weighty program of Kodály, Ives, and Strauss alongside the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Baiba Skride. 

Paul Jacobs was a brilliant soloist in Copland’s unjustly neglected Symphony for Organ and Orchestra.

Ives, Beethoven and Rachmaninov rounding off the season in full-blooded performances by the LSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Under the baton of Jan Latham-Koenig, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra rendered a diverse programme in Leeds.

Jonathan Scott, John Wilson and the BBC Philharmonic presented a thrilling concert of American organ solos, orchestral music and Copland's glorious Organ Symphony.

The stark aesthetic contrast between Ives’ Symphony no. 4 and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 led to an evening of music that was diverse, challenging and very entertaining.

More than today’s expert on Brahms, Ax promotes a revolutionary approach to the soloist persona: the soloist who is a chamber musician first and a diva second. 

Dohnányi offers hugely satisfying interpretations of varied programme at the Southbank Centre with the Philharmonia and Carolin Widmann.

How to compare Nielsen and Ives? Possible similarities aside, however, the impact of their work is, on the whole, wildly contrasting.

Another low-energy second half let down a strong first in the San Francisans' second appearance at the Proms under Michael Tilson Thomas.

Although Michael Tilson Thomas's reading of Mahler's First Symphony left a little to be desired, Jeremy Denk joined them for an utterly convincing reading of Cowell's Piano Concerto. 

Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in reflective and raucous Ives, virtuosic Beethoven and dramatic Tchaikovsky. 

The Hallé under Markus Stenz were on fine form in a rarity, a world première and an infrequently performed symphony.

A lively program with soloist Martin Fröst, in his HS debut, leaving a deep impression in Copland.

James Levine led the MET Chamber Ensemble through a remarkable performance of Carter's The American Sublime, whose scattered yet distinct clouds of sound evoked the warmth, irony, and philosophical musings of the texts.

An adventurous journey with David Robertson included a superlative and unique performance of Ives's The Unanswered Question and a terrific introduction to Luc Brewaeys and his Symphony no. 6. 

Jennifer Larmore’s eclectic song recital themed around love and longing was uneven, but the heartfelt American songs left one craving for more.

Andrew Litton and the BBCSO and the BBC Singers create order out of chaos at the Barbican Hall in a challenging programme including Charles Ives monumental 4th Symphony.

New Yorkers flocked to BAM on Thursday to celebrate the beginning of the Next Wave Festival 2014. Even more discerning audiences were just around the corner at BAM’s Harvey Theater for a program that featured soprano Dawn Upshaw and pianist Gilbert Kalish.

Aurora Orchestra and Dawn Landes take us on a road trip across America, with music from John Adams, Charles Ives and Aaron Copland.

The contemporary music festival Milano Musica is this year dedicated to the works of Morton Feldman, a man who professed to be more influenced by contemporary art and Persian rugs than he was by other music. The concert took place in Gallerie d’Italia, a former bank now a contemporary art gallery, and pulled together pieces for violin and piano by Feldman and his American contemporaries.

Two figures occupied Usher Hall’s large stage. More accurately, two performers, as there was also a very focused page turner, removing played pages as though they were explosives. Seated at the piano was Lars Vogt, last seen in this hall during Edinburgh Festival 2012 in a joyous performance of Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto.

Concerts by Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin are always challenging and exciting: a fearless approach to repertoire and unusual programme juxtapositions, combined with insightful musicianship, all underpinned by formidable technique create some of the most compelling musical experiences, and Hamelin’s latest Wigmore Hall offering was no exception.Opening with Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata no.

The reason for this all-American programme was ostensibly pragmatic: the concert was to coincide with the opening night of the British-American Business Council annual conference. In practice, the programme was a triumph. Significantly, dozens of schoolchildren were present to witness an evening of fine and involving music-making.The concert began with Charles Ives’ Variations on America.

“It’s a contra-alto clarinet,” explained Ben Goldberg to an audience puzzled at the first sight of this long, coiled silver instrument. “But it can be used to clean your sink in an emergency.

Inspiration for a composition can come in many forms; a letter from Clara Schumann, the brutality of Stalin's police, growing deaf or hearing birdsong. The final concert of John Adams’ short residency at the Barbican focused on a more reverent strain of influence, however: the peculiar tendency for living composers to want to reference dead ones.

Last Sunday, Pekka Kuusisto performed in Siuntio, a Finnish town not so far from Helsinki, as part of the Lux Musicae Festival, together with pianist Joonas Ahonen and hornist Hervé Joulain. In the penumbra of the candles and the gentle lights of a beautiful church from the 1400s, the first notes of Brahms’ Violin Sonata in G major resounded. Kuusisto’s sound is all about the power of simplicity.

This, the final indoor concert of the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival (the closing Fireworks Concert takes place under the Castle Rock in Princes Street Gardens), was bookended by possibly the loudest and quietest sounds in the festival.Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question opens with a delicate mist of pianissimo strings.

The numerous links and connections between each of tonight’s pieces make this a very cleverly crafted programme, on paper at least.

After an impressive Sunday afternoon of Webern, Schubert, and Brahms, the Bamberg Symphony outdid themselves Monday evening in repertoire by Beethoven and Ives, and another Schubert symphony. Christian Zacharias again joined Maestro Jonathan Nott, this time for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4.

After 25 years at the helm, John Daly Goodwin, Music Director of the New York Choral Society (NYCS), gave his final concert Friday night at Carnegie Hall. Titled ‘American Reflections’, all five works had an historical relationship with the New York Choral Society, three of which were commissioned and premiered by the NYCS: Paulus’ Whitman’s New York, De Cormier’s Legacy and Gould’s Quotations.

Three of the four American pieces performed this evening by Northern Sinfonia were written to evoke very particular places, and got me thinking about the evocative power of a well-chosen title.

For most of us, the word ‘experimental’ probably provokes images of brass instruments filled with washing-up liquid or electrically manipulated sneezing sounds. But experimental doesn’t have to mean mental: it can simply refer to something original, something done differently.

American Pioneers, the latest Hebrides Ensemble programme, featured five U.S. composers in what musical director, William Conway described as "a slice" of contemporary music from that vast country. Minimalism, as one might expect, featured. Jennifer Higdon's Smash (2005) opened with what felt like a celebration of our obsession with speed.