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Born to a Basque mother just ten miles from the Spanish border, Ravel excelled at authentic Spanish flavours as heard in this splendid festival concert by the Orchestre National de France.

Don Quixote provides the inspiration for songs by Ravel and Ibert, the high point of a bitty programme in contrast to an early evening recital which followed the perfect trajectory.

At the Festival Ravel, Bertrand Chamayou, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Hyunji Kim perform all the solo piano works at the Église Saint-Vincent, a stone’s throw from the house where Ravel was born.

The Uzbek conductor shows that he's a force to be reckoned with, revealing unimaginable amounts of detail in Stravinsky's score. Jan Lisiecki gives a carefully weighted account of Mozart.

Gautier Capuçon, Pierre Bleuse and the Orchestre du Festival Casals bring a devastating Shostakovich First Cello Concerto to Aix-en-Provence's Festival de Pâques. 

Beatrice Rana, Mikko Franck and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France bring a thrilling Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto to the Festival de Pâques, even if their Shostakovich 10 is more of a beauty than a bully. 

Although Karine Deshayes role change from Adalgisa to Norma is a work in progress, Luciano Ganci and Roberto Scandiuzzi shine in a staging charged with mythic symbolism.

Massenet’s take on Goethe’s blockbuster novella of unrequited love and suicide is handled with great subtlety by Christof Loy and Marc Leroy-Calatayud. Benjamin Bernheim and Marina Viotti lead a starry vocal cast.

Berg's concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” is played with heart-melting beauty; David Afkham and the Orchestre national de Lyon offer pleasant, but unmemorable, Beethoven and Brahms. 

Paris Opera Ballet has triumphantly revived Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, two years after its company premiere in 2022. 

Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto turns out to be a shipwreck for the Georgian pianist, despite an admirable Orchestre de Paris and conductor (Kirill Karabits). 

The conducting of Jordi Savall thrills during the Ballet du Capitole's double bill of ballets by Gluck.

The superstar countertenor revisit the site of one of their early successes, with hits from Monteverdi and the court of Louis XIII. It makes for an extraordinary evening.

Young countertenor Figuier gives an accomplished vocal performance, sometimes overpowered by the energy of Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. Oboist Gilles Vanssons steals the show.

The Lyon orchestra show their rapport with their former Music Director with an exuberant Copland symphony and an introspective Shostakovich concerto

Silliness can find a place in art, as we see in some of Erik Satie’s work titles, but sometimes it is just silly. 

Jordi Savall explores the music of Maurice Ravel within the context of the French Baroque and beyond. 

Star-dancing or star-gazing? A celestial occasion with Ensemble Hegiak in South-West France.

One of Handel's lesser operas receives a deluxe concert performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, with Il Pomo d'Oro and a fine array of singers. 

Paris Opera Ballet tackles a British classic with aplomb but needs to delve deeper into the quintessentially British humour and charm.

An historic moment at the Philharmonie de Paris, with a conductor and ensemble in perfect harmony in a work that is difficult because it is so heavily linked to the sound of its era.

The French premiere of the British composer's opera will be the undisputed high point of the Grande Boutique's season: a perfect confluence of music, staging and cast.

Zingarelli's Giulietta e Romeo won the favour of no less than Napoleon I himself and a new production at the Opéra Royal offers an appropriately regal setting in which to see Gilles Rico's new production of this once famous opera.

An all-Dvořák programme given by the Paris Opera Orchestra fails to full satisfy, despite a couple of exciting concert openers.  

Vilde Frang and Bertrand Chamayou join the Belcea Quartet for a musical feast including Chausson's sumptuous Concert. 

Sonatas by Ravel frame Renaud Capuçon and Jean-François Heisser's recital in the Basque seaside town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. 

Ravel arranged for the French a cappella choir gives mixed results, from outstanding to imperfect. 

At the Promenades musicales du Pays d'Auge in Normandy, the Toulouse-born pianist impresses with a rare ability to communicate emotion.

In a magical outdoor environment, one of the elder statesmen of French piano traces the progression of Beethoven's style through his sonatas.

Yip Wing-sie and the HK Sinfonietta show admirable qualities in their Beethoven cycle. François-Frédéric Guy plays a splendid Third Piano Concerto but Anne Queffélec is disconnected from the orchestra in the Fourth.

The 43rd edition of the International Piano Festival opens with a Beethoven programme of elegance and grace from Bertrand Chamayou and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris.

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO give an orchestral performance to remember, with a fine singing cast, but Simon McBurney's staging dials the bleakness to maximum too early.

Sir George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s fourth opera shares the best qualities of their previous work but is an inspiring, breathtaking fable.

Brecht and Weill’s political satire could hardly be more relevant, but Thomas Ostermeier and Maxime Balcon's new production fails to do it justice.

The French pianist gives a performance of Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto to remember; Tugan Sokhiev and an inconsistent Santa Cecilia thrill in Tchaikovsky. 

Argerich shows her full artistry, while Europe's young musicians show impressive coordination and dynamics, if short of emotion in Beethoven 7.

Grétry's mash-up of Beauty and the Beast and The Arabian Nights provides an evening of proper enchantment in Paris.

The Flying Dutchman – or Le Vaisseau fantôme as it is known in French – makes a fleeting appearance at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in a rousing concert performance conducted by the dapper François-Xavier Roth. 

The French pianist thrills in Brahms, Schubert and Schubert clothed by Liszt in a stunning recital in Aix-en-Provence.

The Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai impresses in “bleeding chunks” from Wagner operas at the Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence.

Two years after the death of Patrick Dupond, the Paris Opera Ballet paid tribute to him in a sumptuous gala evening, with the procession of the Ballet’s stars and the the performance of three of Dupond’s most emblematic works.

Laurent Pelly’s new production combines froth and hilarity with a dark, satirical heart; Marc Minkowski and the orchestra seduce us.

Charpentiers “biblical tragedy” exudes energy, with Reinoud van Mechelen an outstanding David and fabulous period playing from Gaétan Jarry and his Ensemble Marguerite Louise.

Excellent performances and stage direction make a good case for an opera that's on the slow side dramatically.

Four down, three to go: Le Balcon’s accomplished staging of Stockhausen's Licht cycle reaches its most problematic instalment.

Embraced by Daniel Harding, Ian Bostridge, Christian Tetzlaff, Alban Gerhardt and Paul Lewis, the Parisian ensemble gives an exceptional concert, faithful to Lars Vogt’s way of making music.

Following his Requiem at the 2019 Aix Festival, Romeo Castellucci surprises us with the purity and humility of his Mahler Second, conducted remarkably by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Outstanding performances of two Florent Schmitt scores anchor a winning concert by the Orchestre National de France at the Maison de la Radio. 

The French soprano delivers an A-list performance as the Egyptian queen, donning a variety of Hollywood guises at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.

In the expert hands of both director Warlikowski and conductor Kent Nagano, the sequel to Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti proves to be even darker and more dramatic.