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First class young voices and bewitchingly stylised designs shine through the murk at the Bucharest Opera Festival. 

Young voices shine in Tchaikovsky's last opera in a new and rustic updating by Moldovan director Slava Sambriș. 

Venturing into Gershwin, Rudolf Buchbinder joins an Orchestre National de France programme at the George Enescu International Festival marked by surprises. 

Visual symbolism and musical ambition in a production at the George Enescu International Festival. 

The Giocoso’s Enescu and Il Giardino Armonico’s Beethoven bookend an exhilarating day of rarities and classics.

At the George Enescu International Festival, a pair of new shows crossing genres and reinventing the classics, with mostly enlightening results.

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

Bucharest’s temples of culture present rites of closure by Mozart, Kurtág and Bruckner… and a fleeting glimpse of Nirvana.

Lorena Mărginean is a hauntingly youthful heroine in a production of traditional values and vices. 

The Brasov Opera brought timeless Italian virtues to Puccini's virtuoso fusion of music and drama at the Bucharest Opera Festival.

A concert staging of Saint François d’Assise at the Enescu Festival brings its human drama to life through striking visuals, pacy conducting and expertly drilled performances.

The young cellist excels in Shostakovich with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Cristian Mandeal. 

Martha Argerich returns to the Enescu Festival for one of the pillars of her repertory, Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, in a buoyant performance. 

The Suite from Janáček Cunning Little Vixen features in the Vienna Philharmonic's second concert of the 2023 festival. 

David Grimal captures the rhapsodic nature of Chausson and Ravel's scores, but how well does the conductor-less approach work in non-concertante scores? 

Sparkling Haydn from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra leads the way into an eclectic programme at the Enescu Festival. 

A bracing programme of contemporary music from the Filarmonica Moldova Iaşi at the Enescu Festival. 

A radiant chemistry between Céline Scheen and Philippe Jaroussky is evident in an evening of Caldara and Pergolesi in Bucharest. 

Two giants of the Romantic repertoire that were met with disdain by Eduard Hanslick at their premieres are given persuasive readings in Bucharest. 

Andsnes’ rendition was a typical battle between Dionysian and Apollonian, won by the latter.

Promoting Leonore, the original version of Beethoven's Fidelio, René Jacobs made several choices of his own, only some of them justifiable.

In the Bucharest performance, the individual vocal contributions were consistently good, with some really standing out.

Centuries can envelop a musical masterpiece in a cocoon of misconceptions and false interpretations as much they leave their mark in the form of dirt and grime on a painting’s surface.

Europa Galante's musicians’ collective expertise in playing music of the 17th and 18th centuries is indisputable and was in full display once again in Bucharest. 

At the Enescu Festival n Bucharest Vladimir Jurowski celebrates the centennial of Die Frau one Schatten’s premiere.

Vengeron and Papian explored what lies under the shiny surface of late 19th century repertoire

His gestures might not be the most elegant, but Vladimir Askenazy has a deep understanding of the music he choses to conduct.

Few other pianists have Argerich’s naturalness, her ability to epitomize the essence of music rather than interpret it. 

Following some rhythmically challenged Ginastera, Horia Andreescu and the Russian National Orchestra impress with confidently played MacMillan and Tchaikovsky.

The muscular piano playing of Nikolai Lugansky could not save the Russian National Orchestra’s shoddy Enescu and Prokofiev.

Delayed by torrential rain, the Enescu Festival's all-Handel concert took a while to get going, but was an utter delight once it did. 

Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO gave a stunning performance of Enescu’s operatic masterpiece, despite a dramatically limp concert staging.

Invité à conclure l'édition 2023 du festival roumain, le chef finnois et l'orchestre hollandais ont proposé un diptyque de concerts contrastés, dont une mémorable Troisième Symphonie de Mahler a constitué le sommet.

Directeur musical du National et du George Enescu Festival, Cristian Măcelaru a dirigé un chef-d'œuvre méconnu, la Troisième Symphonie de Georges Enesco, après un formidable concerto de Rachmaninov par Kirill Gerstein.

La Neuvième Symphonie de Mahler était ô combien appropriée pour marquer la fin du mandat de Simon Rattle à la tête de la phalange londonienne. Retour sur un concert exceptionnel.

À la tête d'un Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino doté d'une belle palette chromatique, Zubin Mehta a proposé une interprétation pleine de sagesse de la Deuxième Symphonie de Mahler. 

Si elle conserve une science des équilibres et de l'accompagnement, la direction de Zubin Mehta ne transmet pas l'urgence du drame de Verdi. Le plateau vocal offre une performance contrastée.

Au programme de ce "concert de minuit" du festival Enescu : Misha Masky et la Philharmonie de chambre de Saint-Pétersbourg dans des pièces d'Enescu, Tchaïkovsky, Bruch et Mendelssohn. Concert assez mitigé, avec un orchestre qui manque de caractère et un violoncelliste qui malgré toutes ses qualités indéniables manque de justesse.

Dans le cadre du festival Enescu de Bucarest, la sitariste Anoushka Shankar et le percussioniste Manu Delago accompagnés par l'Orchestre de Chambre de Zürich nous offrent un programme singulier où les résonances harmoniques étourdissantes du sitar mariées à celles du hang fascinent.