Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | SummerConcerts at the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam

Spanning a compositional date range of approximately 50 years, Francois-Xavier Roth and his well-drilled Gurzenich delivered a highly enjoyable evening of music by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Renée Fleming sings Barber and Strauss at the Concertgebouw.

Mismatching between programme and performers resulted in a disappointing evening of operatic all-time favourites.

Under the baton of John Wilson, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra played Bernstein’s music with jazzy verve. The fine team of vocal soloists was lead by Kim Criswell.

Martyn Brabbins and the Rotterdam Philharmonic took the audience on a journey through our solar system in The Planets: An HD Odyssey.

Ahead of its late-summer tour, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra warms up with two programmes in what are considered high points of the Robeco Summer Nights. 

Ronald Brautigam brought the Kölner Akademie to the Concertgebouw for an ode to Mozart as part of the Robeco Summer Nights Festival. 

In Amsterdam, Joshua Bell led his Academy of St Martin in the Fields on an adventurous, crowd-pleasing journey that demonstrated his ensemble’s versatility.

A performance by Leo van Doeselaar on the Concertgebouw’s Maarschalkerweerd Organ in Saint-Saëns’ Symphony no. overshadows all else in the Concertgebouw.

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra revealed itself at the Concertgebouw as an important part of the future of classical music in the United States. 

Leonidas Kavakos's technical mastery and musical sensitivity work beautifully with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to produce shimmering brilliance.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic in an upbeat rendition of Mahler's “Tragic” Sixth Symphony.

With this concert performance of The Barber of Seville, the Nederlandse Reisopera and its team of soloists, headed by an irresistible Mark Milhofer as Almaviva, treated the audience of the Concertgebouw to a feast of exuberant comedy and fine singing.

Milos Karadaglić, one of the world's leading guitarists, entertains an enthusiastic Amsterdam audience in a programme of Bach and Spanish favourites. 

It was an evening for showing off. The Basel Chamber Orchestra (being Bartoli and Scholl’s frequent partners) performed Bizet and Rameau, plus a Mozart concerto with conductor Christian Zacharias directing from the piano. 

In an excellent performance, two Dutch masters wow their audience with Mendelssohn's romanticism in a concerto not often performed, with a German orchestra barely playing back-up.

Etienne Abelin and others make music visible with the Music Animation Machine.

On a warm summer night, Opera Zuid closes its season with an impassioned, but keen production of La traviata in the Concertgebouw.

The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester are known as one of the best youth orchestras in the world, if not the best. As such, they do not shy away from the more difficult repertoire and tonight’s performance of Berg’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 reaffirmed their reputation.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s love for Brahms is well-documented, which makes the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s season opening at the Concertgebouw all the more fitting. In a program of Brahms’s First and Second Symphonies, they showed once again why they’re an orchestra to be reckoned with.

The JeugdOrkest Nederland (Netherlands Youth Orchestra) have musicians ranging in age from 14 to 20, yet the artistic quality of their members is impressive. Tonight’s program seemed perfectly suited to their sensibilities; from Kyriakides’ complex and challenging Nerve, to the beautiful melodies and catchy rhythms of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no.

The Aldeburgh World Orchestra, made up of 119 youngsters with 32 different nationalities, only started playing together 3 weeks before this concert. Armed with this knowledge, the expectations of a concert understandably lessen: you expect it to still be good but not brilliant. But the orchestra did end up playing brilliantly, especially in Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5.

“Finnish tango” are two words that you might not expect to see together, yet here we were on a Monday night in the Concertgebouw, listening to exactly that. Violinist Pekka Kuusisto was joined by Iiro Rantala in the third concert of his Robeco Zomerconcerten residency and together they delivered a high-energy performance that found itself somewhere in between jazz, tango and classical music.

Chamber music recitals are usually more intimate and personal than big orchestral performances. Generally, this is a very pleasant thing as it there is less distance – literally and figuratively – between the musicians and the audience. Now when the chamber musicians include Pekka Kuusisto, it isn’t just a pleasant thing, it’s a fantastic thing.

The Academy of Ancient Music has been critically acclaimed in pursuing Baroque composers’ original stylistic intent, and this gave tonight’s concert the prospect of a faithful look into the period of 1650-1750. Here are a few of my highlights from this varied Robeco Summer Concert in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

When it comes to summertime concerts, visitors to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw are often lucky, and this year is no different: the Robeco Zomerconcerten offer a diverse and exciting program that was kicked off by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Vassily Sinaisky and Pekka Kuusisto with music by Elgar, Sibelius and Tchaikovksy.

Der Niederländische Rundfunkchor gibt der Musik einen spielerisch-lebendigen Charakter und beeindruckt mit klarer Diktion und feinem Klang.

Das Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra zeigt in Amsterdam eine bewegende Aufführung, in der man sich der Einzigartigkeit eines jeden Augenblicks wehmütig bewusst wird.

Der im letzten Augenblick kurzfristig eingesprungene Manfred Honeck dirigierte das Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in einem strahlenden Programm.

Der Tausendsassa Eric Whitacre zeigt mit einem Chorkonzert bei den Robeco SummerNights in Amsterdam seine Vielschichtigkeit.

Lahav Shani dirigierte das Philharmonische Orchester Rotterdamm bei Weills zweiter Symphonie, spielte das Solo bei Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue und tanzte bei Bernsteins West Side Story.