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Who needs a conductor? The OAE under the direction of Matthew Truscott reveal the delightful range and character of Haydn, from his symphonic beginnings to the very end.

Candida Thompson’s performance of Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel with understated beauty, immaculate phrasing and restrained emotion, steals the show.

Joshua Bell plays and directs The Philadelphia Orchestra in Bruch, Mendelssohn and Price. 

Composer Massimiliano Matesic wows the Tonhalle audience with his orchestral arrangement of Schubert’s great song cycle.

The impressive Amsterdam Sinfonietta showed lucidity and depth in Britten and Shostakovich, with tenor Ilker Arcayürek and horn player Felix Klieser adding much to the quality.

A splendid cast led by Ann Hallenberg does justice to an integral version of Handel’s masterpiece under the baton of Ian Page.

Ominous Bartók, polished Mozart and energetic Bach, all on a superb musical spring evening in Amsterdam.

Honouring a quarter-century since their creation, alumni from the orchestra united to give a very special anniversary commemorative concert filled with musical fellowship and pride. 

Imaginative Bach and an exciting new work by Dobrinka Tabakova played by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta with pianists Ferhan and Ferzan Önder.

One had the opportunity to see The Cleveland Orchestra function as a true chamber ensemble without conductor as a program of Vivaldi, Haydn and Mendelssohn was led by concertmaster William Preucil.

Anders Dahlin's haute-contre shines in in a concert led by Mariangiola Martello in the Grünewaldsalen.

Soon to be seventy, Murray Perahia and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields give full expression to the life force that is Beethoven, in their continuing cycle of the piano concertos.

At the Theater an der Wien, director Mariame Clément and novelist Lucy Wadham have crafted innovative material that brings the old-fashioned lyrics to life in a coherent and contemporary dramatic setting.

Anno Schreier's successful new opera Hamlet is the first of a series of three Shakespeare-inspired offerings from Theater an der Wien this season. 

An impressive display of singing technique isn't enough to make RCM's Ariodante connect with hearts and minds.

Performing a complete cycle of Brandenburg Concertos in one evening may take less time than a Wagner opera, but it is equally an epic undertaking for any Baroque ensemble.

After a shaky start, Mitsuko Uchida showed why she is keen to revisit a well-established Mozart repertoire.

L’Arpeggiata brought the sensuous heat and vibrancy of Catalonia to London's Wigmore Hall in a concert featuring songs and music from the Aragon region of Spain.

The Mozart and bel canto program that Cecilia Bartoli and Rolando Villazón have concocted for their European tour this December is so packed with greatest hits that it feels like a festive gift. 

The final stop on the Basel Chamber Orchestra's Australian tour at the Sydney Opera House saw Sol Gabetta in fine fettle as soloist in Cello Concertos by Saint-Saëns and the Latvian Vasks.

L'Arpeggiata fascinate, amuse, move to tears - in not even two hours.

Mitsuko Uchida leads the Cleveland Orchestra in two of Mozart's piano concertos, while Concertmaster William Preucil leads the orchestra in Symphony No. 34, K. 338. 

A reconstruction of a long-lost opera by Handel gives some exciting young singers the chance to shine at the London Handel Festival, even if the plot might be better back in the mists of obscurity. 

Is Handel’s Semele an oratorio or an opera? Of course Handel himself called it an oratorio but some suggest it is the English-language opera that he never wrote. 

As a highlight of this year's London Handel Festival, the composer's rarely heard oratorio Deborah was given a strong and committed performance by Laurence Cummings and a fine cast.

A magnificent evening of lieder from Thomas Hampson with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in crisp accompaniment.

The ensemble XVII-21 Le Baroque Nomade was warmly received in its North American debut Friday evening at Montréal’s Bourgie Hall. Their concert, titled “Venice, Mirror to the World”, was presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Splendore a Venezia: Art and Music from the Renaissance to Baroque in Venice” at the adjoining Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal.

Music associated with the eighteenth-century Dresden court was the theme of Thursday's excellent concert by the European Union Baroque orchestra under the leadership of the violinist Gottfried von der Goltz.

Founded in 2005, Concerto Stella Matutina hail from the musically rich Vorarlberg region of Austria (home of the Schubertiade). For this evening’s concert, they were represented by two violins, a viola, cello and double bass apiece, a concert organ and percussion, plus their magnificent Baroque brass section – three players with a variety of horns, trumpets, trombones and cornetts.

Picture a warm May evening, walking the narrow, silent, cool streets of the ancient capital of Malta, then sitting amongst a magnificent collection of 17th- and 18th-century art with a promise of secrets!This was the setting for a concert – no, in fact, a spectacular – held on Friday 10 May at the Cathedral Museum, Mdina.

The culmination of the London Handel Festival is a much anticipated event, and tonight’s performance of Handel’s radiant composition L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato was no exception. With an array of eminent musicians performing to a packed St George’s, Hanover Square, the mood was celebratory and the performance had a glow and energy that suited Handel’s mercurial music.

Imeneo (1740), Handel’s penultimate opera, is atypical on several fronts. It’s relatively short by Handel’s standards (three acts, under two hours of music); the plot is thin, but not as absurd or complicated as those of some of his other operas (there are no disguises, for example); the title role is composed for a bass; and the opera has a chorus which participates in the plot, rather than just

A very striking wild-eyed hirsute man has been staring out at us across Scotland on posters for this concert tour, showing that the Scottish Ensemble has adapted well to the modern world of promotion, using titles, straplines and imagination. On the face of things, the choice of eight seemingly very disconnected pieces in the programme, from 1700 to the present day, was disconcerting.

On Saturday evening, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta with soloist Ronald Brautigam presented a splendidly varied programme including pieces by Webern, Mozart and Bach.The Sinfonietta began their programme with a thrilling adaptation of Webern’s Langsamer Satz, an early neo-Romantic piece originally written for string quartet.

The Scottish Ensemble has been resident in Dundee for four days, really getting under the skin of the city. Amongst a whole raft of activities, including pop-up concerts, performing a film score live at a screening at Dundee Contemporary Arts, the Ensemble has been working with string players from Dundee Schools Orchestra and Dundee Symphony Orchestra.

Deborah Warner’s new production of La Traviata for the Wiener Festwochen is dotted with dramatic ideas to much the same extent as flowers are strewn and champagne is uncorked in the Act I ‘Brindisi’ (drinking song), which is to say sparingly.

Probably no other work in the repertoire has such mystical status as Bach's Matthew Passion. Phrases like "The Greatest Work in the Western Canon", trip glibly off the tongue while failing to illuminate its greatness or acknowledge its strangeness. It is the sacred cow of sacred cows.

Riccardo Primo, Re d’Inghilterra (or in English, Richard I), is Handel’s only opera based on the story of an English monarch, and it was premiered in the coronation year of King George II in 1727 (although in fact it was composed the year before but postponed).

There are some classical concerts that really portray the absolute essence of what music is all about. If we’re lucky we experience one of these a year, but they’re very hard to come by because these experiences require something very specific.

Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini work particularly well as a double bill because both works share the theme of lovers who find themselves at the mercy of possessive forces. Iolanta's domineering father ultimately yields in Tchaikovsky's opera, but in Rachmaninov's the deceitful Lanceotto is not so accommodating.

For a composer of such undeniable genius and widespread popularity, it is strange that there aren’t too many opportunities to hear J.S. Bach’s cantatas performed live in concert.

Whether intentionally or not, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has done Christianity’s street cred a great service this week. As the St Paul’s protest furore continues to grow, the orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was a reminder that for the composer and countless others, religion is first and foremost about the comfort of spirituality.

“Who were these people? How did they think? What would it be like to experience life in their time and gain full insight into their musical minds?” These are some of the main questions I ask when doing research to aid my understanding of historically informed performance in 17th and 18th-century Baroque music.

Love may be a familiar feeling, but the passion Aurora Orchestra unleashed at LSO St Luke’s was enough to leave audiences wild with desire. Exploring the darkest undertones of love—anguish, jealousy, remorse and regret—Friday night’s programme, Jealous Guy, was woven together by tango music interspersed with tragic love stories from across musical history.

Unter der Leitung von Raffaele Pe gelingt dem MusikTheater an der Wien eine kohärente Rekonstruktion von Francesco Gasparinis Opera seria Ambleto. Die musikalischen Highlights bleiben aber aus.

Atmosphärische Effekte und mehr verbanden zwei Werke aus Barock und Romantik, die mit Ars Antiqua Austria und Orchestre des Champs-Élysées in einem Konzert gespielt wurden. Eine gelungene Premiere.

Eine typische Jamsession der Steenbrinks durch die Jahrhunderte, deren glückliche Energie zusammen mit Luciana Mancini zum Austreiben mancher Sorgen beschwörte.

Mit Sonaten und Konzerten für vier Geigen bereitete die Gruppe um Johannes Pramsohler klanglich wahrliches Glück, neu belebt und ausgebreitet vom Vergnügen, leidenschaftlich, geschmacklich und weise.

Geleitet von barockem Leipziger Vesperdienst, Kollegialität und eigener exquisiten Art des Singens, arrangierte sich die NBV als Engel und Hirten unter dem Licht Gottes – und Tilburgs Konzertsaal.