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World premieres by ensemble members Alex Mincek and Kate Soper wear their intellects on their sleeves. 

A blinder of a first half, but Aurora score an own-goal in the second with Anna Meredith's Anno. 

A semi-staging of Golijov's “tone poem in voices” in Boston's Symphony Hall. 

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta intrigues with the world premiere of Lam Lai's There is no place like home (beta), impresses in Shostakovich’s brooding Chamber Symphony, while Pavel Kolesnikov proves a fine soloist in Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto.

Ensemble intercontemporain finally make it to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival – and leave an indelible mark with their unrivalled artistry.

Cool new works sit alongside Bach and the baroque

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich, and Marco Stroppa came together in synergistic harmony to deliver a searing performance of Mantra

Music at its most urgent extremes from Pierre-Laurent Aimard in the Southbank Stockhausen festival.

NYVOS Next offers works by Alvin Lucier, Kaija Saariaho and evening curator Kate Soper in a program demonstrating both the breadth of and inherent risks in live performance with electronics.

An adventurous and unusual end to Kings Place's Time Unwrapped series and some striking collaborations with Aurora Orchestra.

Over 10 years after his death, Karlheinz Stockhausen still occupies a complex and difficult place in the canon of contemporary composers. This year's Musikfest Berlin featured a Stockhausen focus, of which the "creation ceremony" Inori was the climax.

The LCO and Actress present tantalizing textures, while new works of placid emotion envelop the senses.

An electronic extravaganza in a resonant setting adds another dimension to the venerable festival.

Overshadowed by its Hanseatic cousin Hamburg, Antwerp recently celebrated the opening of its own new concert hall. In his Symphony no. 2, Wim Henderickx tested the hall's capabilities with a multi-media extravaganza.

International percussionist Johannes Fischer brought almost everything but the kitchen sink to the Scottish Ensemble’s lively Baroque Dance Party.

An excellent performance of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s The Last Supper receiving its Scottish première, with Roderick Williams and Susan Bickley heading a luxury cast.

Five hours of repetitive music on a Sunday evening may be a hellish way for some to end the week; fortunately, I belong in the second category. A concert series named “Steve Reich Unlimited” therefore required no further selling points.

At the Lucerne Festival, composer Olga Neuwirth, Ensemble Contemporain and a sound team from IRCAM recently shone in a theatrical performance of an complex and ocean shore-inspired score.

New works for orchestra from the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra directed by Anu Tali

Budapest rolled out the red carpet for its legendary composer György Kurtág, who, amidst a celebratory week, was the honoree at his splendid 90th birthday concert. 

 The Bozzini Quartet confronted the challenges of Lucier's music with confidence and precision, their dedication evident in their effort to bring various acoustic phenomena to fruition.

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

Marketed under the tagline: “42,000 years of music – 213 works – 1 performance”, Timeline is a hyper-ambitious production. At times history lesson, at times creative mash-up, it was both a highly stimulating and a frustrating experience, with outstanding performances from the instrumentalists and singers.

Iarla Ó Lionáird presented the theme – the Celtic traditional song The Two Sisters – and Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly provided variations via two separate compositions based on the folk song.

Part of a festival exploring technological innovations moving “beyond” the piano, Aufgang and Brandt Brauer Frick presented an evening of music in Paris that didn’t reinvent the instrument in quite the expected way.

Gwyneth Wentink created a fascinating and atmospheric final performance in the AAA Festival at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus in Mason Bates’ explosive Liquid Interface and Beethoven’s Mass in C.

I was fortunate to see Wayne McGregor’s choreography set on the San Francisco Ballet several years back, so I was eager to see Random Works, which was performed this past weekend in Kings Place’s Hall One. Random Works wasn’t McGregor’s choreography, but rather the work of ten young choreographers. McGregor is listed as the programme’s curator.

John Zorn doesn’t look 60. He looks 35, or whatever age it is where you’re still just about young enough to get away with wearing baggy camouflage pants. “And that’s how it’s done!” he yells through his mic at the end of the first half, over huge applause and cheering from this passionate Barbican audience.

Seven Storey Mountain, the title of Trappist monk Thomas Merton’s autobiography, is a reference to the mountain of purgatory in Dante’s Inferno. It is also, fittingly, the title of trumpeter Nate Wooley’s song cycle – meant to represent “a certain abandon found in religious practice within the confines of a composed work for instrumentalists”.

Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto performed their masterful and engaging duo set at Rogers Auditorium in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Wednesday night, with the glamor and poise that such a venue implies.

This past Saturday, I spent five hours in a great big room with a cold concrete floor that was brimming from end to end with sounds and images and people.

Possessor of an impeccable touch, pianist Kathleen Supové is one of those compelling performers who truly communicates her unique personality through her playing, as she did at Thursday night’s performance at Roulette in Brooklyn.

Born in Argentina to Eastern European Jewish parents, composer Osvaldo Golijov certainly brings many cultural influences to the musical table, influences that shone through in the three works of his performed at Zankel Hall on Monday night.

The Klangforum Wien has had its own row of subscription concerts at the Konzerthaus for the past 22 seasons, and a constant during that time has been the regular programming of Austrian composers.

Now they know how many cacti it takes to fill the Albert Hall. Last night’s marathon John Cage Prom finished up, over three hours after it had started, with a wonderfully cactus-heavy performance of Branches (1976).

Onwards Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra went, then, jumping forwards from a rousing Fifth to the Eighth, once again playing the later, even-numbered half of a ‘pair’ before the odd. Asked why the Seventh was much preferred publicly to the Eighth, Beethoven is apocryphally to have replied: “because the Eighth is so much better.

Programming works by Pierre Boulez alongside a high-profile Beethoven symphony cycle is an easy way to give exposure to the strikingly modern works of the Frenchman, but on seeing a substantial chunk of the audience disappear for an early drink before tonight's Boulez, I wondered if the Beethoven was perhaps too reliable a foil, leaving people little incentive to stay.

Aisha Orazbayeva rests her violin under her chin as the welcoming applause subsides. She raises her bow and nonchalantly touches the screw at its tip against one of the strings, making an extremely quiet 'ting'. I, probably along with a good percentage of the Kings Place audience, am unsure as to whether or not the concert has started.It has done.

Minimal music, the rhythm- and/or repetition-focused classical genre from the later 20th century, is well represented at Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. This will surely come to a climax during the 2013 edition of the biannual World Minimal Music Festival, but as Marinissen of Lunapark stated before this warm-up edition: "We just couldn't wait".

There's classical music, and there's pop. You can throw as many violins into the bridge section as you like, and you can amplify the orchestra all you want as well. It's unfortunate, but a certain divide looks set to stay.

Upon his death in 2009, Merce Cunningham left behind a huge footprint in the contemporary dance world. A stalwart of the American scene with a career spanning over 70 years, he created in excess of 150 original works and facilitated more than 800 improvised events.

Dans le cadre de la Biennale Nemo, l'Ensemble intercontemporain invitait cinq compositeurs aux univers variés à immerger le public dans une expérience sonore et visuelle – mais le résultat n'a pas toujours été probant.

Œuvre signée Sivan Eldar mais en réalité véritable performance collégiale comprenant improvisation des artistes et participation du public, The Nine Jewelled Deer propose une expérience forte, autant intime que collective.

La danseuse et chorégraphe espagnole livre un spectacle plus engagé encore que les précédents, une plongée radicale et libératrice au cœur des méandres de l’âme humaine.

Consacrée à la musique de la compositrice autrichienne, l'édition 2025 du festival a proposé une pléiade de créations d'esthétiques variées, de l'énergie folle de Christophe Bertrand au bruitisme de Margareta Ferek-Petrić.

La opresión y el desasosiego de la obra de Jamie Man se extienden desde el escenario hasta el patio de butacas envolviendo todo en una densa niebla de turbación.

De Rameau à la composition contemporaine, le programme concocté par la soprano et cheffe d'orchestre fait la part belle au spleen et manque parfois d'éloquence.

Dans le cadre de son quarantième anniversaire, l’Orchestre national de Montpellier a accordé une carte blanche à son compositeur en résidence. Un concert singulier et marquant qui a su s'adresser à un large public.