Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | BBC Proms

Berlioz on acid: Nicholas Collon and Mathew Baynton lead the Proms audience through the streets of Paris before a wild ride through the Symphonie fantastique.

During Henry Wood’s Prom years, Wednesday was Bach Night. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Proms revived this tradition in the final week with a couple of modern twists.

Semyon Bychkov produces a gripping and soul-searching Shostakovich Eighth while soprano Elena Stikhina makes an impressive UK debut in Tchaikovsky.

An inventive programme frames new music by a genre-defying composer and guitarist in a striking late-night concert.

The Knussen Chamber Orchestra with Ryan Wigglesworth debuts at the Proms with music by Knussen, Birtwistle, Waley-Cohen, Abrahamsen and Putt.

Things went from good to great in the course of the Götterdämmerung highlights.

John Luther Adams piece unfolds with the patience and weight of the geological time, leaving a powerful mark.

Who would have thought celebrating a Black Mass could be quite such fun?

Outstanding playing from soloist and Staatskapelle Dresden makes this a Prom to remember.

After London's farewell to Bernard Haitink the evening before, Andrés Orozco-Estrada had a tough act to follow with the Vienna Philharmonic. We needn't have worried. 

An emotional night in London as Bernard Haitink says farewell to London with grand and searching performances of Bruckner and Beethoven, with the distinguished Emanuel Ax in tow.

Polish-born composers Grażyna Bacewicz and Mieczysław Weinberg have not been part of the so-called “musical canon”, but in recent decades we have been fortunate to witness a revival in their music.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's death, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the opera charting the escapades of the Italian goldsmith and sculptor. 

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra bring an entertaining programme of Mozart and Rachmaninov to the Proms, followed by an unexpected “Gift from China to the UK”.

Georgia Jarman proves a flamboyant soloist in Szymanowski's Love Songs of Hafiz. 

Poor diction and lack of heft from some principals mar the composer's last great oratorio. 

Warmly affectionate Vaughan Williams contrasting with angular and psychologically charged Wood, followed by an emotional performance of Elgar's The Music Makers.

The Amatis Trio deliver insightful performances of Clara Schumann's Piano Trio and Three Romances, alongside Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, in their lunchtime Prom at Cadogan Hall.

Making his Proms debut, Cristian Măcelaru opened the evening with music from his countryman, Constantin Silvestri, before tackling Prokofiev and Rachmaninov.

Andris Nelson’s repeated fast upward flicks of the baton were disquieting to watch.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla brings Mieczysław Weinberg to the Proms, in a daring programme including Dorothy Howell and Oliver Knussen. 

Walton's Belshazzar's Feast crowns a dynamic, daring programme from Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra. 

What to put with Beethoven's greatest statement on the universality of the human spirit? The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Sakari Oramo, Neil Ferris and Andreas Haefliger make a case for renewal.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in works by four Russian composers whose UK premieres were all unveiled at the Proms. 

Fine performances of music associated with Queen Victoria, with a royal novelty thrown in to complete a programme marked by commitment and vigour. 

Painting pictures in music can often be stimulating. In a programme inspired by the sea and by pictorial art, Elim Chan, Catriona Morison and the BBC NOW reveal the underlying colour. 

A fascinating new companion piece to Elgar's Enigma Variations, from 14 contemporary composers, in celebration of Martyn Brabbins' 60th birthday, performed with enthusiasm by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

There was vibrancy and subtlety in these cultured performances of Schubert and Lutosławski, with Martha Argerich still showing how it’s done with ‘that’ Tchaikovsky concerto.

The National Youth Orchestra of the USA present a monumental programme of Strauss and Berlioz.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra in exceptionally fine form under Semyon Bychkov explore the links from Schubert to Mahler and the present-day Glanert.

Bruckner for the non-Brucknerian: the Philharmonia plays the Fourth with Schubertian delicacy at the Royal Albert Hall. 

The BBC NOW gave us two hearty Russian works and celebrated the lunar landing with a world premiere of Huw Watkins' The Moon.

The War of the Romantics – Brahms v Wagner – from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nathalie Stutzmann, followed by an energetically powerful Mozart Requiem with the BBC National Chorus of Wales on fine form.

In her Proms debut, Dalia Stasevska's good intentions were were not always fulfilled by the orchestra.

Malcolm Arnold’s overture Peterloo presents the tragic events of the beginnings of the trade union movement. The melodramatic tragedy of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake closes the evening, after Juan Pérez Floristán makes his Proms debut.

The BBC Philharmonic on dazzling form with Rachmaninov, Shostakovich... and a bewitching new work by Outi Tarkiainen.

I’ve heard this concerto a hundred times but it’s never sounded quite like this. It was a coming home.

Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra fills the Royal Albert Hall, while Schumann’s piano concerto is followed by MacMillan’s masterpiece The Confession of Isobel Gowdie. 

The final song seemed to last both an eternity and no time at all.

When Mariss Jansons was forced to withdraw from his orchestra's tour, the BRSO couldn't have found a better step-in than Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Nézét-Séguin draws limpid playing of extreme clarity from the BRSO to provide a telling account of Shostakovich's Fifth.

Strozzi's music is vivid and spectacular: period specialists Flores and Leonardo García Alarcón make a strong case for it, with an emotional slice of Argentina for an encore.

The Proms Youth Chorus and BBC Phil bring brimming new life to Haydn's masterpiece.

Peter Eötvös and the BBC Symphony Orchestra offer a new music and a clever programme for this lively Prom concert. 

Wellber may have lots planned for the BBC Philharmonic over the coming years, but this exciting programme showed that he didn’t want to waste any time delivering.

The Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music and The Julliard School, with Edward Gardner in an impressively ambitious programme, with tragic Britten from James Ehnes, and a remarkable UK premiere from Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

VOCES8 perform choral music spanning 800 years, including a BBC commission from Alexia Sloane, with great energy, articulation and virtuosity in an impressive Proms debut at Cadogan Hall.

Exhilarating Adams and insightful The Planets from the BSO and Karabits, with a Proms debut from Nemanja Radulović in Barber with great presence and warmth.

The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra bring a wonderfully bucolic programme of Czech music to The Proms.