Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | David Wilson-Johnson

The Orchestra of the 18th Century proves the main asset of a rewarding Don Giovanni at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. 

Guest conductor Charles Dutoit returned to Los Angeles for a program devoted to one of the composers he is most closely associated with. 

Nearly 30 years after its European première, Nixon in China returns to Amsterdam for an engrossing concert performance in which the Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, led by Kevin John Edusei, shines.

Detlev Glanert's first religious composition, a staggering Requiem for solo voices, two choirs and orchestra, pits the demonic against the angelic, and is worthy of the genius it celebrates.

Fine Dutilleux celebration sandwiched between brilliant Schoenberg and patchy Mahler.

Under the baton of Simon Wright, the RLPO and the Leeds Festival Chorus gave an exciting rendition of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.

Leeds Festival and Leeds Philharmonic Choir joined the BBC Philharmonic in a splendid performance of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.

As Britain prepares to celebrate the centenary of World War One, Britten's War Requiem brings a remarkable start to the Worcester Three Choirs Festival.

It’s so good to hear Tippett’s ravishing opera, The Midsummer Marriage, performed in full at the Proms, particularly in Britten’s centenary year. Tippet’s work is like an antidote to Britten’s drier, more literal operatic style – so overflowing with warmth, colour and hope.

When most of us feel like we’re getting a little stale with a piece of work we’re doing – when the thoughts, words or ideas are drying up – we stop for a coffee, stretch our legs, or do a bit of internet browsing. When Richard Wagner realised inspiration was running low for Siegfried, he decided to have a break from it too.

Handel’s original version of Acis and Galatea was written in 1717–18 at Cannons, a stately home in Middlesex. Composed with light orchestration, it was not meant to be performed in an opera theatre, but rather in this private mansion.

With such a star-studded line-up at a concert that had been sold out for weeks, this was always going to be an evening to remember. Bach’s St Matthew Passion is one of those iconic pieces that never gets old, and every time I hear the throbbing bass of the opening chorus, I still get a tingle of excitement.

The music of Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius (1862–1934) is a love or hate affair. Whether you bask in the romantic lushness of his godless and nature-influenced ramblings, or find yourself drowning in a poor-quality school soup consisting of unappetisingly vague harmonic shifts, he is a composer that inspires passionate discussion.

The ‘semi-opera’ was an English musical and spoken theatre hybrid which by the end of the 17th century had begun to scrape the bottom of Restoration drama’s literary barrel, and by the 18th had been rendered obsolete by efforts to introduce the English to formal opera from the continent.

An element of conflict inhabits the combination of an evening out and a requiem mass. This thought ran through my mind as I approached Edinburgh's Usher Hall, the sunny foreground of which was populated by happy-looking concert-goers greeting friends.

For lovers of choral music, a Bach Passion or Handel’s Messiah are as much part of Easter as chocolate eggs, and this year’s musical treat at the Sage Gateshead was Bach’s St John Passion, played by Northern Sinfonia with debut guest conductor Matthew Hall.

Eine etwas zu besinnliche Messias-Tradition verhindert ein spannenderes, abwechslungsreicheres Erlebnis, das aber vom Ensemble hervorragend musiziert wurde.

Une bien belle soirée ravélienne, qui aura mis en valeur un Orchestre de la Suisse Romande décidémment en grande forme sous la direction raffinée de Charles Dutoit, expert de la musique française.