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Sir Mark Elder opens his mini Elgar festival with a deeply spirtual Dream of Gerontius.

The five female voices in the opera's main roles complement each other wonderfully in this more-than-concert performance in New York. 

This Evangelist had just come straight from Golgotha, where he had witnessed events so momentous he was compelled to recount them at once.

Nine symphonies, five orchestras, two days: an immersive weekend as part of the Barbican's Beethoven 250 coverage featuring some of the UK's finest orchestras. 

A lithe and engaging performance of Handel's festive regular from Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

A semi-staged Dido from the Academy of Ancient Music and the speculative funeral music for a queen.

Geraint Bowen directs the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonic Orchestra at Hereford Cathedral in two works once unfairly dismissed.

Peter Nardone directs the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra in a problematic yet thought-provoking opening concert at Worcester Cathedral.

The MSO and some suitably angelic singers deliver a remarkably bright, joyous interpretation of an already uplifting oratorio.

Mark Le Brocq portrays a convincing Gerontius while other soloists, choir and orchestra deliver a fine, moving performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

An operatic take on The Winter's Tale – categorised as one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays’ – premieres at English National Opera. 

Three English composers receive fine performances from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

A verdant and heavenly setting for The Creation

Lars Vogt and Royal Northern Sinfonia end their explorations of Mozart and Sibelius with the composers' final works.

Masaaki Suzuki’s debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Intelligently staged and brilliantly sung, Scottish Opera can be justly proud of their new production of Ariodante. It is all about the oranges really.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus were on top form, joined by a team of Baroque soloists under Handel expert Harry Bicket to produce a memorable Theodora.

How to compare Nielsen and Ives? Possible similarities aside, however, the impact of their work is, on the whole, wildly contrasting.

A report from the 2015 Three Choirs Festival, held this year in the cathedral city of Hereford. 

The LSO, led by Edward Gardner, delivered a moving and profound performance of Haydn's Creation despite the acoustic challenges of St Paul's. 

Weddings bring out the cynic in me. They also bring out the cynic in Don Alfonso and it’s at a wedding breakfast that John Fulljames sets his production of Così fan tutte. 

Orient meets Occident in three performances of English works conducted by the Japanese maestro Tadaaki Otaka.

From its stunningly filmic opening to its faux-Golgotha finale, the Royal Opera House’s new production of Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny demands our attention. 

As Autumn sets in, the City of London Sinfonia give us a final taste of Midsummer in a charming and diverse concert. 

Prom 23 contained a mixed programme of McLeod, Beethoven and Mozart. Whilst each piece was enjoyable in its own right, and some truly outstanding musicianship was evident throughout the evening, the lack of connection between the pieces left a feeling of unsettledness.

From the insistent, driving opening to the sublime transcendence of the closing chorale, Norrington, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and James Gilchrist give us a St John Passion to remember.

Polyphony live up to their reputation, performing Bach's St John Passion with intensity and dynamism, in a performance only marred by some routine orchestral playing. 

Profound, fair and thought-provoking, Handel's Theodora argues for faith as a personal journey, not a political decree. The English Concert brought their rendition to the Barbican Centre in London.

The English Concert and Harry Bicket bring Theodora to Carnegie Hall, with Dorothea Röschmann, David Daniels and Sarah Connolly.

Offenbach’s wrongfully neglected masterpiece has returned to us at last, thanks to the concerted efforts of Opera Rara, the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment and Sir Mark Elder; and, above all, because of the tireless, lifelong devotion of one man: Jean-Christophe Keck.

The last night of the Bristol Proms was experimental. A full house at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre was greeted by artistic director Tom Morris to introduce this semi-staged version of Handel’s Messiah – last performed in the venue in 1782, when it was too sacrilegious for churches. Morris said that Handel was “a dramatist”, and to honour this, he took a more theatrical route with this performance.

An orgy of British music greeted an appreciative audience at the Barbican last night courtesy of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by British music enthusiast John Wilson. But it certainly wasn’t all Land of Hope and Glory, or indeed The Lark Ascending, with three contrasting pieces – all now sadly neglected in the concert hall.Walton’s Scapino overture really set things in motion with a bang.

New York is again lucky to host William Christie and Les Arts Florissants at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their visits are always special, and it’s not just because the unique nature of their repertory – Baroque opera, usually French, which is neglected by most of New York’s major companies – nor the virtuosic ease with which they embody this otherwise-foreign idiom.

Bach’s Passion according to St John the Evangelist is not an easy work. Whilst saying I am a “fan” of Bach is one of the greatest understatements possible, this Passion is nonetheless an intense work for any concert-goer (seasoned or amateur) including myself. Over two hours in length, it is a test on both the audience and, quite obviously, the performers.

Conductor H.K. Gruber’s visits to the BBC Philharmonic are guaranteed to be unmissable concerts of the season; with unquenchable enthusiasm and pride in the music he programmes, Gruber, (known affectionately to all as “Nali”), always assures a stirring performance.

Who better to direct an all-Haydn programme than Adam Fischer? Co-founder of the Haydn Festival, he also founded the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, who recorded the composer’s entire symphonic output in Haydn Hall of the Esterházy Palace, Eisenstadt, Haydn’s former place of employment.

This, the final indoor concert of the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival (the closing Fireworks Concert takes place under the Castle Rock in Princes Street Gardens), was bookended by possibly the loudest and quietest sounds in the festival.Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question opens with a delicate mist of pianissimo strings.

In a castle in mediaeval Denmark, King Waldemar and Tove sing rapturously of their love. But dark deeds are afoot: a Wood Dove tells us that Tove has been murdered by Waldemar's jealous queen, Waldemar berates God, he and his men are condemned to rise from their graves every night and ride in a wild hunt - all this to the accompaniment of a giant, brass-laden orchestra playing a lush, opulent symp

One of the most sophisticated offerings in the 2012 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence is a new production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s David et Jonathas.

They are sadly few in number, but some things in this St. John Passion I can report in mildly positive terms would include Stephen Layton’s hand-selected choir Polyphony, whose members dealt with Bach’s demanding vocal lines capably and sang in clear, idiomatic German; bass-baritone Neal Davies (a perfectly respectable if not overly engaging Christ); and Derek Welton’s robustly s

An outstanding lineup of soloists joined Bernard Labadie at Carnegie Hall Sunday for a performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion. Hearing Labadie conduct his own ensemble Les Violons du Roy and the chamber choir La Chapelle de Québec with such a superb group of soloists was truly a treat indeed.

Hijacking, murder and terror on the high seas: you might expect that The Death of Klinghoffer, John Adams's 1991 opera about the Palestinian hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro has all the makings of a pot-boiling thriller. But you would be wrong: Adams and his librettist Alice Goodman have other fish to fry.

Before attending Sir Mark Elder and the Britten Sinfonia’s performance of L’enfance du Christ, I could have claimed to be almost entirely ignorant of Berlioz’s music. The only exception – apart from an innocuous bucolic passage from Harold in Italy I ‘studied’ at A-level – was ‘The Shepherd’s Farewell’, which makes my Christmas chocolate box list annually.

“Off with their heads!” I vividly recall being terrorized as a preschooler hearing Walt Disney’s sadistic, loud-mouthed Queen of Hearts thunder these signature lines. I have since learned that decapitation as capital punishment is not exclusive to the fictional Queen of Hearts of Lewis Carroll and Walt Disney, but rather grim historical reality.

Bernard Labadie réalise un sans-faute à la tête des Violons du Roy et de La Chapelle de Québec dans deux bijoux du répertoire sacré de la fin du XVIIIe siècle. 

Cette nouvelle production du plus écossais des opéras de Haendel s’en tire avec les honneurs, malgré un orchestre à la peine.

Zusammen mit dem Chor war für mich der Countertenor Iestyn Davies der klare Höhepunkt des Abends