Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Magdalena Kožená

Reuniting two old friends and collaborators, the Staatsoper Berlin presents a new production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée, with mixed results. 

A Wigmore Hall recital to take the listener from the Belle Époque to the acceptable face of modernism. 

A Schumann premiere at the BBC Proms, revived with loving care by Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO. 

Magdalena Kožená provides a compelling case for two little-heard Martinů song cycles; Rattle and the Czech Phil are competent but not altogether convincing in Schumann.

Amanda Majeski reprises her peerless Kátya, but Katarina Dalayman's flint-like characterisation as Kabanicha strikes the most sparks.

With fresh programming and superb performances, artists-in-residence Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle add another dimension to the Czech Philharmonic season.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle is remembered by Edward Gardner before a performance of Deep Time, followed by Mahler's Song of the Earth. 

Problems of balance bedevilled a fine programme of some of Weill's most bitter, ironical works which improved substantially after the interval.

 Andrea Marcon and La Cetra give the first modern performance of Geminiano Giacomelli’s opera La Merope at the Concertgebouw. 

Magdalena Kožená's excellence of tone and line in her first two songs did not prepare us for her profundity in Der Abschied.

Simon Rattle continues his European travels, returning to the Philharmonie im Gasteig for a fine programme with the outstanding Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

The Met revives Robert Carsen's updated production of Der Rosenkavalier with a strong cast led by Camilla Nylund.  Sir Simon Rattle led the Met Orchestra in an inspired and detailed reading of the score.

In music by Janaček and Dvořák, Kožená seemed to just enjoy the freedom to perform in her native idiom. 

Mozart's Symphony no. 40 gets the chop, split into four movements interspersed with arias sung by Czech mezzo Magdalena Kožená. 

Excellent musical performances are confounded by clumsy, unimaginative staging in Rameau's explosive first opera.

Neither Simon Rattle nor Magdalena Kožena could resist a tendency to add sentiment.

Rattle’s versatility was on display in the wide range of the menu, yet he found greater affinity in Schubert and Mahler than in French Baroque. 

Delayed by torrential rain, the Enescu Festival's all-Handel concert took a while to get going, but was an utter delight once it did. 

There's no faulting the execution, but the former Python's take on Berlioz's dramatic legend is worryingly inconsistent in tone. 

It's not his most commonly performed work, but with a crack team of vocal (and orchestral) soloists, Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra gave a fabulous account of Vivaldi's only surviving oratorio.

An outstanding premiere of Bohuslav Martinů's Juliette at the Schiller Theater in Berlin has a delighted public jumping to their feet with applause.

A roster of star performers and a sprinkling of maestro magic turn this semi-staged concert into a memorable event. Shame about the big ideas.

Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic present Elgar's Dream of Gerontius as a well crafted gem of  the English choral tradition, but fall short of a dramatic outpouring of human emotion and religious fervour.

The idea of bringing together a country’s best players from all around the world to show off their combined might is all too familiar for football fans during any FIFA World Cup. It is far less common, indeed, almost unknown in classical music.

In their recital together Wednesday night at the Wiener Staatsoper, mezzo Magdalena Kožená and star pianist Mitsuko Uchida reminded their audiences that they are wonderfully capable musicians capable of great color, finesse and technical prowess. 

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker thrill a packed Concertgebouw with Lachenmann’s startling Tableau, for orchestra and a grand and terrifying Mahler Second.

Triumphant Mahler from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, strong performances from Kate Royal and Magdalena Kožená, and total commitment and energy from the London Symphony Chorus and the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus.

The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in collaboration with Peter Sellars, brings their superb dramatic performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion to New York.

Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic give a unique and hugely poignant performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, staged by Peter Sellars.

Programming is one of Simon Rattle’s fortes, and this was clearly evident her. Both works on the programme, Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time are large-scale oratorios dealing with difficult subject matter.

On Sunday night Shriver Hall was packed with Baltimore opera fans who had gathered to enjoy a solo recital of the internationally acclaimed opera “anti-diva” Magdalena Kožená. True to her reputation, this Czech mezzo-soprano came on stage dressed in a casual black gown, which (ignoring the dress change tradition established by her stage colleagues) she chose to wear all night long.

Classical music is often portayed as being very serious, which is part of what makes it seem inaccessible at times. But this is a mistake: there are plenty of pieces that are, in a word, fun.

Returning after an absence of twelve years, Sir Simon Rattle—in his apprentice years back in the 1980s the orchestra’s principal guest conductor, now arguably the most well known and respected conductor of our day—led the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Thursday night after an absence of twelve years.

Let’s talk about love. Magdalena Kožená’s ‘Lettere Amorose' will be touring Europe from now until just after Valentine’s Day. Yes, love, because anyone imagining that the subject matter of these songs from the early seventeenth century will be sweetness or light (or for that matter chocolates or lingerie) will be severely disappointed.Handle with care.

Some in the audience stormed to their feet at curtain call with exuberant bravos for the cast and conductor. Others walked out at the first intermission. “A monumental success,” one claimed. “The worst opera I’ve ever seen,” another said leaving the theater.

Ein aufwühlender Opernabend, an dem vor allem in der Musik das grandiose Drama stattfand.

Les Musiciens du Louvre, agrupación dirigida por Minkowski, fue la auténtica protagonista de la Alcina del ciclo Universo Barroco.

La mezzo-soprano et l'orchestre placé sous la direction précise de Kaspar Zehnder ont fait forte impression dans les dix Chants bibliques op. 99 de Dvořák.

L'Orchestre baroque de Fribourg dirigé par Sir Simon Rattle livre une interprétation formidable du chef-d'œuvre de Rameau, avec une distribution exceptionnelle jusque dans les importants rôles secondaires.

La nouvelle création de Kaija Saariaho est une grande œuvre musicale mal servie cependant par une mise en scène façon Netflix de Simon Stone.

Zwischen Purcell und einer Uraufführung von Adámek: zwei Konzerte mit opulenter Programmfolge an einem Abend.

La saison bruxelloise s'ouvre sur un événement : la création de Macbeth Underworld de Pascal Dusapin. L'œuvre inégale est portée par la mise en scène de Thomas Jolly et la performance des solistes.

L’Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment et la mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená ont proposé mercredi dernier au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées un concert-récital de haut vol, entre Symphonie n° 40 de Mozart et airs classiques.

El grupo francés Le Concert d’Astrée, dirigido por su fundadora Emmanuelle Haïm, interpretaron un programa de fragmentos operísticos de dos compositores fundamentales en el desarrollo de la música francesa: Marc-Antoine Charpentier y Jean-Philippe Rameau. Lo hicieron de la mano de una de las mezzosopranos más destacadas en el panorama internacional, Magdalena Kožená.

Das Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks führten Schumanns „Rheinische" und Mahlers Lied von der Erde unter der Leitung von Sir Simon Rattle im Münchner Herkulessaal auf.

Ein leidenschaftlicher Wunschzettel mit außergewöhnlichem Standardrepertoire, bei dem vor allem ein variabler Schubert und ein elektrisierend lebendiger Bartók begeisterten.

Teatro Real nos trae un diálogo entre los distantes mundos de la canción barroca y el flamenco, un intento de romance artístico que en esta ocasión no llegó a consumarse.