Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Robert Davies

Handel's Christmas classic gets a fresh lick of paint from John Butt and colleagues. 

Handel's psychotic Tartar leader and bedhopping nobles are well served in an excellent collaboration between the Buxton Festival and the English Concert with some outstanding singing from Marie Lys and Owen Willetts.

In the Nederlandse Reisopera's Così fan tutte, the team of young soloists and the Orkest van het Oosten conducted by Arnaud Oosterbaum give a musically rewarding performance that compensates for an unconvincing stage direction.

Talented young soloists and conductor Benjamin Levy's lithe way with Bizet's melodies make for a musically satisfying Pearl Fishers at the Royal Carré in Amsterdam.

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. 

On the night of 29 December, 1940, after a brief respite over Christmas, German bombers roared back over Britain. They dropped numerous incendiary bombs on the City of London, causing massive destruction, loss of life, and uncontrollable fires that raged for days. Miraculously, St Paul’s Cathedral survived the onslaught intact, even as much of the surrounding neighbourhood was reduced to rubble.

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.

Passion is not for the faint-hearted. This performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion weighed in at three hours (excluding interval). However, my attention did not waver, and this seemed true of the rest of enraptured audience.

There's nothing like a Brandenburg to blow away Christmas cobwebs. Alongside contrasting cantatas, the Dunedin Consort offered the 3rd and 5th from Bach's 1721 set of six concerti grossi. This made for a compact and nicely balanced programme, contrasting the sacred with the secular and vocal with purely instrumental timbres.

Die English Baroque Soloists und der Monteverdi Choir sorgten mit ihrer unnachahmlich frischen, plastisch-emotionalen Art einen rauschenden, unvergesslich vitalisierendes Jubiläumsbeitrag.

"Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie leben im Leipzig des 18. Jahrhunderts," entführt Dirigent Haselböck sein Publikum in die Welt von überirdisch strahlenden Klängen der Geigen, Pauken und Trompeten und des jubelnden Chors - die Welt von Bachs Kantaten.