Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Yannick Nézet-Séguin

A première of Machover's latest City Symphony leaves its mark beyond works by Bernstein and Mussorgsky. 

The Philadelphia Orchestra gives us convincing renditions of Bernstein, Schumann and Strauss.

"She commands the stage, she commands the notes, she commands the tension": Christine Goerke's portrayal of Elektra haunts The Met. 

After Joshua Bell's fine Wieniawski, the Philadelphia Orchestra's account of the Leningrad Symphony took this concert to a higher plane. 

The Met’s production of Wagner’s Parsifal is a harrowing affair, entrancing in its refusal to charm. 

We were drenched in all sorts of dreams about Scotland as the Philadelphia Orchetra celebrated the country in their British Isles Festival

The Philadelphia Orchestra's Winter Festival celebrates the British Isles. 

Three works performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin included few novel musical ideas relative to their lengths.

On the last leg of their first international tour, the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin fully embraced Elgar after a francophone first half of Berlioz and Saint-Saëns. 

An energetic Haydn Seasons for the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and Orchestra.

Yannick leads Philadelphia Orchestra on spiritual journey throug Bruckner's Eighth Symphony. 

Nézet-Séguin's West Side Story in concert mixes passion and politics in Philadelphia.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin's opens season with panache.

On 4th October, the Philadelphia Orchestra opened the Carnegie Hall season with an all 20th-century American program featuring George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

A program that didn't look too exciting on paper was made special by an outstanding interpretation. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin led an intriguing performance of Wagner's Flying Dutchman at the Met with a superb orchestra and an excellent ensemble of singers. 

Jan Lisiecki displays total control in Chopin, troublesome acoustics mar Bernstein and Rachmaninov.

The Philadelphia Orchestra presented an exciting and fresh performance of Swan Lake selections and Bluebeard's Castle, led by its energetic music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Nezet-Seguin and his Philadelphians convey the brilliance and sophistication of France's undisputed "golden age" of classical music with works by six Parisian composers.

Shostakovich proves the highlight of a variable programme in Rotterdam. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s impressive conducting, Tomasz Konieczny’s tortured Telramund and the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper save this performance of  Lohengrin from becoming an ignominious swan song.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted his hometown Orchestre Métropolitain in a concert Hollywood couldn’t have scripted better nor the Cirque du Soleil made more fantastic. 

With exceptional nuance, lead flautist Juliette Hurel demonstrated her Olympian skills in Bruno Mantovani's technically exhausting, often violent work. With the flute in mind, Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s wildly upbeat Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony in C-minor ‘Titan’ made for new discoveries in Bruckner.

Melody and rhythm in abundance, with compelling performances from soloist and orchestra alike.

There may be little profound to say in Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony, but that didn’t stop Nézet-Séguin and the LPO telling it most beguilingly. 

Opéra de Montréal's belated première of Strauss' take on the Greek tragedy is worth the wait, as soprano Lise Lindstrom and wunderkind conductor Yannick Nézét-Séguin lead an exciting, music-driven production.

Impressively, Principal Conductor Nézet-Séguin matched his predecessor, Valery Gergiev, with such high quality Russian repertoire. 

In Rotterdam, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a gracefully contoured Beethoven Sixth Symphony and, together with fabulous vocal and instrumental soloists, reaches core-deep into Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Bartlett Sher’s new production of Verdi's Otello opens the Metropolitan Opera's season in a staging dominated by multimedia sets.

Musical Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin inspired wonderful performances from the American players on the last leg of their European tour. 

In front of an enthusiastic Montréal crowd, Yannick Nézet-Séguin led his orchestra through the varied atmospheres and moods of works by great English composers of the early 20th century.

Great singing from veterans and some visually stunning effects light up the Met's revival of Hytner's 2010 production of Verdi's Don Carlo.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic brought a colorful and exciting program to Hill Auditorium, Detroit.

Hélène Grimaud, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic impress in a colourful programme of 20th century gems. 

The Orchestre Metropolitain’s Scandinavian Escape brought to mind the warmth and familiarity of home in this Sunday concert. 

Lars Vogt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra bring freshness to a programme of German classics. 

In the spirit of Hallowe'en, Mahler’s Second Symphony focuses on the idea of Zombification; however, any mention of eating brains didn’t pass Mahler’s final edits. 

The final performance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin's Brahms cycle with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is decent, but falls short of the excellence of the other three symphonies he performed. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic in an upbeat rendition of Mahler's “Tragic” Sixth Symphony.

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin invokes an unattainable glimpse of heaven in a uniquely crafted Verdi Requiem. 

Lisa Batiashvili joins the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin for smooth, suave Bartók, but Bruckner's Ninth doesn't quite cohere.

Nicholas Angelich's Mendelssohn Piano Concerto reaches places that Nézet-Séguin's and the LPO's Mahler Ninth at the Royal Festival Hall rarely touched. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin explores the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s palette in an intoxicating French programme, celebrating the restoration of the Royal Festival Hall’s organ. 

An honest and subtle performance from Barbara Hannigan in the Dutch première of Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle which tells Ophelia's story. 

The Philadelphia Orchestra doesn’t look much different from any other orchestra, but their most recent program at Carnegie Hall with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin produced at times unbelievable sounds.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin kept the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra sounding especially lively and cohesive in this revival of Otto Schenk's enchanting production of Rusalka, starring Renée Fleming as the water nymph and Piotr Beczala as her lover.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Yannick Nézet-Séguin score personal triumphs with l’Orchestre Métropolitain in their first concert together in thirteen years.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s return to the London Philharmonic, of which he is the Guest Principal Conductor, was as usual greeted with a full and enthusiastic concert hall. His strengths in the French repertoire and choral music made him the perfect conductor for an evening of music by Dutilleux and Shostakovich, whose Tout un monde lointain and Symphony no.

The early 1950s were marked by the world premières of Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 7 (1952), Poulenc’s Piano Concerto (1950) as well as his Stabat Mater (1951). The most recent offering of The Rest is Noise series at the Southbank Centre encouraged us to place these pieces not just in the 1950s, but also in a wider political and cultural context.

Conductor and wunderkind Yannick Nézet-Séguin returned home to Montreal to lauch the 33rd season of L’Orchestre Métropolitain with a concert dedicated to compositions written or created a century ago in 1913.