Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Freddy Kempf

The St Petersburg Philharmonic unleash all the unstoppable forces of Russian excess in a programme of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev at Sage Gateshead.

Manchester's highly polished Northern Chamber Orchestra is joined by Freddy Kempf to deliver a highly enjoyable performance, full of vim and vigour.

With a smaller programme and a humbler premise, the stars of the show – those young, immensely talented performers – could have shone even brighter

An earthy – if slow – Pictures at an Exhibition from Yuri Simonov and the Moscow Philharmonic in Basingstoke is like a musical step back in time. 

Beethoven gets the mock-period treatment from Michael Sanderling and the Dresden Philharmonic in the first of three concerts at Cadogan Hall.

A disappointing take on three Beethoven masterpieces from Freddy Kempf and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. 

The St Petersburg SO and Alexander Dmitriev give a thoughtful and accomplished programme in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall

An altogether warmer experience on Bonfire Night was enjoyed at Holt’s Auden Theatre, for a performance by one of today’s most successful and busy concert pianists, Freddy Kempf.

A neighbour at a recent visiting orchestra’s Edinburgh Festival concert asked me what I thought of the atonal frenzy in the pre-performance free-for-all; warm-up scales mingled with sneak peeks at tricky passages. My response was that a school orchestra would not be allowed to do this.

Love was definitely in the air at Freddy Kempf’s St. Valentine’s Day Concert. He gave a passion-filled performance of Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, ‘Pathétique’ to open the night, which was fitting with the nature of the title. The true ‘Pathétique’ should have passionate expression that should be felt by the heart and transcend mere variations in tempo.

Last night’s concert with the RPO under the baton of Artistic Director Charles Dutoit began with Mussorgsky’s orchestral showpiece, Night on a Bare Mountain. The piece describes the dreadful antics of three witches as they await the Devil’s appearance on a spooky mountain top.