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Simple solutions prove the best in Beethoven's "problem" opera as John Cox's staging is revived at Garsington.

Not with a whimper but a bang! The LPO's new season, with Principal Conductor Edward Gardner in charge, gets off to an impressive start with Mahler's “Resurrection” Symphony. 

Brought to life by some sensational singing from a strong cast, Kosky's staging delivers repeated emotional punches. 

A great orchestral performance of an exciting score don't quite mask the dramatic weaknesses of Opera Rara's latest.

A highly satisfying level of polish in La Monnaie's stream in which one recognizes a precisely executed live performance at its core – one that would be thrilling to experience in person. 

Anssi Karttunen  gracefully mastered the difficulties of Magnus Lindberg's score, marrying the serialist tendencies of his early opuses with more ear-pleasing tonal figments.

A welcome return to the Glyndebourne Festival for Melly Still's staging, which brings out the full emotional range of Dvořák’s fairytale of denial, heartbreak and forgiveness.

A wonderful evening of unforced, smiling music-making from Bernard Haitink, Isabelle Faust and the London Symphony Orchestra. 

Bernard Haitink celebrated an early 90th birthday conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a searching, joyous account of Beethoven's “Choral” Symphony.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's First World War opera both moves and dazzles at the Barbican.

It was especially effective to hear the line “One ever hangs where shelled roads part” with the vast hanging crucifix with its portrait of Christ dominating the scene behind.

An intriguing programme of Britten, Walton, Barber and Copland provided dynamism, evocative imagery and new discoveries in Juanjo Mena’s valedictory concert with the BBC Philharmonic.

Berliner Philharmoniker’s interpretation of Das Paradies und die Peri reaches for the heavens. 

A (nearly) complete performance of the original French version of Don Carlos forms the centrepiece of Daniele Rustioni's Verdi Festival in Lyon. 

Adès opera resists explanation, and the ambiguity of the story drives much of its compelling nature. 

As a composer, what do you do when you are commissioned a full-length orchestral work to commemorate the anniversary of a renowned concert hall? Do you try to write something celebratory? Not in Mark-Anthony Turnage's case. 

Bernard Haitink and LSO forces explore contrasting aspects of two late works by Bruckner.

Luis Buñuel's derision at the sense of entitlement of over-privileged, self-righteous prigs shines through a high quality operatic adaptation.

Mozart's intoxicating harem opera taken captive by the non-singing despot.

Strauss' 'conversation piece' of an opera is given a warmly sympathetic production with the musical rewards coming as much from the pit as the stage.

The Salzburg Festival audience warmly applauded Thomas Adès, Tom Cairns and all musicians for a rounded and gripping première.

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra was in glittering form, while strong singing and acting enhanced each other in the evocative woodland of Claus Guth’s Don Giovanni.

Vaughan Williams and Finzi given the Philharmonia treatment with John Wilson at the helm at the Royal Festival Hall.

After showing in 13 theatres around the world, Robert Carsen’s Dialogues des carmélites returns again to Amsterdam, where it was premiered in 1997. Almost 20 years on, its finale remains a shattering theatrical experience.

You think semi-staged opera is only half the fun? Think again. Glyndebourne's production of Mozart's oriental opera was a revelation.

David McVicar updates Mozart's Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail to the time of composition in a stylish, tender production at Glyndebourne. 

Sunday night's concert saw the LSO on top form, however their partnerships with Christian Tetzlaff and LSO Chorus on either side of the interval produced mixed results. 

Sally Matthews comes home to the South of England to give a beautifully delicate and heart-rending performance of Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the BSO.

The text of Das Paradies und die Peri may be unadulterated Victorian sentimentality, but Schumann's music cannot fail to bewitch in an evening with outstanding singing from Bernarda Fink and Mark Padmore and Simon Rattle leading the LSO on top form.

With an inspired showing in Prague, the Berlin Philharmonic reprises one of the most significant moments in the orchestra's history.

Robert Carsen’s production is an exercise in extreme minimalism. Dialogues des Carmélites is a great opera, and this production touches greatness without quite grasping it in both hands. 

David McVicar's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro returns for its sixth revival at the Royal Opera House, the refinement of the production matched, almost at all times, by the performances. 

On a hot, humid summer’s evening, Sakari Oramo made his debut as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. That the occasion was the first night of the BBC Proms 2013 didn’t seem to bother him. The Finn’s combination of serenity and confidence – and just enough passion to assure us that he was enjoying it – set the tone for an intriguing, if oddly assembled programme.

Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s contribution to the Britten 100 celebrations, was supposed to have been conducted by Sir Colin Davis; it was instead dedicated to his memory following his death last Sunday.

I don’t think Valery Gergiev has ever been out to claim that Brahms and Szymanowski were particularly similar composers. I certainly hope he hasn’t, at any rate, on the basis of his final LSO programme pairing the two of them.

November continues to be a month of poppy art, despite Philip Larkin’s derisory account of “Wreath-rubbish in Whitehall”. As the only flower to survive the ravished soils of the trenches following the First World War, the poppy is replicated in the form of a paper badge to be worn yearly in commemoration of 11 November, the Armistice Day of 1918.

As I took my seat at Saturday’s concert by the Nash Ensemble, one in a series entitled “Dreamers of Dreams” put on as part of their residency at the Wigmore Hall, I wondered what I was about to let myself in for.

Every year, Glyndebourne brings an opera from their festival to the BBC Proms and adapts it to the Royal Albert Hall stage. This year they brought their hottest production of the summer, The Marriage of Figaro (directed at Glyndebourne by Michael Grandage and adapted for the Proms by Ian Rutherford), and it was wonderful to see the Albert Hall packed to rafters.

While Weber is widely acknowledged as being of historic importance as the link in the German operatic tradition between Beethoven and Wagner, his operas are rarely staged in England, and even in concert remain a relative novelty. Curious because this is music of the utmost vitality and beauty and at times he surely borders on genius.

This was the second vocal concert of late (the last being Ariodante with Joyce DiDinato) to feature an exemplary female soloist caged inside an otherwise nondescript performance. Jérémie Rohrer tried in vain to force energy out of French chamber choir Les Elements and period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie.

I sometimes wonder what it must have been like to have been at the first performance of today’s well-known master works. Bach’s St John Passion, for example, or Beethoven’s Eroica and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – and Mahler’s second symphony, the Resurrection.

Le metteur en scène français transpose avec succès l'action dans l'Angleterre des années 1960, bien suivi par l'ensemble de la distribution, très homogène.

Si la mise en scène sombre et dépouillée de Laurent Pelly montre ses limites, Stéphane Degout se distingue pour ses débuts dans le rôle-titre, formidablement suivi par le reste de la distribution.

Dans cette nouvelle production quasi monochrome signée Damiano Michieletto, La Monnaie dévoile un Rosenkavalier magnifiquement mélancolique, porté par la direction d'Alain Altinoglu.

Pour sa dernière apparition parisienne avant de prendre une année sabbatique, le maestro néerlandais a dirigé le London Symphony Orchestra dans une Symphonie n° 4 de Mahler dont on se souviendra longtemps.

Mariss Jansons durchleutet Strauss' Vier letzten Lieder und Bruckners f-Moll-Messe differenziert und genau.

Auch nach 25 Jahren wird der Jahrestag des Mauerfalls in Deutschland mit zahlreichen Veranstaltungen begangen. Auch die Berliner Philharmoniker erinnerten an die Zeit davor, und feierten das Vierteljahrhundert mit gebührend freudigen Tönen.