Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Mark Padmore

An evening of English repertoire at King's Place where the pleasures were flecked with disappointments. 

The Royal Opera's first revival of George Benjamin's medieval shocker is characterised by stellar singing performances, notably from Barbara Hannigan and Iestyn Davies.

AS part of his "Perspectives" series at Carnegie Hall, Sir Simon Rattle takes time to coach young musicians in a controversial modern score.

Mark Padmore's fine Wigmore Hall recital could have borne the title The Fallen Man as two of the works chart the downfall of men, albeit in very different ways. 

Songs of the Sea, the opening concert of the Leeds Lieder Festival, leaves the audience in a happy and buoyant mood.

John Eliot Gardiner assembled the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists for a moving performance of JS Bach's great oratorio.

The superb Monteverdi Chorus and the English Baroque Soloists recently brought a kind a seraphic force to Bach's St Matthew Passion.

A full-sized LPO première a bewildering new mass setting by Alexander Raskatov that misses the mark and sits uneasily alongside Beethoven's great ode to nature. 

Mark Padmore gives a matchless demonstration of English singing as he and the English Concert follow 18th century historian Charles Burney on his travels around Europe.

Mark Padmore and Kristian Bezuidenhout conclude their trilogy of Schubert song cycles at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival with a brave and profoundly moving account of Winterreise.

Ryan Wigglesworth proves a fine interpreter of not only his own work in his return visit to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

If Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, then Boris Godunov is about five Russian dolls' worth.

Two short works by Harrison Birtwistle put forward interesting views of classical themes: the psychologically involved The Corridor and a dynamic new vision of Medea, The Cure. 

Composed for Peter Pears and Dennis Brain, Britten's Sereande for Tenor, Horn and Strings presents fearsome challenges for performers. Mark Padmore and Katy Woolley met those challenges superbly.

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.

Thank goodness for the BBCSO! The London concert season would be far less colourful without it...

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.

This BAM production of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd, imported from Glyndebourne, achieves the rare distinction of making a great performance out of a decidedly mediocre work.

A revelatory concert at Wigmore Hall of late works by Michael Tippett, featuring exemplary performances by Steven Osborne, Mark Padmore, Craig Ogden and the Heath Quartet.

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and Britten Sinfonia succeeded in creating a dynamic and captivating programme at Milton Court, with a series of works conceived as a whole and leading up to Britten's Serenade.

One of the key points underlying Southbank Centre’s epic festival The Rest is Noise is to place 20th-century music in its historical context, to show that this music – which might otherwise be considered intimidating – is more than just abstract sounds.

The silence at the end of the concert said it all. To have plunged the attention of the entire Royal Albert Hall into utter silence for a whole minute after the music has finished was an impressive feat. Such was the audience response to Mark Padmore’s closing walk down the back of the stage, as Captain Vere.

You can view Britten’s Billy Budd as an opera about the failure of words. When the angelic sailor Billy is falsely accused by his superior office Claggart, his stammer prevents him from defending himself and he lashes out, fatally.

The consequence of any war is destruction, and though ancient buildings continue to crumble under the terrific blast of modern warfare, the spirit of a people undefeated invariably gives way to creation with renewed fervour.

Celebrating Britten’s centenary, tonight’s performance of his five canticles seemed particularly fitting. Written throughout his composing career, they are a testament to the composer’s affinity for poetry and skill at writing with particular performers in mind, and they provide an intimate commentary on Britten’s large-scale works.

Pleasantly enough, Britten Sinfonia went down a thoroughly unconventional route in celebrating their 20th birthday at the Barbican on Saturday, with a brilliantly varied range of new pieces mixing with chamber orchestra classics.

Dichterliebe is a Lieder programme staple but performances of Schumann’s anti-song cycle, the Op. 39 Liederkreis, are much harder to come by.

A small audience had the honour of two big names on stage and enthusiasts of Schubert would agree that there were no two bigger names to have performed the evening's programme than Paul Lewis and Mark Padmore. They gave an intimate chamber performance of songs by Beethoven and Schubert, received with calls of “Bravo!” and whistles.

Tonight’s was an historic performance, so first, a few dates. On 14th November 1940, Luftwaffe bombing raids destroyed much of the medieval centre of Coventry, including most of its cathedral. On 30th May 1962, Benjamin Britten’s specially-commissioned War Requiem was premièred by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Sir Basil Spence’s newly consecrated cathedral.

Tirolian composer Thomas Larcher has always struck me as a musician in the mold of that great Austrian stylistic dabbler, Ernst Krenek.

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is a monumental piece of music: literally, architecturally and aesthetically. It is a literal monument because of its creation for Coventry Cathedral, that architectural testament to the creative and destructive powers of man.

Last night brought Mark Padmore (tenor) and Paul Lewis (piano) to the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford for a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise, Schubert’s setting of a text by the short-lived lyric poet Wilhelm Müller. The poems focus on a ‘wanderer’ whose only friend is his shadow, having been rejected by his sweetheart in favour of a new lover.

Depuis leur intégrale Beethoven, qui avait obtenu à Paris un succès considérable, nous n’avions pas eu l’occasion de reparler des Berliner Philharmoniker. Ultime étape de leur tournée d’adieu avec Sir Simon Rattle, la Philharmonie accueillait de nouveau ce dimanche la phalange berlinoise.

Mark Padmore est aujourd’hui l’un des Évangélistes les plus renommés et expérimentés de la scène internationale. Pour ce concert qu'il dirige aussi il a choisi un effectif de 16 chanteurs pour l'ensemble des parties vocales.