Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Greg Skidmore

I Fagiolini and the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble give a very special performance at Kings Place. 

An outstanding performance from Christina Pluhar's army of generals, but a flawed Barbican live stream. 

Ex Cathedra's Chorus in fine voice for a "small scale" Messiah in Birmingham. 

Any venue, cathedral or concert hall, that advertises a Good Friday performance of J.S. Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion is likely to sell out; even Birmingham’s vast Symphony Hall is no exception, today being full to bursting with eager parishioners making their annual pilgrimage to wallow in Bach’s all-consuming musical ministry.

The scene is 1612 in Venice: a great battle has been won against the dreaded Ottoman Empire, and in celebration, evening prayers are ordered to be set to music specially composed by the great Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi and others.