Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Andrew Staples

A Schumann premiere at the BBC Proms, revived with loving care by Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO. 

Few musicians in the world can ever have had such a strong connection to a composer as The Hallé and Elder have developed with Elgar over the last quarter of a century. 

Daniel Harding made a memorable debut with the Czech Philharmonic, aided by a superb chorus and cast of singers.

Amanda Majeski reprises her peerless Kátya, but Katarina Dalayman's flint-like characterisation as Kabanicha strikes the most sparks.

A cabinet of curiosities: Christoph Koncz has an unconventional take on two Viennese symphonies, yet contributes well to an exemplary performance of Britten's most famous song cycle.

Massed Hungarian forces impress in a monumental performance of Berlioz' grand work under Howard Williams' baton.

The festival's final concert marks several endings, including the fulfilment of Sir Andrew Davis' Elgar oratorio cycle with the RSNO.

Finally reaching the stage of the Venetian theatre, Benjamin Britten's first major opera meets with success thanks to Juraj Valčuha's conducting, Paul Curran's staging and an excellent cast.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle is remembered by Edward Gardner before a performance of Deep Time, followed by Mahler's Song of the Earth. 

Problems of balance bedevilled a fine programme of some of Weill's most bitter, ironical works which improved substantially after the interval.

 It is rare for the LSO to take a literal and metaphorical back seat at one of their own concerts, but they supplied every instrumental need in Haydn's joyous oratorio. 

Stepping in for Sir Simon Rattle, Marc Minkowski's balanced, lyrical approach to Schumann's oratorio proves successful.

Whether one considers Messiah to be really appropriate for Christmas, it always a welcome gift for the Handel aficionado, and this performance from Rotterdam, while suffering some unfortunate cuts, is an otherwise solid musical offering.

Under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Zurich’s fine Tonhalle Orchestra, The Monteverdi Choir and soloists launch a sonorous holiday season with Hector Berlioz’s sacred oratorio L’Enfance du Christ.

Domingo Hindoyan has a bright future in Liverpool, as he conducts his new orchestra in Beethoven's Ninth.

The Berlin Philharmonic, reunited with its former chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle, framed Britten’s Serenade, commandingly sung by tenor Andrew Staples, with two complementary sets of orchestral variations.

Magdalena Kožená's excellence of tone and line in her first two songs did not prepare us for her profundity in Der Abschied.

A program of Beethoven and Mahler from the Budapest Festival Orchestra celebrated the beauty and terror of the natural world.

Andrew Staples creates an austere, monochrome semi-staging that's strangely appropriate to the times; Peter Mattei and John Lundgren lead an excellent cast.

Not at any point did Mr. Staples give the impression that he was summoned for the role on such a short notice

Despite theatrical drawbacks, this Wozzeck is heartily recommend due to Yannick Nézet-Séguin's staggering understanding of all facets of Berg's score.

Daniel Harding conducts a handsome, moving account of Berlioz' Symphonie dramatique with the Berliner Philharmoniker. 

The performance was technically flawless, but left our reviewer unmoved.

Although both Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony and Mendelssohn's Hymn of Praise explore the role religion plays in the cultivation of the human spirit, they are in many aspects sharply contrasting works. This made for an appealing concert by Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain and their conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Challenging and vivid Bach in the first UK showing of Peter Sellars' staging of Bach's great liturgical masterpiece.

Amanda Majeski is magnificent in the title role; Ed Gardner shows total master of Janáček's music. But that's not enough to rescue a poorly thought out Richard Jones production.

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.

Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera Orchestra get the Ring cycle off to a blazing start; unusually, it's Lise Davidsen and the female cast who take the vocal honours.

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

Das Lied von der Erde may have been down-sized but it lost none of its stature in the Aurora Orchestra’s performance of a chamber arrangement of Mahler’s great song-symphony.

Edo de Waart opted frequently for slow, steady tempi that robbed the music of a lot of its inner vitality.

Like most honest listeners I crave a taste of turpitude in Salome.

The MSO and some suitably angelic singers deliver a remarkably bright, joyous interpretation of an already uplifting oratorio.

At the Barbican last night, Gerald Finley, John Adams and the BBC Symphony Orchestra combined to deliver the heaviest operatic punch I’ve been subjected to all year.

The Oslo Philharmonic was left to tell the story due to some rather emotionless singing.

The Czech Philharmonic brings The Epic of Gilgamesh to life with audacity and flair.

Setting the opera in the backyard of a suburban house feels refreshingly honest: the ridiculous and simplistic tale of the evil witch, the prince and the maiden is rightfully returned to the arena of children's games, and adults look on indulgently, with a wink.

Pianist, composer and polymath Stephen Hough joined The Prince Consort for an evening of intriguing and startling gems, and a world première of Hough’s own witty, intricate, intimate and beautifully arresting art songs.

As Esa-Pekka Salonen resumes his Stravinsky series, he turns his attention to three underperformed works based on key figures of Greek mythology: Orpheus, Apollo and Persephone.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the Hallé in works by Bach, Stravinsky and Schumann.

Simon Rattle and the combined forces of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus dazzled in a large-scale rendition of Haydn's oratorio that retained the speed, dexterity and precision of a period-instrument performance. 

Fingers and bows fluttered through dance-like figures and virtuosic passages packed with trills with astonishing clarity and brilliance.

Daniel Harding's love for Schumann's genre-defying work brought some strong playing from the LSO and deeply moving singing from his soloists and chorus.

Kasper Holten's new production fails to convince about the alleged virtues of Wagner's outcast comic opera.

The Aurora Orchestra defies tradition and turns Britten’s ghostly Turn of the Screw into a kind of a dramatic ‘installation’

A successful concert hall Rake's Progress at the Edinburgh International Festival with an impressively strong cast of singers, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Conservatoire Voices under Sir Andrew Davis.

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.

The BBC SSO and Ilan Volkov close EIF 2014's contemplations on 'Conflict and Culture' with dark Mills and dramatic Janáček.