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Mark Elder brought the Hallé down to the Royal Albert Hall for an interesting programme of Dukas, Respighi and Puccini.

Directed by Gerard McBurney, this concert recreated the marathon Akademie conducted by Beethoven in Vienna which saw the premieres of four major works. 

The Planets and Sinfonia antartica could be the Cav and Pag of British music.

What you will find in Mahler's Third is music which resonates with every part of your life. Esa-Pekka Salonen proves an indefatigable and sure-footed guide.

Staggering performances from Esa-Pekka Salonen and Philharmonia in John Adams’s sonic journey, Naïve and Sentimental Music, and Marianne Crebassa exquisite in Ravel’s Shéhérazade.

Despite being a little rough and ready at times, the Rodolfus Choir and superb Philharmonia captured a moving sense of stillness in these two popular works

Verdi’s masterpiece dazzled a packed Festival Hall on Thursday night. 

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.

Fine Dutilleux celebration sandwiched between brilliant Schoenberg and patchy Mahler.

A powerful and well-paced Mahler 3 from Jakub Hrůša and the Philharmonia, with heartfelt sadness and rich tone from Bernarda Fink.

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

Juha Hemánus' terrific semi-staging of Peer Gynt, using Grieg's incidental music, is the impresses at the Royal Festival Hall. 

The Philharmonia Orchestra celebrated its 70th birthday with a gala comprising Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, conducted by the orchestra's Honorary Conductor for Life, Christoph von Dohnányi

Fervent flag-waving is usually reserved for the Last Night of the Proms, so what was going on in this Philharmonia concert? The Arena was awash with a sea of red flags, the chorus – and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen – were decked out in T-shirts bearing portraits of Lenin or Stalin.

The Philharmonia Orchestra's Paris: City of Light 1900–1950 reaches its climax, where Debussy and Messiaen combine for a radiant, dazzling programme. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard crowns an emotionally intense Turangalîla-symphonie.

In the third concert presentation of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in London this season, the Philharmonia's semi-staged attempt, conducted by Jakub Hrůša, was admirable. 

The Philharmonia's City of Light season goes from strength to strength with an outstanding performance of Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and Dutilleux's Correspondances.

With the Philharmonia on top form, a superlative cast and clever touches of direction, this was a truly stunning concert performance of Debussy's only opera.

Esa-Pekka Salonen opened the Philharmonia season with a taut, driven Berlioz Requiem, epic, if somewhat constrained by the scale of the Festival Hall.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in a fine account of Mahler's mighty “Symphony of a Thousand”, culminating in a dramatic realisation of Faust's redemption.

A ruthless Russian leader quelling revolt and uniting his country through waging war on its neighbours: the theme of Sergei Eisenstein’s film Ivan the Terrible, intended as a Soviet propagandist parable, raises a knowing eyebrow even today. Excerpts from Prokofiev’s score formed the bulk of this raucously enjoyable concert by the Philharmonia under Vladimir Ashkenazy, beneath a screening of key scenes from the film itself.

Die Fledermaus is as quintessentially Viennese as zithers and Schnitzel. In John Wilson, the Philharmonia and a fine ensemble cast, we should have had all the ingredients for a memorable matinée performance, but a few elements meant the fizz went rather flat.

In a concert of two halves, the Philharmonia fail to convince with Suk and Dvořák but provide a thrilling rendition of Janáček's Glagolitic Mass, a choral work that is dramatic, operatic, giant in scale and unique in style.

Among the brilliant programming of The Rest is Noise festival in London, there was one concert this year that stood above all the others for me: the European première of Shostakovich’s opera prologue Orango. First discovered in an archive in 2004 by scholar Olga Digonskaya, Orango was never finished by Shostakovich, and indeed only a piano score remained.

The Southbank Centre’s centenary celebration of Witold Lutosławski, titled Woven Words, can easily be overshadowed by the excitement of this year’s The Rest is Noise festival.

Franz Lehár’s favourite haunt was Vienna’s Café Sperl, and with the famous Theater an der Wien around the corner, Café Sperl became the meeting place for the operetta crowd around the turn of the 20th century. The Theater an der Wien was the site of the world première of Lehár’s tenth stage work, The Merry Widow, which met its enthusiastic public on 30 December 1905.

It takes any orchestra plenty of confidence and daring to embark on a single-work programme. There isn’t much chance for redemption should something go amiss. Then again, the length of Mahler’s third symphony and its demands on physical and emotional stamina don’t leave the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Lorin Maazel much choice.

Infernal Dance - Inside the World of Béla Bartók is this year's South Bank Special series. It's quite an endeavour, since Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia will perform many concerts over 11 months, culminating in Duke Bluebeard's Castle in November. It's an important series, since Bartók's place in 20th century music cannot be overestimated.