Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Emanuel Ax

Performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the veteran pianist and energetic conductor make familiar Beethoven and Brahms sound immediate and invigorated. 

John Williams put butts in seats with the New York debut of his Piano Concerto, but the NY Phil's first performances of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphony no. 5 stole the show.

Los Angeles Philharmonic audiences got a taste of Pintscher as conductor, concerto partner, and composer.

John Williams' new concerto evokes the spirit of jazz virtuosos, paying tribute to Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson. 

Michael Tilson Thomas' energy and wisdom remain undimmed in the New York Philharmonic's season opener.

Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos hold a sold-out Royal Albert Hall to rapt attention for some astonishing chamber music. 

Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax find inspiration working with their young colleagues on an idyllic Sunday in the Berkshires. 

Karina Canellakis brings her Netherlands Radio Philharmonic to the Musikverein, joined by Emanuel Ax in Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. 

For his performance of Mozart's C major Concerto, Emanuel Ax plays a new concert grand designed by the late architect Rafael Viñoly.

Three leading performers join forces for a Beethoven program in Cleveland, all cultivating the highest level of playing from their respective instrument, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Emanuel Ax joins members of the New York Philharmonic for an afternoon of chamber music at the 92nd Street Y. 

Interpreting music of his beloved Chopin, Emanuel Ax imbued every passagework with poetic sensitivity.

The Marsch in Berg's Three Orchestra Pieces was engulfed in the same chaos that devastated the composer's world a century ago and is now threatening to devastate ours.

The New York Philharmonic resumed its laudable “Project 19” with a world premiere by Joan Tower, along with a Mozart piano concerto and Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony.

Emanuel Ax joins Nelsons and the BSO for Beethoven's big fives to re-open live music at Tanglewood.

Music of Haydn and Bartók made for a brief but contrasting Cleveland Orchestra program, the former bringing back regular guest Emanuel Ax.

Soloist Emanuel Ax likened the piano cadenzas in a Mozart concerto to the characters in a Mozart opera, an observation borne out in his detailed, expressive playing.

The two friends dedicate their recital to “the people we've lost”.

The hour-long recital proved again what a wonderful Beethoven interpreter Emanuel Ax is.

For a group of instrumentalists that seldom play together, the level of rhythmic, timbral and, most important, conceptual coordination was amazing.

Emanuel Ax plays Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto and works by Di Castri and Lutosławski round out the program.

A sprightly program of Beethoven, anti-Beethoven and Bartók.

Ax, Rattle and the LSO make two weighty masterpieces feel airy, uncluttered and suitably uplifting.

An emotional night in London as Bernard Haitink says farewell to London with grand and searching performances of Bruckner and Beethoven, with the distinguished Emanuel Ax in tow.

Emanuel Ax’s extraordinary gift for musical collaborations was especially evident in Mozart's E flat major concerto. 

Birthday concerts are strange things. If a hall is going to celebrate your birthday, you'd want to be in the audience and have some of your favourite musicians entertain you.

Jakub Hrůša returned to Cleveland to conduct a rarity by Kabeláč and a warhorse by Shostakovich while joining forces with Emanuel Ax for an interlude of Stravinsky.

All three of these musicians are virtuosic soloists in their own right, but here they became far more than the sum of their parts – graceful, poised, and sensitive.

Manfred Honeck concluded the PSO’s season – his tenth as music director – with Emanuel Ax in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and a spectacular traversal of Berlioz’s Te Deum.

Bernard Haitink's annual visit to the Boston Symphony brought autumnal Brahms with the Second Piano Concerto and the Second Symphony.

An able interpreter of the Romantic repertoire, Emanuel Ax has an innate elegance of tone and gesture that make him an ideal interpreter of Mozart's D minor Concerto.

The former principal guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra made his first appearance in seven years to lead graceful performances of Elgar and Beethoven. 

Bernard Haitink always provides intelligent symphonic readings and in his interpretation of Brahms' Third, he brought a lifetime of experience to the piece. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin's opens season with panache.

The aesthetic delights of the Vienna Philharmonic fail to enliven its Beethoven.

Charles Dutoit and the SFS brings us a night of Sibelius, Mozart, de Falla and Debussy, giving us a wonderful taste of Europe in one sitting. 

Andris Nelsons highlights the dialectic between the traditional and revolutionary aspects of Beethoven's Eroica in Boston.

In an unusual setting in Baden, the fine pianist Emanuel Ax coupled his exploration of demanding technique with a keen expressive focus, making an unparalleled musical experience.

David Afkham scored a successful CSO debut in Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and Beethoven First Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax.

NSO gives another convincing performance of Shakespeare inspired works. 

Joined by pianist Emanuel Ax, the Emerson Quartet performed at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.

Affable host Richard Gere united a starry musical cast to celebrate Carnegie Hall’s 125th Anniversary Gala.

Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the CSO in a bracing account of Sibelius' Second Symphony, while Emanuel Ax sparkled in an elegant take on Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.

More than today’s expert on Brahms, Ax promotes a revolutionary approach to the soloist persona: the soloist who is a chamber musician first and a diva second. 

Alan Gilbert leads a troublesome Beethoven and a gorgeous Brahms. 

Two titans of classical music present a program of violin sonatas.

This concert was an intimate occasion to witness a master pianist breathe life in to favourites as well as lesser known works for the piano.

A rapturous Second Piano Concerto and a towering Fourth Symphony made Bernard Haitink's all-Brahms concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe memorable. 

With an artistic director forced to cancel in the middle of a weekend of concerts, duty called on his assistant conductor - and she clearly had done her homework.

Angels, Emperors and Heroes - Emanuel Ax continues his Sydney Beethoven cycle in style.