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Truls Mørk joins Tarmo Peltokoski and the Rotterdam Phil for a deeply emotional reading of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto no. 2. 

Musical connections between Brahms, Dvořák and Price as Randall Goosby joins the Rotterdam Philharmonic – both as soloist and orchestral member. 

Adela Zaharia is cast as a Violetta for whom the party never stops in this revival of Tatjana Gürbaca's busy staging at Dutch National Opera. 

Soaring choral music precedes the arrival of Martha Argerich for a daredevil account of Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto with RPhO Principal Trumpet, Alex Elia. 

Lahav Shani gives the players of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra their moment to shine in Strauss' demanding Ein Heldenleben. 

An evening of premieres – the European premiere of Bates' concerto plus the world premiere of Joey Roukens' First Symphony – delights the Rotterdam Philharmonic's Utrecht audience. 

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.

Director Ola Mafaalani has created an absorbing and completely cinematic version of the opera, combining stationary and handheld cameras to create a pictorial variety of perspectives and expressionistic framing

Leonidas Kavakos puts down his bow and picks up the baton to conduct the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Ligeti and Dvořák. 

Orchestra and singers reached great heights in this highly lyrical and dramatically flowing Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Dame Shirley’s texts are here sung by the young American soprano Julia Bullock whose pliable instrument and stylish way with words reveal an ideal storyteller.

A Russian double bill from the Rotterdam Philharmonic in their own turf under Stanislav Kochanovsky.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin's final tour as Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic brought out the tender side of Bruckner and Liszt. 

The Rotterdam Philharmonic marked their centenary with two concerts starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. A bittersweet weekend, during which they also took leave of their beloved principal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Selectively unearthed from current critical editions, this fabulously performed new Hoffmann plumbs the murky depths of its antihero’s psyche.

Jan Lisiecki displays total control in Chopin, troublesome acoustics mar Bernstein and Rachmaninov.

Tcherniakov's moving production delves into the psychological rather than revelling in the spectacular. 

Shostakovich proves the highlight of a variable programme in Rotterdam. 

Besides Giltburg’s superlative play in Grieg, Saraste’s Sibelius swept you off your feet. 

With exceptional nuance, lead flautist Juliette Hurel demonstrated her Olympian skills in Bruno Mantovani's technically exhausting, often violent work. With the flute in mind, Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s wildly upbeat Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony in C-minor ‘Titan’ made for new discoveries in Bruckner.

Philippe Herreweghe deftly coordinated the four vocalists, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and his Collegium Vocale Gent through Beethoven’s challenging score.

Impressively, Principal Conductor Nézet-Séguin matched his predecessor, Valery Gergiev, with such high quality Russian repertoire. 

In Rotterdam, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a gracefully contoured Beethoven Sixth Symphony and, together with fabulous vocal and instrumental soloists, reaches core-deep into Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Martyn Brabbins and the Rotterdam Philharmonic took the audience on a journey through our solar system in The Planets: An HD Odyssey.

The task sounded Herculean: turning Benvenuto Cellini, that reputedly difficult, flawed work by Berlioz, into an utterly entertaining show that renders justice to its youthfully energetic music. This is what Terry Gilliam manages to pull off... and it is nothing short of miraculous.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic brought a colorful and exciting program to Hill Auditorium, Detroit.

Hélène Grimaud, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic impress in a colourful programme of 20th century gems. 

The final performance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin's Brahms cycle with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is decent, but falls short of the excellence of the other three symphonies he performed. 

The second evening of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival offered an interesting programme dynamically conducted by the Russian master. The theme this year was The Great War. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic in an upbeat rendition of Mahler's “Tragic” Sixth Symphony.

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin invokes an unattainable glimpse of heaven in a uniquely crafted Verdi Requiem. 

Gounod's Faust returns after 45 years to the National Dutch Opera, and this new production directed by Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus, lead by a fine cast and conducted by Marc Minkowski is nothing short of spectacular.

An honest and subtle performance from Barbara Hannigan in the Dutch première of Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle which tells Ophelia's story. 

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra's arrival at the Proms with their musical director Yannick Nézet-Séguin was popular, selling out seats and drawing a full arena crowd. There was an atmosphere of anticipation for a famously enigmatic conductor and a colourful programme. The concert didn’t disappoint with its marriage of Tchaikovsky and Wanger, and the cryptic Symphony No.

Aaron Copland was one of the most important American composers of the last century. The inclusion of his Clarinet Concerto and Dvořák’s Symphony no. 9 made this program one inspired by the US. The theme of this year’s Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, Sea & You, of course suits this beautifully – after all, we hear the skyscrapers coming up from the sea in Dvořák’s symphony.

Rachmaninov’s symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead is an intense piece of music. Inspired by a painting by Böcklin, Rachmaninov tells us of the journey to the underworld. The first moments of the piece are crucial to any performance, and Valery Gergiev lead the Rotterdam Philharmonic into a heavy and emotionally laden rendition.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s love for Brahms is well-documented, which makes the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s season opening at the Concertgebouw all the more fitting. In a program of Brahms’s First and Second Symphonies, they showed once again why they’re an orchestra to be reckoned with.

Classical music is often portayed as being very serious, which is part of what makes it seem inaccessible at times. But this is a mistake: there are plenty of pieces that are, in a word, fun.

Stravinsky’s Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 3 is one of his earliest works, as its opus number would suggest. There are very few composers who can truly create a fairytale atmosphere in their music, but Stravinsky was one of the best at it.

The last concert in Rotterdam Philharmonic’s “Russian Fall” series centered around one of the most monumental Russian symphonies ever written: Shostakovich’s Fourth. But the evening opened with something completely different: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 2.

In memory of violist Coen van der Heide who passed away earlier in October, the Rotterdam Philharmonic opened with the second part of Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings, which was deeply moving and followed by a minute of silence. Ottorino Respighi’s Fontana di Roma was the first piece on the official program.

This fall the Rotterdam Philharmonic have a series of concerts under the title of “Russische Herfst” (“Russian Autumn”) – with music from some of the great Russian composers such as Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Rotterdam’s annual Gergiev Festival is a very popular classical festival in The Netherlands and with good reason, their programs are always excellent and the appearance of former chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Valery Gergiev usually attracts big crowds.

Le chef québécois et l'orchestre hollandais ont livré une Troisième Symphonie de Bruckner en forme de montagnes russes, après les Quatre derniers lieder incarnés par Angel Blue.

Dans le Troisième Concerto de Bartók, soliste, chef et orchestre ont proposé une interprétation admirable et indissociable, avant une Symphonie « du Nouveau Monde » d'une très grande justesse.

À la tête d'un Orchestre philharmonique de Rotterdam d'une cohésion irréprochable et aux côtés d'une distribution de grande qualité, le chef québécois a proposé une très belle version de concert du deuxième volet du Ring.

Die Klaviervirtuosin und der junge finnische Dirigentin werden den hohen Erwartungen des Abends leider nicht gerecht.

Extrem kontrastreich war das Konzert unter Lahav Shani in Baden-Baden. Mit dem virtuosen koreanischen Pianisten Seong-Jin Cho spielte es ein quirliges Klavierkonzert von Maurice Ravel und eine tieftraurige Pathétique.

S'ils laissent perplexe dans Widmann ou dans Dvořák, malgré une Hilary Hahn au sommet de son art, les musiciens de l'Orchestre philharmonique de Rotterdam crèvent la scène dans Brahms, menés par Lahav Shani.