Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Sir Mark Elder

An enjoyable and vivid performance representing music spanning three centuries of history

In the sublime funeral march of the Larghetto Elder set a daringly slow tempo, producing a cumulative, sorrowing eloquence as each LSO section tossed its melodic tribute on to the passing cortège.

A stirring account of Elgar’s First Symphony from Sir Mark Elder and the LSO, with a rare outing given to Janáček’s last orchestral work and Francesco Piemontesi polished in Bartók.

A thrilling concert by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain conducted by Sir Mark Elder culminated in a sinister and atmospheric performance of Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

A superb start to the Britten Sinfonia's Brahms cycle.

"Muddle instead of music": three foreboding words laden with threat and designed to destroy the reputation of a promising composer writing in the grip of the Iron Fist. 

French impressionism met with programmatic Russian splendour in a collection of special works written just 40 years apart.

The Halle orchestra combined forces with a troup of actors to deliver a Beyond The Score analysis & performance of Dvorak's famous 9th Symphony (from the New World.)

Sir Mark Elder's 70th birthday Gurre-Lieder threatens to dislodge the roof in Manchester with the combined forces of the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic

A concert programme that includes both Holst and Vaughan Williams is as right as strawberries and cream at Wimbledon. 

Sir Mark Elder conducted the LSO through a series of inimitable Russian works while the star player veered off course to formulate her own new genre – quite deliciously.

A classy performance under the baton of Sir Mark Elder unites a seemingly disparate sounding programme.

The Hallé's Elgar Festival concludes with the work the composer wished to be remembered by. 

It was here in Manchester, only a stone’s throw from the modern Bridgewater Hall, where Hans Richter gave the first – and by all accounts, highly acclaimed – performance of Elgar’s First Symphony.

The Metropolitan Opera's new produdtion of Rusalka fails to explore a deeper complexity of the fairy tale, although a strong ensemble of singers and the superb Met Orchestra make it a musically compelling performance.

The Hallé's oddly-ordered Ring arrives at the beginning with Das Rheingold.

The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder gave superb performances of Tchaikovsky's Hamlet and, with Benjamin Grosvenor, Liszt's Piano Concerto no 1. Their Beethoven Pastoral Symphony was disappointing in contrast.

Complete performances of Semiramide are as rare as hen's teeth. Opera Rara came close in a terrific concert performance in the Hanging Gardens of Kensington.

A strange combination of a Berlioz overture, a commemorative work and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Hallé, Sir Mark Elder, Alice Coote, Gregory Kunde and Leonard Elschenbroich.

Weaknesses in the staging did little to dim the musical pleasure of hearing Sir Mark Elder conduct Weber's masterpiece with OAE forces and an impressvee cast

The Hallé’s end-of-season Dvořák festival continued with the Seventh Symphony, Cello Concerto and Slavonic Dance no. 2 from the Op.72 set. 

The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder start their Dvořák festival with a concert demonstrating the glories of his lesser known music including Francesco Piemontesi starring in the Piano Concerto.

To mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, Mark Elder and the London Symphony Orchestra brought together music with a connection to the First World War.

A superb concert from the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder included John Casken's 2014 oboe concerto Apollinaire's Bird, a rare piece by Elgar and Vaughan Williams' powerful Fourth Symphony. 

Jeremy Denk gave an athletic performance of Bartók's formidable second piano concerto, complemented by a Dvořák overture and two major works of Janáček.

Elder and Elgar prove to be a winning cominbation at the Chicago Symphony.

Stravinsky, Delius's evokation of the experience of Norwegain mountains, Rachmaninov and Tchaikosky in a stunning concert by the Hallé, the Hallé Choir and Sir Mark Elder 

Sir Mark Elder conducted the Hallé in a fine Shostakovich 15 following moving performances of Rachmaninov's The Isle of the Dead and Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, expertly sung by Roderick Williams.

Poor intelligibility and lack of pace in the music or acting make L'Étoile into a disappointingly flat evening.

Sir Mark Elder led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and an inspired team of soloists headed by Klaus Florian Vogt into a highly-charged performance of Lohengrin.

A Tchaikovsky rarity conducted by talented newcomer Harish Shankar were followed by Beethoven and Rachmaninov played by established masters Stephen Hough and Mark Elder in a fine Hallé concert.

This performance marked Sir Mark Elder’s debut with the company and, beginning with the overture, he offered his individual interpretation of the score. He had an enormous range of dynamics and his tempi varied widely with the emotional values of each scene.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in a fine account of Verdi's Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov with Sunwook Kim and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

The National Youth Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder at the helm ruminate over nothingness in this mature and moving performance of Mahler's Ninth.

Sir Mark Elder and the Halle introduce Vaughan Williams masterwork Sancta civitas to the Proms.

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.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in a concert to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Manchester Grammar School, with Holst's Planets alongisde O'Regan's Celestial Map of the Sky.

Sir Mark Elder conducted the Hallé in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto no. 2, with soloist Alisa Weilerstein, and Mahler's Fifth Symphony. 

Just occasionally, a musical experience is so exquisite, so divine, that you selfishly cannot bear to contemplate it ending. 

Sir Mark Elder conducted the Hallé in an original and subtle programme to commemorate the First World War at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Employing a new critical edition by Flora Willson, Mark Elder led the forces of The Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment in a concert performance of Donizetti's Les Martyrs, which demonstrates what a tremendous work it is.

The music was so convincingly Czech and so naturally bucolic in outlook that I was left at the end wishing that we might hear more Dvořák from the Hallé/Elder partnership. 

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in Shostakovich's Violin Concerto no. 1 with Viktoria Mullova and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé at the Bridgewater Hall. 

Elder led a performance that twinkled with Rossinian wit, while Serena Malfi left you clamouring for a swift return to Bow Street.

One of the pleasures of the BBC Proms is to survey the current state of our regional orchestras and I was really looking forward to the Hallé's visit with Mark Elder. Yet, at the end of the concert, I felt curiously unfulfilled.

The Hallé ended its season on a high with a magnificent performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony finding the horn section, in particular, on glorious form.

Whooping horns, a single yellow rose and a velvety cushion of strings set the scene for a sumptuous tranche of highlights from Der Rosenkavalier in the London Symphony Orchestra’s latest concert commemorating Richard Strauss in his 150th anniversary year.

Stéphane Rancourt gives the world première of John Casken's Apollinaire's Bird alongside brilliant Shostakovich and Weill. 

This BAM production of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd, imported from Glyndebourne, achieves the rare distinction of making a great performance out of a decidedly mediocre work.