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The Oxford Philharmonic offers uninspiring renditions Bach and Mendelssohn, highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of the orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. 

I suspect that we seek out many of the world’s great soloists beacuse we know what we will get, but we might well seek out Buniatishvili because we don’t.

Valery Gergiev's late withdrawal meant Marios Papadopoulos, music director of the Oxford Philharmonic, stepped into the Russian's shoes. 

Oxford may well be far from the coast, but it played host to a bracing French voyage last night at the Sheldonian Theatre.

Fifty years on, Argerich is still the legendary tigress of the keyboard, yet more besides.

High Romance in a small Midlands town: the Oxford Lieder Festival opening concert launches an enticing series.

Coupling Busoni's arrangements of Bach with Beethoven and Liszt with Mussorgsky, Paul Lewis's programme ranged from inward contemplation to thrilling drama. Despite his elegant lyricism and nuanced readings, the recital was slightly marred by some surprising technical flaws.

Maxim Vengerov began his residency with the Oxford Philomusica with a chamber recital accompanied by the orchestra's director Marios Papadopolous. This passionate concert was delivered with panache and a smile.

In his introduction to the programme, the orchestra’s Music Director Marios Papadopoulos says that it is the energy in Beethoven’s music which captures his attention, and this was certainly conveyed in the Oxford Philomusica’s performance of the piece.

After Renée Fleming was forced to withdraw due to a family emergency, soprano Sylvia Schwartz stepped in to perform with the Oxford Philomusica on the way to the Vienna Staatsoper. At just two days’ notice, Korngold, Zandonai and Leoncavallo were traded for Puccini, Verdi and Lehár.

With a last-minute change of conductor from the excitable Andris Nelsons to the more reserved Jac van Steen, one might have forgiven a not exactly revolutionary performance. Last night’s concert was meant to be the first half of Nelsons’ Brahms cycle with the Philharmonia in the Sheldonian Theatre, part of Music at Oxford’s series, but illness unfortunately prevented him from performing.

Oxford becomes much quieter outside of the university terms, and this was reflected in audience numbers for Saturday’s concert. Although the evening did not pan out as expected, those who were in the Sheldonian still came away having heard some brilliant performances.

“The name Stradivarius had an air of magic to me.” Virtuoso violinist James Ehnes’ statement manages to capture the air of reverence which underpinned Friday’s Music at Oxford concert. The gala marked the opening of the UK’s first Stradivarius exhibition at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, and two violins from the exhibition were on temporary release for the evening.

Oxford May Music has been fusing arts and science for six years now. Thursday’s concert was evidence of this interdisciplinary ethos. Themed around “The Planets”, the evening combined a two-piano version of Gustav Holst’s suite with a talk by physicist Brian Cox.

Just a few weeks after the announcement that Oxford would be hosting the UK’s first major Stradivari exhibition this June, Maxim Vengerov gave a phenomenal performance on one of the Italian craftsman’s instruments. Performing on the ex-Kreutzer instrument made in 1727, Vengerov’s performance with the Oxford Philomusica was unforgettable.

Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre was nearly full for the concert on Thursday night. Billed “Russian Greats”, the programme mixed the familiar fare of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich with a world première by the Oxford-based composer Chris Garrard.

The level of anticipation for Saturday’s Oxford Philomusica concert was high, although not necessarily for the reasons you might expect: several minutes passed after tuning before the concertmaster emerged from the wings of Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. Although the Sheldonian may be somewhat lacking acoustically, the building’s grandeur more than makes up for it.

With his centenary year fast approaching, Saturday night’s concert was a celebration of all things Britten. The festivities have certainly begun in style in Oxford, with Nicholas Cleobury leading the Oxford Bach Choir, the English Chamber Orchestra and soprano Elizabeth Atherton in some truly outstanding music-making.

The Oxford International Piano Festival comprises a two-week long series of workshops and concerts, hosted by Oxford Philomusica and featuring pianists of international esteem, among them Andreas Haefliger and Sergei Babayan. It was Menahem Pressler, now in his 88th year, who gave the closing piano masterclasses and performed in the closing concert at the Sheldonian Theatre.

It seems unfair to label a young conductor a 'discovery', especially since most young conductors labour tirelessly for many years prior to achieving wider recognition. But that's what Daniel Cohen was for me: a discovery, and a very pleasing one at that.

Last night brought Mark Padmore (tenor) and Paul Lewis (piano) to the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford for a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise, Schubert’s setting of a text by the short-lived lyric poet Wilhelm Müller. The poems focus on a ‘wanderer’ whose only friend is his shadow, having been rejected by his sweetheart in favour of a new lover.

It has suddenly become bitterly cold in Oxford, so scuttling the hundred yards or so from where I live to the Sheldonian Theatre, along with having to rush my dinner, saw me in a foul mood at eight o’clock this evening when Ben Holder strode onto stage to conduct New Chamber Opera in Orpheus in the Underworld, Offenbach’s comic operetta in two acts.

Menschlichkeit und Drama der Passion in der Lesart des Dirigenten sowie die Ausdrucksfülle von Chor und Solisten sind unschlagbar.