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Jonathan Bloxham steps in for a presumably unwell Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla with the CBSO in Cardiff. 

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts a Huw Watkins première and a grand-scale account of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Thomas Søndergård conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Mosolov, Shostakovich and Beethoven with Igor Levit

A thrilling finale to the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World

Michael Sanderling conducts the Dresden Philharmonic in Beethoven in Cardiff.

Three English composers receive fine performances from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Luscious orchestral and choral sounds bring Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé to shimmering life.

As I had both hoped and expected, Widmann's Babylon Suite had an undercurrent of knowing wickedness and a sense of self-awareness that one would find in a Stravinsky ballet score.

In a quirky programme featuring English, Welsh and Russian music the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales began their new season at St David’s Hall showcasing, with mixed results, their composer-in-association Huw Watkins, Elgar and three Russian composers at different stages in their careers.

Cardiff Castle hosted an entertaining bout of medieval jousting yesterday afternoon, but in the evening all eyes and ears turned to the vocal jousting in St David’s Hall.

Grand Holst and the première of Mark Bowden's A Violence of Gifts, performed with bombastic gusto and colour.

Thomas Søndergård's over-subtle touch in conducting Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart has some delicate colouring but fails to reach the deeper drama.

With so much focus - understandably - on London's concerts during the Proms season, it is a delight to be able to listen to and attend various other related performances across the UK. 

If a giant played a tune on the cable stays of the Second Severn Crossing bridge, with its double span of fanned-out suspension wires, it would sound like a basso-profondo version of the kora. 

The joy of listening to Brahms’s piano concertos in a concert hall – especially one with such fine acoustics as St David’s Hall, Cardiff – is that textures and harmonies that can sound thick, muddy and ill-balanced in recordings come across with all their intricate, closely-woven contrapuntal writing clear and thrilling.

A celebration of Wales in the St David's Day Gala in Cardiff. 

A supremely entertaining and highly descriptive Symphonie fantastique from Lothar Koenigs and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra.

Arcomis is a Cardiff-based organisation concerned with the promotion and commissioning of new music. Modest yet effective, most of their work is at an essential grass-root level, yet, seemingly out of nowhere, they have conjured an incredibly bold and wide-ranging three-day festival of brass based at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall, the Cardiff University Music Department and the Royal Welsh College of

I find it difficult to remember the last time I attended a concert in which I was met with just about everything that I wanted to hear, settled alongside facets of performance that I hadn’t yet encountered. Perhaps tonight was, indeed, my first such experience.Thomas Søndergård’s rendition of Poulenc’s Gloria realised everything that I find I intuitively hope to hear from it.

An allegiance to Welsh performers and composers is a major feature of this year’s tour by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, with two native contemporary scores on the programme performed by a Welsh soloist and conductor. It could easily become cosy and parochial, but the results were amongst the NYOW’s finest achievements in recent years.

François-Xavier Roth conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a varied programme of Mozart, Webern and Strauss, concluding with a powerful performance of Also Sprach Zarathustra at St David’s Hall in Cardiff.It was hard to spot a linking factor between the programmed works, but they seemed to complement each other nicely.

There are times when a concert, even those featuring famous and oft-heard works, can be utterly rejuvenating.Tonight’s performance presented a pair of grand minor-key works by two emotional heavyweights of the 19th century.

A lengthy standing ovation followed Thierry Fischer’s final St David’s Hall concert with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, concluding his sixth season with Richard Strauss’ monumental Alpine Symphony after a refined performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 22 with pianist Angela Hewitt.

I wasn’t sure, at first, how it would feel to listen to sacred Renaissance works in St. David’s Hall, a modern, secular concert hall. I wasn’t convinced that the beauty of these pieces and the compositional effects, so suited to the vaulted lofts of a cathedral, would carry over when so far removed from their original context.

Craig Ogden’s easy manner immediately puts an audience at ease. With his comfortable assuredness and witty repartee, Ogden is able to facilitate an unusual sense of intimacy in such a large auditorium as St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. Indeed, seeing Ogden in concert is like being transported to an old friend’s living room, where you sit and chat, watching them play guitar – extremely well.

St David’s Hall’s International Concert Series continued tonight, transporting the audience on a journey around Europe. This was the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse’s debut performance in Cardiff, and their first tour of the UK.

In his lunchtime recital, Polish pianist Peter Jablonski selected a programme that clearly included some his personal favourites. The result was an affectionate performance that felt less like a public recital and more like sharing the enjoyment of music with a friend.