Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz 106

A world premiere by Wang Chenwei, familiar Chopin and a rare outing for Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta make for satisfying fare in Jahcun Wong’s Singapore Symphony programme.

A Finnish soundscape, fine detail in Bartók and deep understanding in Beethoven from the Royal Northern Sinfonia with Dinis Sousa and Víkingur Ólafsson. 

For his Cleveland Orchestra debut, Kahchun Wong offered Bartók paired with the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Christian Tetzlaff.

Tamás Juronics choreographs the Concerto for Orchestra as a biographical ballet depicting a fragile Béla Bartók rising from his hospital bed.  

Anna Lucia Richter provides a superb finish to a highly romantic Mahler 4 from Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. 

Glimpses of fire amid refined elegance at the Barbican.

A fascinating first-half juxtaposition of Enescu and Bartók is followed by a strangely unconvincing take on Mozart's “Prague” Symphony.

Lang Lang played Beethoven with the New York Philharmonic with Alan Gilbert in a program that also included  Bartók and Ligeti.

For his only appearance this season at The Cleveland Orchestra's summer home, Franz Welser-Möst led scintillating performances of scandalous Adès, Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, and Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony.

It takes artistic courage to devote almost a whole concert to music associated with cinema, but then Richard Tognetti, the artistic director and concert master of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, never lacked creative thinking or musical audacity. 

Ensemble ACJW performed works by Berio, Reich, and Bartók with conductor David Robertson and soprano Dawn Upshaw at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. This attractively programmed concert featured an admirable first half, though the Bartók left something to be desired.

The second instalment of Nonclassical’s “Pioneers of Percussion” Festival last Saturday at Oval Space in east London paired two classics of the percussion repertoire with two new works, and featured the young and ambitious Multi-Story Orchestra. It is a great testament to the quality of these new works that they not only held their own, but were indeed the highlights of the evening.

Martha Argerich joined the Manchester Camerata and her friend Gábor Takács-Nagy for a memorable evening of Bartók, Beethoven and Pärt at the Manchester International Festival.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s “Bach to the Future” promised to be a highlight of their season this year. This orchestra has repeatedly shown its mettle in 20th-century repertoire and had taken part in an absolutely stunning B minor Mass last year. And how appropriate to have a young Scotsman conducting Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony.

Tonight’s concert was a prime example of the solid programming of Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival. The concert, titled “Music from Dark Times”, included pieces by Webern, Berg, Bartók and Martinů, written between 1934 and 1941, which were indeed dark times for all these composers.

Every now and then I like to experiment. Reviewing a concert in which I know none of the music can be frightening, but also exciting and – always – surprising. Thus I was slightly apprehensive but wholly enthusiastic about attending this LSO concert featuring works unknown to me by Bartók and Szymanowski.

The announcement by the presenter that Stravinsky did not intend Symphonies of Wind Instruments to please the audience or arouse their passions was greeted with titters of laughter. An overheard conversation during the interval signalled that the number of late arrivals to the concert was suspected to be ‘because they didn’t want to sit through the Stravinsky’.

When a guest conductor arrives for a few concerts with an orchestra, he or she doesn’t have very much time to shape his or her interpretation. On some occasions the orchestra successfully adopts the visitor’s style; on others they just play like they always do.

Infernal Dance - Inside the World of Béla Bartók is this year's South Bank Special series. It's quite an endeavour, since Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia will perform many concerts over 11 months, culminating in Duke Bluebeard's Castle in November. It's an important series, since Bartók's place in 20th century music cannot be overestimated.

Les interprètes ont révélé la beauté d'oeuvres de Kodály et Bartók plutôt que leurs aspérités, avec en point d'orgue le deuxième mouvement du Concerto pour piano n° 3 de Bartók.

Esa-Pekka Salonen et Benjamin Millepied ont uni musique et danse dans un beau programme où le Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna de Pierre Boulez a pris une dimension supplémentaire.

Si le Deuxième Concerto pour piano de Franz Liszt a bénéficié d'une interprétation sans faille sous les doigts du pianiste britannique, le reste du programme a déçu sous la direction de Robert Treviño.

Sehr selbstbewusst führte die Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg unter Joana Mallwitz bei Bartók durch ein Schlüsselwerk des 20. Jahrhunderts.

À l'occasion d'un week-end consacré à l'univers musical de Stanley Kubrick, l'Orchestre Philharmonique et le Chœur de Radio France, sous la direction d'Alan Gilbert, proposaient un concert autour des compositeurs qui ont inspiré le cinéaste.

La Orquesta del Festival de Budapest con Iván Fischer al frente presentaron a Enescu, Bartok y Mahler para poner punto final a la 67 edición del Festival de Santander con espíritu celebratorio y una calidad a la altura de lo acontecido anteriormente.

Die Staatskapelle Berlin wusste unter dem Altmeister Christoph von Dohnányi mit Bartók und Brahms zu begeistern.

Slobodeniouk retornó a la temporada de su Sinfónica de Galicia con un didáctico programa formado por tres obras pertenecientes cada una de ellas a siglos distintos e interpretadas por orden cronológico. Como aliciente, que sin duda contribuyó al casi lleno en la sala, se contó con la presencia de la violinista Baiba Skride, la cual en pocos meses acompañará a Slobodeniouk en su debut en la temporada de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Berlín.

L'Orchestre de Chambre d'Europe et András Schiff se retrouvent à la Philharmonie autour de la Musique pour cordes, percussions et célesta de Bartók et du Concerto pour piano n°2 de Brahms. Un orchestre excellent, mais un pianiste qui semble avoir mal choisi son concerto.

Franz Welser-Möst und sein amerikanisches Orchester zeigten mit einem Programm von Strauss und Bartók ihr Können, konnten damit aber nicht vollends überzeugen.