Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Háry János orchestral suite

JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic showcase the rich diversity of four compelling 20th century works composed just 15 years apart, including Elgar's Cello Concerto, played by Asier Polo. 

In a programme of mostly tasty morsels, Fabien Gabel and the BBCSO found a freshness and rhythmic vitality that made for a most enjoyable evening.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s January 20 concert, the last in its “Focus on Eötvös” mini-residency, may as well have been called “Focus on Hungary.” The small, landlocked country, with barely over 9 million residents, has exerted – and continues to exert – a powerful influence on music.

Composers have a long tradition of incorporating folk tunes into their music, and this evening’s concert by the National Youth Orchestra, with support from members of the folk group Bellowhead, really proved the point that musical genres are not separate boxes, but just points on a continuum, with no fixed boundaries.

A "riot of orchestral colour" was promised, but little of it was allowed to flourish.Elgar's Cockaigne Overture, written during the winter of 1900-01, is a portrait of a busy London, conjuring the hustle and bustle of everyday, metropolitan life.

The central Austro-German repertoire in this excellently conceived programme was flanked by two Hungarian works from the pen of archivist, educator and composer, Zoltán Kodály. A seamless suite of five deftly orchestrated, and increasingly animated movements, Dances of Galánta (1933) draws on memories of Kodály's happy childhood in the titular market town.

Une programmation cohérente et originale, une prestation imparfaite mais sincère, des idées nouvelles : le concert Empereur de l'ONDIF, avec ses trois campagnes napoléoniennes, fut un concert intelligent.