Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Candide: overture

Smile, because there's light at the end of the tunnel, illuminated by Andrew Litton, Philippe Quint and the Singapore Symphony.

Marking a trio of anniversaries, Debussy, Bernstein and their 25th milestone, the Ulster Youth Orchestra are welcomed home from their celebratory European tour with the warmest Irish greetings.

In an all-Bernstein programme, Nicola Benedetti enthralls in Symposium, the Baltimore Symphony’s percussionists strut their stuff in the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Marin Alsop introduces us to rarities. A true birthday treat.

The Minnesota Orchestra’s visit offered a chance to hear Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and Ives’ Symphony no. 2, though the former suffered somewhat from an absence of spark.

Exuberance and reflection from the Brussels Philharmonic in a celebration of Leonard Bernstein.

Eiji Oue doesn't quite convince in Bernstein and Copland, but Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto proves a winner. 

Houston Symphony’s program starring John Corigliano’s Conjurer: Concerto for Percussionist and String Orchestra and Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé crept through mists.

The finale of the BBCSO’s Bernstein celebration features the composer at his most sublime and frivolous, and offers a rare performance of Songfest for six soloists and orchestra.

This was the first visit of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to the Proms and in their native repetoire of Bernstein and Copland they had substantial success.

Under the baton of John Wilson, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra played Bernstein’s music with jazzy verve. The fine team of vocal soloists was lead by Kim Criswell.

Renée Fleming joins the Pacific Symphony for Strauss, Italian Songs and Rodgers and Hammerstein. 

Marking 25 years since the death of Leonard Bernstein, Prom 67 celebrated his writing for stage and screen in a lively and colourful performance by the John Wilson Orchestra.

Artistic decisions may have been off the mark, but this young orchestra has an arresting predilection for the lush.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s program was a collage-like display of the diverse music that emerged from composers in New York City from 1936 to 1956. 

Nineteen year old Ross Gunning is so passionate about conducting, he has founded his own orchestra. The Glasgow Philharmonia tackled an ambitious programme of Bernstein, Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams.

The Last Night of the Proms provided a welcome tying-up of the various strands that have permeated this year’s season: British light music, the 60th anniversary of the Coronation, a host of premières and new BBC commissions, and the significant anniversaries of a number of composers (including the big-hitters of the season, Wagner and Britten).

What a concert – the programme and the musicans were sublime. This time, Colston Hall got it spot on with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Seeing all of the credits for the orchestra in the back of the programme prepared me for a big and bold sound that was just short of 100 musicians. Each and every one of them contributed to a fantastic sound under the baton of Jacek Kaspszyk.

As a teenager, I recall feeling how American classical music differed from European; its harmonies seemed as wide open as the plains depicted on film; its rhythmic freedom grabbed me viscerally. The same feeling obtains many years later and certainly did in this RSNO programme.

"Freedom fries": no two words could better summarize the crassness that characterized the early years of the American 21st century.In the wake of disagreement over the Iraq War, American xenophobes sought to eradicate from these shores any vestige of the Tricolour.

Mit einem Werk, das Variationen auf Purcells Hail! Bright Cecilia von sieben Komponisten beinhaltet, bietet das Radio Filharmonisch Orkest ein abwechslungsreiches Programm.

La Sinfónica Nacional se unió al festejo del 100 aniversario del nacimiento de Leonard Bernstein, ofreciéndonos un programa con una selección de sus obras, con la interesante excepción de La pregunta sin respuesta, de Charles Ives. 

Kurzfristig für den erkrankten Zubin Mehta eingesprungen, hätte der Dirigent jedoch mehr aus dem Orchester herausholen können.

Dernière étape de leur tournée européenne, le Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra et son directeur musical Louis Langrée se produisaient à la Seine musicale. La bannière étoilée ne flottait pas sur l’île Seguin, mais c’était tout comme : le programme mettait exclusivement à l’honneur les musiques du « Nouveau Monde ».

Lahav Shani dirigierte das Philharmonische Orchester Rotterdamm bei Weills zweiter Symphonie, spielte das Solo bei Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue und tanzte bei Bernsteins West Side Story.

Dans ce choix réside à la fois la force et la faiblesse d’une direction à la virtuosité et aux appétits bienvenus, mais encore peu prompte à la démesure et à une certaine profondeur.

Triste concert symphonique aux Chorégies où Bernstein et Gershwin ont perdu le rythme. 

Un programme « Redécouverte de l’Amérique » exécuté avec brio par l’Orchestre National de Bordeaux et dirigé par la talentueuse Karen Kamensek.