Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Venezia e Napoli, S 162

French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie brought Italy to London in a lunchtime recital which perfectly captured the vivid sights, sounds and colours of Naples and Venice.

The "second year" of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage takes us an a tour around Italy's artistic treasures: painting by Raphael, sculpture by Michelangelo, poetry by Petrarch and Dante and music (allegedly) by Salvator Rosa.

In a setting Liszt himself would have approved of – the grand hall, the plush red velvet swags and tails, the full nine feet of gleaming Steinway stretched across a stage bathed in a curious blue light, the eager Prommers craning in expectation – Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin celebrated the composer’s 200th birthday in a recital of coruscating virtuosity and extreme pianism.

When Evgeny Kissin first walked on stage at the Barbican Centre, his gentle smile and humble demeanor seemed ill equipped for the exuberance of Liszt’s piano works. But from the moment notes first spilled out from the piano, Kissin had the audience transfixed.

Le pianiste allemand s'est fait la réincarnation du jeune Liszt, rayonnant et solaire, inventeur du piano orchestre, le temps d'un récital irrésistible.

Des transcriptions d'œuvres de Saint-Saëns jusqu'aux improvisations à quatre mains, le talent et l'esprit de Nathanaël Gouin et Paul Lay ont illuminé le festival castelroussin.

Dans la petite église de Hendaye pleine comme un œuf, le co-directeur artistique du Festival Ravel a livré un récital Ravel-Liszt-Jarrell proprement extraordinaire.

Dans Beethoven et Liszt, le pianiste russe propose un récital inoubliable au festival... avant des rappels jazzy tout autant sublimes.