Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Don Giovanni, K527: Overture

Dame Imogen Cooper’s valedictory concerto performance was affectionately received by a near capacity audience at The Glasshouse.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields give exciting performances at the Barbican, with idiosyncratic Mozart from Buniatishvili. 

Some unexpected tempo swerves from Minasi in the Jupiter in an otherwise sprightly evening of Mozart from Ensemble Resonanz. 

The Flanders Symphony Orchestra finish their UK tour in Edinburgh with Mozart and Beethoven: safe repertoire, but it's played with focus and energy.

In her first appearance with the orchestra this season, Nathalie Stutzmann offers overly tentative readings of Verklärte Nacht and Siegfried Idyll, alongside perfunctory excerpts from Don Giovanni.

Sean Shibe impresses alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of nimble works at the Cadogan Hall. 

Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin star in Mozart concert arias before a very gentle Pastoral Symphony at the Maison symphonique.

Romanticized but highly enjoyable Mozart performances, monumental Brahms, but more gusto than tenderness characterized the program.

Rafael Payare demonstrates his mastery of a late Romantic score and together with the RPO partners Lise de la Salle in an early piano concerto by Mozart.

The Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla in a compelling performance of Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni and Strauss's Don Juan, with soloist Francesca Dego bringing to life Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major.

The Vancouver Symphony performs with penetrating insight from Itzhak Perlman.

Tomáš Netopil directs ideal, ‘non-dairy’ performances of Mozart and Dvořák.

While Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony failed to gel, the German soprano's Mozart turned the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s first concert of the season into a real celebration.

The Bamberg sound remains particularly noticeable in the unanimity and broad, rich beauty of the strings and the sublimely eloquent woodwinds, and the musical authority that lies in the roots of its history. 

Joining Maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for a tour across the United States, Chen headlined a pops concert of Austro-German music, complete with a riveting interpretation of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and an sufficient performance of Mahler’s Fifth.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted his hometown Orchestre Métropolitain in a concert Hollywood couldn’t have scripted better nor the Cirque du Soleil made more fantastic. 

The Flanders Symphony Orchestra performed music by Mozart and Beethoven, with Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko joining them for Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 1 in E minor.

Under the baton of Jan Latham-Koenig, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra rendered a diverse programme in Leeds.

Elisabeth Lenoskaja's ability to execute a perfect phrase lights up a fine performance by the Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

Hall One of Sage Gateshead was packed for a characteristic Thomas Zehetmair programme, with Mozart, Bartók, a world première and a trademark Beethoven symphony to mark the end of his tenure as musical director of Royal Northern Sinfonia.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's visit to Reading featured music by Mozart, Brahms and Elgar, and the crowds of schoolchildren in attendance seemed entranced.

A concert like this could have three possible outcomes: one, frustration at catching just a glimpse of a multitude of operas without the benefit of character or plot development or the embellishment of sumptuous costumes or stage sets; two, inspiration to delve further into the world of opera, nudged by tantalising hints of dramatic tension and a world of emotions; or three, sheer escapism into a

Alzira, Verdi’s eighth opera, is something of a discarded child within his canon, not least because of Verdi’s own dismissal of it as “proprio brutta” (really ugly) after it was poorly received both in Naples and Rome. Perhaps Verdi was stung by a blot on an otherwise successful career: on the basis of last night’s concert performance by Chelsea Opera Group, the score has plenty to commend it.

It was an auspicious debut; a collaboration that, in time, would propel both orchestra and conductor to the very summit of the classical music world. On the stage of the old Philharmonic Hall in Downtown stepped a 24-year-old conductor at the very beginning of his world career.

Oliver Knussen’s music is all about exquisiteness and elegance – not words to describe Mahler’s at the best of times, but maybe his Seventh Symphony least of all, with its odd, lumbering structure, coarse trills and abrupt changes of pace.

How gratifying that James Conlon briefly introduced the rationale for this Philadelphia Orchestra concert, which turned out to be entirely divorced from the nostalgic ‘Memories of Prague’ that its title suggested. Instead, what I had presumed to be coincidental key signatures were in fact the link: an exploration of D minor (with a side of D major).

Ausdrucksorientierte Interpretationstraditionen prägten den Vorabend Mozarts 270. Geburtstags, an dem Savall preis- und konditionserneuert, Gluck als schicksalhafter Mit-Gratulant erschien.

Mit Prokofjews Zweitem Violinkonzert und Schostakowitschs Sechster Symphonie stellten Paavo Järvi und das Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich zwei grundverschiedene russische Kompositionen einander gegenüber.

El Festival de Santander llega a su recta final con un original programa dominado por Mozart y Schubert y la maestría de la violinista Hilary Hahn.

Le programme prévu par son nouveau chef n'ayant pu être proposé, l'orchestre mulhousien a offert au public un concert Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms dont certaines parties furent brillantes, d'autres moins convaincantes.

Talentierter Pultshow-Dirigent, fabelhafter Klarinettist und bestechend brillantes Orchester erinnern an die Erfolge und freigeistig-geniehaften Charaktere von Komponist und Solist.

La confiance du chef a hissé l’Orchestre Français des Jeunes vers l’excellence dans un programme entièrement consacré à Mozart, suivant un discours musical parfaitement abouti.

Estupendo concierto el ofrecido por el pianista Javier Perianes y Juanjo Mena en el Auditorio de Zaragoza, donde el onubense puso las pinceladas románticas en un exquisita lectura del Cuarto de Beethoven, mientras el vitoriano brindaba un Mozart clásico muy bien trazado.

Un cocktail explosif (Levinas, Mozart, Kourliandski et Poulenc) pour un concert "Crazy Wek-End". 

Une belle soirée proposée par l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande qui sous la direction de Jérémie Rhorer offrira des Mozart élégants, mais un Tchaïkovski qui n’eût de « Pathétique » que le nom : gommant la noirceur de cette fresque russe, il en souligne les détails et en étouffe le souffle épique.

Yuja Wang et le Mahler Chamber Orchestra inaugurent leur tournée européenne à la Fondation Louis Vuitton. Un programme audacieux qui confronte l’esthétique néoclassique de Stravinsky avec le romantisme à fleur de peau de Chopin, en les plaçant dans l’héritage de Mozart et de Beethoven.

Après avoir ouvert le festival Piano aux Jacobins, la « dernière grande dame de l’école soviétique »  retrouvait Tugan Sokhiev pour le lancement de la saison de l’ONCT à la Halle aux Grains.

Le pianiste argentin semble à peine tendu, bien qu'il doive jouer les deux concertos de Chopin ! Un exploit tant ces pièces exigent que l'instrumentiste mobilise toutes les ressources physiques dont il dispose.

Sous le caractère abordable des concertos de Mozart se cache un enjeu de taille : seule une exécution parfaitement limpide permet de restituer la présence sacrée du compositeur à son piano. Dans un programme où Mozart dramaturge était partout présent, l'interprétation de Jean-Claude Pennetier invitait à la foi et à l'optimisme.