Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Blumine (flower piece)

The Gewandhausorchester lends its distinctive voice to Mahler, Schumann, Wagner, and Mendelssohn in its second solo Leipzig Week program

Sibelius' Violin Concerto nestles beside Mahlerian flowers in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's concert under Thomas Søndergård.

Mahler’s Blumine, Beethoven’s rarely performed Triple Concerto and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony were given a fresh coat of paint by the BSO.

Ilyich Rivas conducts his first official performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, concluding with a rare performance of Shostakovich's Symphony no. 1.

Known as “the most European of American orchestras,” Cleveland’s stellar ensemble is usually at its most interesting when a European conductor comes to town. But this was more a case of the orchestra maintaining its standards despite, not because of, a visiting maestro. 

At the end of yesterday’s concert, there was a lot of hugging on stage. This was only to be expected. The high-quality music-making to which the audience had been treated was, for the players, a brief and unrepeatable experience, for some of them a nostalgic pilgrimage back to their homeland.

It’s a slightly topsy-turvy world when a Shostakovich symphony lightens the mood and sends you home grinning, and when a work by Mahler is a filler rather than the main event.

With his centenary year fast approaching, Saturday night’s concert was a celebration of all things Britten. The festivities have certainly begun in style in Oxford, with Nicholas Cleobury leading the Oxford Bach Choir, the English Chamber Orchestra and soprano Elizabeth Atherton in some truly outstanding music-making.

The pre-concert talk is a firm favourite with many RSNO regulars. Situated in what feels like an impromptu chapel near the Upper Circle Bar, this 25-minute exploration attracts a congregation which spills well beyond the hundred or so seats laid out.

'First impressions are often the truest', wrote Hazlitt. I was immediately struck by the amount of space on the Usher Hall stage, recently filled by so many large symphony orchestras. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra had plenty of space, a feature which was soon to be borne out in the music.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra hosted guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and pianist Jeremy Denk this weekend in works of Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms that felt familiar yet oddly fresh (or bizarre, depending on one’s point of view). The program comprised Mahler’s Blumine, a freestanding work originally used as the second movement of his First Symphony; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.

This was without a doubt the best performance of Mahler's First Symphony. Norrington's humor comes through and complements his superb musicianship.The First often gets bogged down, but this performance was bright and alwaysexciting giving the instrumentalists enough room to show their skills... andwhat skills.I have no doubt that the NHK Symphony is the greatest orchestraat this time.

Leticia Moreno deleita, con un manejo extraordinario de su instrumento, al interpretar con pasión a Szymanowski, en un programa que incluye obras de Mahler y de Zemlinsky.

Retour sur un concert aux forts échos politiques contemporains et conçu comme une manifeste pour la paix.

Mit einem österreichisch-ungarischen und russischen Programm überzeugt das RSO Wien einmal wieder im Wiener Konzerthaus.