Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra, Op.10

Ravel’s Sonatine – performed in transcription for oboe – prefaced a lush reading of Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.

The Scottish conductor held the podium and the piano bench in an expansive program that included Wagner, Britten, Debussy and the Georgia-based composer Carlos Simon.

Delivering winsome interpretations along with precision ensemble, the "conductorless" SPCO presents two youthful Schubert and Britten masterpieces that were created by their composers in mere days.

Side by side, the combined forces of the RSNO and the Mariinsky under Gergiev recall the Western première of Shostakovich Fourth symphony at the 1962 Edinburgh Festival.

A sizzling combination of classical, jazz and folk-inspired music from Fröst and the Academy which drifted across continents with consummate skill.

The Manchester Camerata directed by Giovanni Guzzo gave moving, entertaining and expressive pieces by Pärt, Mozart, Piazzolla and Britten with Guzzo and pianist Gabriela Montero as soloists.

Mozart and the Brits offered the chance to hear Britten and rarely performed Malcolm Arnold, courtesy of the Sydney Symphony. 

The Norwegian string ensemble enthuse the audience at Leeds Town Hall with Bartók's Divertimento for String Orchestra and Britten's Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge.

Canadian soloist James Ehnes and guest conductor Andrew Litton gave an unsentimental and appealing performance of an all-English programme.

In what was apparently the first appearance from an Irish orchestra at the Proms since the 1970s, pianist/conductor Barry Douglas and the strings of his Camerata Ireland brought a programme to Cadogan Hall which examined Benjamin Britten in the context of some of his contemporaries and friends.

Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge is not a work often heard in concert halls but deserves to be performed more often, Hong Kong Sinfonietta conductor Yip Wing-sie said at the start of the concert last night at the City Hall. The orchestra’s rendering of this moving musical tribute vindicated her statement.

Tonight’s programme was a feast of British music, with a Britten flavour, played by the strings of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, joined by virtuosic viola player Lawrence Power, whose prowess is bringing this much-neglected solo instrument into its own.We started with the beautiful Introduction and Allegro for string quartet and string orchestra, written by Edward Elgar in 1905.

Every December, the Scottish Ensemble takes a candlelit concert around Scotland. The music is not usually Christmassy, yet often suits the more contemplative season of Advent and comes as a complementary alternative to the many festive musical performances on offer and a relief from carols on loop in the shops.

One of the main attractions of this interesting programme given by the Chiltern Camerata was the Concerto for Organ, strings and timpani by Francis Poulenc and it was to do justice to this attractive work that this concert was presented in All Saints Church in Marlow with its fine Father Willis organ.

Mit Werken von Bartók, Britten und Copland sorgten die Streicher das Grazer Philharmonischen Orchesters für einen ebenso energiegeladenen wie atmosphärischen Abend.

Simon Rattle dirigierte seine Berliner Philharmoniker am letzten Tag der Salzburger Festspiele mit Ruhe und Gelassenheit zu einem wohlartikulierten Britten und transparenten Schostakowitsch.