Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Symphony no. 4 in C minor, Op.43

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s recent debut with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra was a dazzling Beethoven-Shostakovich programme that epitomised the “power of music”.

Higgins never forgets that the concerto form has a playful element

It’s always a heart-warming sight to see so many young people at the Barbican as members of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain shared the stage with equal composure as the London Symphony Chorus and string players from the LSO.

There were memorable moments, as Noseda continued his advocacy of Sir James MacMillan and Shostakovich symphony cycle. Yet Noseda’s maximalist approach had its costs, as it was only in the opening Kodály that found Noseda at his best.

Another Bernstein concerto-in-all-but-name followed by Shostakovich, this time with the Boston Symphony flexing their muscles. 

Nelsons proved again that he has a special affinity for the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and for the Fourth Symphony in particular.

Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia explore different sides of Shostakovich in the latest of the Voices of Revolution series.  

At Carnegie Hall Jean-Yves Thibaudet successfully brought forward the mercurial character of Bernstein's music, while Andris Nelsons highlighted details in Shostakovich. 

"Muddle instead of music": three foreboding words laden with threat and designed to destroy the reputation of a promising composer writing in the grip of the Iron Fist. 

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.

Shostakovich proves the highlight of a variable programme in Rotterdam. 

Shostakovich’s sprawling Fourth Symphony filled the rest of the concert in an epic performance.

Blistering Shostakovich crushed Rachmaninov in this uneven pairing, the London Philharmonic’s latest exploration into “Rachmaninoff: Inside out”. 

When leaders of their sections perform a concerto with their Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, it generally leads to an evening of excellence.

At Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, John Storgårds led the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Sibelius’ Rakastava, Nielsen’s iconic Clarinet Concerto and Shostakovich’s ground-breaking Fourth Symphony.

One Prom + two oddball 20th century symphonies = a strangely satisfying experience, especially when in the hands of a youth orchestra, evidently open to the technical challenges and quirkiness of this relatively rare concert material.

Continuing their Shostakovich cycle, the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev brought the Fourth and Ninth Symphonies to the Salle Pleyel, as well as the Concerto for Piano and Trumpet, with pianist Daniil Trifonov.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 9 and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 4 are pieces of music from completely different ends of the spectrum. The lightness of the concerto is not to be found in the monumental symphony, and the only common point is that both pieces were written by the composers at a very young age (Mozart was 21, Shostakovich 24).

Among the brilliant programming of The Rest is Noise festival in London, there was one concert this year that stood above all the others for me: the European première of Shostakovich’s opera prologue Orango. First discovered in an archive in 2004 by scholar Olga Digonskaya, Orango was never finished by Shostakovich, and indeed only a piano score remained.

The last concert in Rotterdam Philharmonic’s “Russian Fall” series centered around one of the most monumental Russian symphonies ever written: Shostakovich’s Fourth. But the evening opened with something completely different: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 2.

Nelsons präsentiert mit den Bostonern eine hinreißende Vierte Schostakowitschs. Als Kontrast vorab interpretiert Baiba Skride die selten gespielte Serenade von Bernstein.

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

Lang Lang spielte Tschaikowskis Erstes Klavierkonzert mit dem Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Der Star des Abends war aber eindeutig Dirigent Andris Nelsons.