Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op.73

Ensemble 360's string quartet explore the emotional depths from late Beethoven to Shostakovich via quirky Stravinsky. 

The Brodsky Quartet deliver deeply moving performances of all 15 Shostakovich string quartets, with added value and insight from writers Elizabeth Wilson and Marina Frolova-Walker. 

The American Pacifica Quartet was convincingly introduced to Aussie Nigel Westlake's Second Quartet for their Down Under tour; but revealed its essence in the theatre of Shostakovich.

Britten and Shostakovich were great friends, so it was appropriate that both composers were represented in the Belcea Quartet's two recitals on the opening weekend of the 70th Aldeburgh Festival. 

Performed chronologically in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Globe’s candlelit Jacobean theatre, the 15 Shostakovich string quartets made an astonishing impression in such concentrated form. 

Few concert settings are as beautiful as St Martin’s Church in Colchester. A deconsecrated 15th-century church, it served as the venue for a concert of Shostakovich’s Third and Fifteenth String Quartets, played by the Gould Quartet (named after their first violinist Thomas Gould), part of the Roman River Festival. For a town with not many classical concerts, this was quite a treat.

The epic Birmingham Beethoven Cycle is a remarkable collaboration, in the 2012/13 season, between the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (who are performing all the symphonies), Town Hall Symphony Hall and a variety of outstanding artists including Leif Ove Andsnes, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Steven Osborne.

In der Kirche Saanen, der Wiege des Gstaad-Menuhin-Festivals, bot das renommierte Streichquartett aus Salzburg, unterstützt vom Pianisten Mao Fujita, Kammermusik in meisterhaften Interpretationen.