Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Symphony no. 6 in F major "Pastoral", Op.68

Harding demonstrates how this orchestra have improved under his leadership, but Tamestit's theatrics don't help.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra offered a reading of Beethoven's “Pastoral” Symphony that ideally suited the bucolic surroundings.

Herbert Blomstedt returns to Cleveland in authoritative performances of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” and Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” symphonies.

Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and a dazzling new work by Wim Henderickx at Bozar

Thomas Adès continued his Beethoven cycle with the Britten Sinfonia in a superb performance of Beethoven's Sixth paired with Barry’s marmite piece The Conquest of Ireland.

The Lithuanian conductor made Beethoven really sing while violinist, Vilde Frang's spirited interpretation of Elgar's Violin Concerto did not seem quite the finished article.

Rihm is probably Germany’s most famous living composer, and he has a reputation for cerebral intellectualism in his music. That’s admirable, but it doesn’t make him approachable. 

Outstanding solos, orchestral discipline and novelties in musical arrangement made for another quality symphonic experience from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

CSO concertmaster Robert Chen took the spotlight in two 20th-century works with Neeme Järvi conducting; anchoring the program was Beethoven’s Pastoral.

Roth bookended Matthias Pintscher's new work with familiar pieces, Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 in F major.

In Barcelona, Gustavo Dudamel and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela continued their Beethoven cycle with performances of the Fifth and Sixth. 

Joshua Bell and the stupendous Academy of St Martin in the Fields entertained us through powerful music, not through any showmanship or bravado - a welcome change in this Trump-age.

The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder gave superb performances of Tchaikovsky's Hamlet and, with Benjamin Grosvenor, Liszt's Piano Concerto no 1. Their Beethoven Pastoral Symphony was disappointing in contrast.

The Oslo Philharmonic's winds and brass are no match for Vasily Petrenko and a sea of strings in a cacophonous blast through Beethoven's Symphonies 5 and 6.

Sensational playing from the Philharmonia ended a superb season at the Royal Festival Hall, and allowed a brief escape from the troubles of our times.

Osmo Vänskä returns to conduct the NSO for restrained Brahms and a very pleasing Beethoven. 

A full-sized LPO première a bewildering new mass setting by Alexander Raskatov that misses the mark and sits uneasily alongside Beethoven's great ode to nature. 

Historically informed Beethoven on period instruments in Sydney, but where was the interpretation? 

In Rotterdam, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a gracefully contoured Beethoven Sixth Symphony and, together with fabulous vocal and instrumental soloists, reaches core-deep into Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

The concertmasters of America's top orchestras rival the talents of the world's greatest violinists.  This was proven again in BSO leader Jonathan Carney's thrilling performance of Glazunov's Violin Concerto.

A joyful concert by the Manchester Camerata conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy with Craig Ogden in music by Rossini, Chabrier, Rodrigo and Beethoven, with a few surprises along the way.

The maverick Aurora Orchestra returns to the Proms, and doesn't disappoint.

Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony and Strauss’s Symphonia domestica fill this week’s bill at Severance Hall.

The Philhamonia Orchestra on fine form, with characterful Mahler from Markus Werba, and assured dynamic control, enthusiasm and energy from Karl-Heinz Steffens.

The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, led by Marek Janowski, performs Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Sixth Symphony. 

Franz Welser-Möst, with brand new contract signed through to 2022, leads elegant performances of Beethoven’s Sixth and Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso, Valses nobles et sentimentales and La Valse.

A life affirming Beethoven 6th and a muscular 7th launch Andris Nelsons' final season at the helm of the CBSO.

Lars Vogt came blazing into his new job as Music Director of Royal Northern Sinfonia, creating an instant impression with his luxuriously expressive Beethoven and Brahms.

After 19 years, David Zinman took his leave from the post of music director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich yesterday with an affectionate Proms programme of Strauss, Dvořák and Beethoven. 

Bernard Haitnik celebrates his 85th birthday with outstanding accounts of Berg and Beethoven in a moving evening at the Barbican. 

Michael Collins' golden tone delights in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in a concert featuring the world première of Gwilym Simcock's latest composition, On a Piece of Tapestry.

Joanna MacGregor's 'Exotic Birds', in an imaginatively programmed Auckland Philharmonia concert, gets our reviewer all aflutter.

In his introduction to the programme, the orchestra’s Music Director Marios Papadopoulos says that it is the energy in Beethoven’s music which captures his attention, and this was certainly conveyed in the Oxford Philomusica’s performance of the piece.

The Philadelphia Orchestra was visibly enjoying their evening at Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle, their frequent guest conductor who nearly became their music director. In a program of early modern classics and a perennial Beethoven favorite, energy and spirits were high and in good supply.

There are only a handful of composers whose music can provide enough variety to last a whole program. Beethoven is one of those composers. Not only that, but even today, some 200 years after his lifetime, his music continues to inspire, delight and challenge modern audiences. That is part of Beethoven’s enduring genius and legacy.The opening piece of the concert, the Grosse Fugue Op.

Andris Nelsons continued his Beethoven cycle with deeply personal and thrilling accounts of the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies to a sold-out Symphony Hall.Beethoven’s first Romance for violin and orchestra was moved to open the concert late in the day.

Two down, two to go. Whereas at the 2012 BBC Proms Daniel Barenboim and the West-Easter Divan Orchestra paired the Pastoral symphony with the Fifth, just as Beethoven programmed them in the infamously long concert that premièred them both, here the Pastoral prefaced the Seventh.

Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven: the programme of he Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's most recent Cadogan Hall concert, under the baton of Fabien Gabel, was unashamedly mainstream. The opening item of the programme was the Brahms Tragic Overture. The opening strident chords managed to be agitated yet pensive, interrupted silence hanging in the air as each note dissipated once more.

So Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra continue on their odyssey demonstrating for us what Beethoven might mean in the 21st century. Barenboim’s back-to-the-future approach clearly to some seems anachronistic after years in which Beethoven has been the preserve of ‘period’ bands, and in which even the grandest and oldest of orchestras have altered their traditions.

With the sun shining bright and the waning winter months feeling more like spring, it seemed like all of Astoria was out on the streets this past Sunday. Still, the Astoria Symphony Orchestra enticed some of the locals indoors, delighting us with Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven.

The Pastoral Symphony is perhaps an optimistic choice for January in Manchester, but for a short while all memory of the deluge outside evaporated in the Bridgewater Hall.Olivier Messiaen’s suite L’Ascension opened the concert with serene, otherworldly modality in a masterfully sculpted brass chorale.

It takes a special orchestra to perform standard repertoire in a completely revelatory way. Having heard Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, I almost feel like I do not want to hear it performed in any other way again. There were several unique aspects to their performance.

It sounds almost like heresy to describe a Beethoven composition as “light”, but it would be appropriate for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert on Saturday. His Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68, Pastoral, was like soufflé to the crème brûlée of Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture.

With their appetite for musical diversity and youthful enthusiasm, the six-year-old Aurora Orchestra and their principal conductor, Nicholas Collon, have grand ambitions. With ‘When Doves Cry’ they did not disappoint, showing both their exceptional aptitude for showcasing contemporary music and a promising ability to inject freshness into seminal classical works.

Last night's concert at the Royal Festival Hall was a high profile affair. Staged to mark both the opening of the Hungarian six-month presidency of the European Union and the bicentenary of Liszt, it was attended by the President of Hungary and a raft of assorted dignitaries.

Couple indissociable, Zubin Mehta et l'Orchestre Philharmonique d'Israël ont offert un concert de haute volée à la Philharmonie de Paris. Au programme : Schubert, Ravel et Beethoven. 

Umjubeltes Gastspiel beim NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester mit Werken von Webern, Schumann und Beethoven.

Très en forme, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande souffle ses 100 bougies et nous propose un voyage dans la modernité avec Ammann et Bartok, avant une Pastorale généreuse et vive.

Les Marseillais ont la volonté d'en découdre, de prouver qu'ils sont là et bien là dans leur ville, qu'ils sont un maillon essentiel de la vie culturelle.