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

An all-day Beethoven experience European style with both highs and lows: much diversity revealed and exploited but of variable quality.

Czech tenor Petr Nekoranec adds luster to a performance attuned to troubled times.

A strong connection between Manfred Honeck and the WDR musicians was clearly palpable during the entire performance.

Excellent camera work contributed to the transparency and clarity by visualizing the interplay between various instruments and sections in the reduced orchestra, especially the eloquent winds.

After their "military" theme last week, Daniele Gatti and Markus Werba turned towards nature for their second programme with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin star in Mozart concert arias before a very gentle Pastoral Symphony at the Maison symphonique.

Recorded in the Salle Bourgie, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the OM in two highly contrasting Beethoven symphonies. 

A program of Beethoven and Mahler from the Budapest Festival Orchestra celebrated the beauty and terror of the natural world.

Beethoven à la Gergiev is measured and classically elegant, with precise playing from a thoughtful Beatrice Rana.

Directed by Gerard McBurney, this concert recreated the marathon Akademie conducted by Beethoven in Vienna which saw the premieres of four major works. 

Part three of their anniversary symphony cycle sees their Principal Conductor lead the SCO with energy and drama.

Nine symphonies, five orchestras, two days: an immersive weekend as part of the Barbican's Beethoven 250 coverage featuring some of the UK's finest orchestras. 

Jussen brothers thrill in Mozart, but a pastoral Enescu-Beethoven tandem proves great programming still exists.

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.