Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Enigma Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Op.36

In a mismatched pairing of Elgar and Mahler, the London Symphony Orchestra produce immaculate instrumental sound quality, but is that enough?

The dream team of Edward Gardner and the LPO are joined by Beth Taylor for a glorious evening of Elgar at the Royal Festival Hall. 

British pianist Ben Grosvenor joins the Sinfonia of London in Amsterdam for Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto showcasing the very best of British talent

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Dinis Sousa bravely venture into Elgar at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with mixed success.

Montreal-bred Karen Gomyo steals the show in Dvořák's Violin Concerto with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under guest conductor John Storgårds. 

Lovingly detailed accounts of music dear to the heart of the late master of ceremonies at the Proms.

Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé are flawless in Dvořák, Butterworth and Elgar, while Sir Stephen Hough joins the ranks of virtuoso pianists performing their own concertos. 

Trevor Wilson conducts Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Copland and Wijeratne in the TSO's tour of a century of tonalism.

Working with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Elim Chan and her soloist Jan Lisiecki see very much eye-to-eye in Beethoven, with the conductor taking a left-of-field approach in Elgar.

The program also featured the debut of conductor Anna Rakitina, who led a stirring reading of Elgar's Enigma Variations.

The Sinfonia of London excels in works by British composers at the BBC Proms, launching some of the season's themes. 

On paper it all seemed so alluring: a tuneful opening suite, one of the raciest warhorses in the stable and a national icon to close with. However, the reality in Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Elgar was somewhat different. 

The world premiere of Gabriel Jackson’s ambitious but inert The World Imagined and a complacent Enigma Variations are outclassed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s gorgeous Solemn Prelude at Worcester Cathedral.

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie d'Oustrac also met the dramatic and musical challenges of Berlioz's Les Nuits d’été.

Alice Coote is totally mesmerising in Britten's cantata Phaedra in a concert stream from London's Southbank.  

Michael Daugherty’s Once Upon a Castle, composed in 2003, is the highlight of Edward Gardner's Philadelphia Orchestra debut.  

An all-Elgar affair by the SSO directed by its Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton was not so much a distant memory of colonialism but rather an exercise in nostalgia.

A fascinating new companion piece to Elgar's Enigma Variations, from 14 contemporary composers, in celebration of Martyn Brabbins' 60th birthday, performed with enthusiasm by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Ibragimova delivers a delectable performance of Strauss' Violin Concerto, while Slatkin and the RTÉ NSO impress with McTee and Elgar. 

Kanneh-Mason's tone was luminous, his accuracy formidable, his commitment complete.

Assured and mostly rewarding performances from the RPO in standard fare that underlined Bruch’s nobility, Elgar’s masterly orchestration and the originality of Sibelius. 

Variations of tension, energy and contrast with Long Yu and the Hong Kong Phil.

On the last leg of their first international tour, the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin fully embraced Elgar after a francophone first half of Berlioz and Saint-Saëns. 

The former principal guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra made his first appearance in seven years to lead graceful performances of Elgar and Beethoven. 

A delectable programme from Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with pieces by Elgar and Vaughan Williams and a rare chance to hear John Ireland’s eclectic Piano Concerto.

Simon Rattle returns to the UK in a (self-)portrait concert with the London Symphony Orchestra showcasing contemporary music

Affecting Britten, distinctive Elias and popular Elgar, with a curio of arranged Purcell thrown in, from Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Under Benjamin Northey's baton and Kristian Chong's fingers, Bizet's Carmen Suite and Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto dazzle, but it's Elgar's Sospiri and Enigma Variations that truly made the evening.

An account of The Beatitudes that will do much to reassess this neglected work was coupled with a polished “Enigma”.

If “the girl with kaleidoscope eyes” were a musician, she might well have composed something like Terry Riley’s 2014 concerto for organ and orchestra, At The Royal Majestic.

Behzod Abduraimov's playing marks the highlight of the CBSO's latest matinee programme. 

The three finalists of this year’s Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition were selected from the initial 20 candidates in the two earlier rounds. 

The synergy between Donald Runnicles and the CSO was abundantly clear in a program of two British works and a Strauss tone poem.

NSO's debuts for Maestro Donald Runnicles and soprano, Olga Peretyatko. 

Elgar shines after a fresh performance of Tchaikovsky with Julia Fischer and the St Petersburg Philharmonic. 

In front of an enthusiastic Montréal crowd, Yannick Nézet-Séguin led his orchestra through the varied atmospheres and moods of works by great English composers of the early 20th century.

The European continent met the British Isles in this weekend’s San Diego Symphony program. 

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

The BBC Philharmonic's chief conductor Juanjo Mena and violinst Tamsin in an astonishing performance of Moeran's Violin Concerto. Mena also brings his own interpretation of Elgar's Enigma Variations.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's visit to Reading featured music by Mozart, Brahms and Elgar, and the crowds of schoolchildren in attendance seemed entranced.

In what was only his second Prom as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo led this fine orchestra on a journey through two of the best-known pieces of the 20th century. However, the first piece to be played was the BBC-commissioned work by Param Vir, Cave of Luminous Mind.

Leeds is so lucky to have virtuoso violinist David Greed still within reach, ready and available to perform as a soloist at concerts like this with the excellent orchestra of which he was the youngest leader in the country when it was formed in 1978. It was really thrilling to experience The Lark Ascending live, and to see him standing there just a few feet in front of the audience.

Two encores, a virtuoso and a cracking orchestra. This concert truly celebrated the best of British music and musicians, as the first concert in St George’s “Best of British” concert season. The scene was set with an array of red, white and blue amongst the orchestra in several forms: bow ties, flags, ribbons and other accessories.

Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto no. 2 and Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations. Both solidly—not to mention stolidly—popular works. Safe programming choices. Maybe too safe. Both works are well loved. Well worn, too. Think of the Brahms. Every pianist of note that has ever lived (and will ever live) has recorded and played it.

The composers Debussy, Dvořák, Schoenberg and Elgar and aren’t often associated with each other, but they featured together in the first of three concerts in Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. The works on the program, it turned out, all dated from the 1890s and all were program music.

Outside, it was as cold as Narnia. But as a lone flute piped the haunting opening phrases of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, we were transported to the warmth of a dreamy afternoon. We were off on a journey around European folk-tales and legends at the end of the 19th century.

The history of British music reads rather like the old joke about buses: there was no composer of note in the two hundred years after Purcell, and then three came along at once. Whilst Elgar and Vaughan Williams have become household names, the third composer who came along at the end of the nineteenth century has been relegated to the dusty shelves of musical history.

Orchestral concerts bookended by Adès and Elgar are nothing new in Britain, but despite both composers being performed with increasing regularity in Vienna over the last few years, this event – to my knowledge – was the first to place them side by side.

Young German cellist Nicolas Altstaedt was at the emotional centre of the BBC Philharmonic’s all-Elgar concert in Manchester. An award-winner with a fast-developing global reputation, he made the opening four chords of the Cello Concerto exceptionally dramatic, more immediate than usual, as we were plunged into the composer’s agonised responses to the Great War.