Widmann, Mendelssohn and Beethoven draw a full house to the Ulster Hall. Rafael Payare leads the Ulster Orchestra confidently, but Veronika Eberle steals the show.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe under conductor Bernard Haitink dazzled the Lucerne Festival audience with a programme of works by Mendelssohn and Schubert.
This was the second of Bernard Haitink’s Barbican appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra mostly drawing on the Austro-German orchestral tradition in electric and efficient perfromances.
In an all-Mendelssohn programme, Pablo Heras-Casado led the orchestra in detailed and original interpretations, with a strong performance from soloist Isabelle Faust.
Yutaka Sado and the Tonkünstler excel in the epic passages of the Sibelius and the outer movements of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, less convincing in more lyrical moments.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra provided a formidable performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony under Marin Alsop, with Renaud Capuçon bringing warmth and joie de vivre to Mendelssohn.
Joining Maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra for a tour across the United States, Chen headlined a pops concert of Austro-German music, complete with a riveting interpretation of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and an sufficient performance of Mahler’s Fifth.
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.
Buribayev and NSO deliver a powerful Mahler 4 while Ailish Tynan sings of the heavenly delights, while Alina Pogostkina dishes up outstanding Mendelssohn.
The Orchestra of St. Luke's under Heras-Casado performed an intriguing program of early works by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, with a stirring account of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto as a special treat in between.
In the first of two performances of this concert, St. George’s welcomed Michael Barenboim and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, previously known as the Oxford Philomusica.
A colourful concert from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton, which included two world premières and the fourth Proms appearance of Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova.
The highlight of the Dresden Philharmonic's evening in Birmingham was Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, with Arabella Steinbacher's performance a joy to experience.
Performing a world première alongside two old favourites, Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra stirred up a Lucerne audience on all three counts.
Spirited and nuanced string playing from the Australian Chamber Orchestra with guest violinist Stefan Jackiw and bassist Maxime Bibeau in a program that began and ended with Mendelssohn.
The challenges presented on this program, particularly Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, allowed the TSO to impress with their technical precision, ensemble cohesiveness and stamina.
The 2015 Master Series of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra opened with a programme of Schumann and Mendelssohn put together with excellent taste and scholarly insight.
A fantastic concert with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the charismatic Daniele Rustioni, with violinist Tasmin Little in Mendelssohn.
Iván Fischer has distinguished himself as a conductor with inimitable listening skills; he truly has an ear for which sounds should be coming from where and how the sounds of each member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra should be arranged in space.
Billed as “Midori performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto”, this Orchestre symphonique de Montréal concert conducted by James Colon was notable for a blazing performance of Zemlinsky's symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau.
Benjamin Beilman's radiant Mendelssohn preceded Skrowaczewski and the LPO making a magnificent case for Bruckner's third version of his Symphony no. 3 in D minor at the Souhthbank Centre, London.
At the Salle Pleyel, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France performed a new piece by Alberto Colla, Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto with James Ehnes, and Brahms’ Second Symphony, all conducted by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård.
Although both works have the goal of E major in common, the final destinations of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 couldn’t be more different. Tugan Sokhiev and the Philharmonia fell short of what could have been, but the third movement of the Mahler stood out.
Sir Mark Elder conducted a superb account of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony alongside colourful Stravinsky and elegant Mendelssohn at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.For Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, the orchestra’s woodwind and brass sections were divided in the middle of the stage.
Mendelssohn developed quite a soft spot for Birmingham, even producing a sketched portrait of the city. At the centre of this portrait stands Joseph Hansom's splendid neoclassical Town Hall where Mendelssohn conducted several of his own works, most famously the première of his great oratorio, Elijah.
For the second of his two concerts conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit presented a program consisting of highly contrasting works by Stravinsky and Mendelssohn, including Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, celebrating the 100th anniversary of work’s first performance in 1913.
Ferdinand David, the concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra when Mendelssohn was conductor, must have been quite a virtuoso for the composer to have written his Violin Concerto in E minor for him.
Michael Francis is the go-to conductor to replace fellow maestros at short notice. The newly appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor to Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden stood in for Valery Gergiev with only 12 hours’ notice, and for John Adams with even less, in performances with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2007.
The first of the two Proms by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra featured an all-Mendelssohn programme. The orchestra has a long tradition of performing Mendelssohn’s music, as he was their Music Director from 1835 until his early death in 1847.
Nestled in the north of Bavaria lies the small medieval town of Bamberg. Despite its small population of just 70,000 people, the town boasts not only a wonderful concert hall, but one of the best orchestras in Germany.
This was a programme that presented what are probably each of its composers' most popular works, played by one of London’s very best orchestras, under the direction of one of Europe’s most venerable and respected conductors. Add to that the winning presence of a young and vibrant soloist, and it is not surprising that the concert was well attended.
This concert by Poland’s national orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, attracted a near-capacity audience which had in it a fair sprinkling of members of the local Polish community, judging from overheard conversations and some shouts of “Jeszcze raz!” (“More!”) at the end.
