Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Violin Concerto no. 2, Sz 112

David Robertson's program combines a passionate and multilayered account of Bartók's Second Violin Concerto with early, rarely played works by Ligeti and Rachmaninov that challenges assumptions about their composers.

A muted Bartók violin concerto is offset by a scintillating Petrushka at the Barbican.

Augustin Hadelich is an authoritative interpreter in Bartók's Second Violin Concerto, while Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester never quite succeed in scaling the heights of Bruckner 7.

Renaud Capuçon shines in Bartók's two Violin Concertos, together with a strong Concerto for Orchestra from the BBCSO and Péter Eötvös, at the Festival Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo.

Celebrating Debussy on the 100th anniversary of his death, this programme played to the strengths of the LSO under the energetic direction of François-Xavier Roth.

A seductive Debussy, a spikey Bartók violin concerto and a scintillating Berlioz: Kochavonsky and NSO join forces with violinist Sokolov.

Pitch-perfect Bartók by Ibragimova and a boldly expansive reading of Shostakovich's Fifth by Hrůša made for an insightful evening's reflection on musical early modernity.

‘Dancing with the Orchestra’ was the last subscription concert of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and two compositions with a focus on dance bookended Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto no. 2. 

While premiered only some 60 years apart, the Béla Bartók and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky works that Charles Dutoit recently conducted in the Zurich Tonhalle couldn’t have called up more disparate moods.

Crisp Bartók, eloquent Schubert and a poignant tribute to Zoltán Kocsis in the Budapest Festival Orchestra's latest concert. 

The New York Phil's music director drives his Tchaikovsky hard but brings taut control to 20th-century repertoire, with Frank Peter Zimmermann oustanding in Bartók. 

Edge and bite in Bartók from Zimmermann, followed by intense but restrained Shostakovich from Valčuha and the Philharmonia.

When the Boston Symphony audience embraces a conductor with sustained, enthusiastic applause as they did with Jakub Hrůša, making his debut, they are not only expressing their approval; they are saying you belong.

Joseph Phibbs’s Partita makes a strong impression in its première at the Barbican. 

Susanna Mälkki had another memorable outing with the CSO in coloristic works of Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov along with a Bartók violin concerto commanded by Gil Shaham.

Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Smetana, Bartók and Dvořák in Manchester.

Baiba Skride and Tugan Sokhiev joined the LSO at the Barbican for Messiaen, Bartók and Tchaikovksy. It was a memorable evening that demonstrated why the best performances are not necessarily the most faultless ones.

A Mozart symphony in the second half of this Houston Symphony concert could hardly compete with Augustin Hadelich playing Bartók. 

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s program was a collage-like display of the diverse music that emerged from composers in New York City from 1936 to 1956. 

Jurowski, Kopatchinskaja and the LPO entrance with a varied and imaginative programme.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra première the first of two late works by John Tavener this Proms season and Isabelle Faust excels in Bartók and Bach. 

One of the most difficult transitions in the orchestral world is that of concertmaster, or leader, to concerto soloist. In last night’s concert, San Diego Symphony concertmaster Jeff Thayer proved himself up to that task, in one of the violin repertoire’s most demanding works Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto no. 2.

A thoroughly enjoyable insight from the LA Phil under the baton of Stéphane Denève on the different styles of Bartók and Rachmaninov. 

The violinist James Ehens brings his masterful Bartók back to Seattle in a program conducted by André de Ridder, who makes his Seattle Symphony debut.

The opening of Henri Dutilleux’s Symphony no. 1, with its distinctive pizzicato opening full of tension and curiosity, opened the concert not with a bang but rather a seductive lure.

Two programmes, four works, and nothing written before 1880: the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and their chief conductor Mariss Jansons certainly know how to play to their strengths on tour. What strengths they are, too. This orchestra generates a uniquely warm sound, maintains scrupulously clean textures, and possesses technical skills that surpass even the finest of other orchestras.

Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw can claim the most enduring historical connection with Mahler’s symphonies of any orchestra due to their erstwhile principal conductor Willem Mengelberg, who invited Mahler to Amsterdam to conduct the Third and Fourth Symphonies in 1903 and 1904 respectively and after the composer’s death became one of his chief disciples.

Every now and then I like to experiment. Reviewing a concert in which I know none of the music can be frightening, but also exciting and – always – surprising. Thus I was slightly apprehensive but wholly enthusiastic about attending this LSO concert featuring works unknown to me by Bartók and Szymanowski.

Mark Elder finished his part in the Hallé’s Beethoven cycle with a rambunctious performance of the seventh symphony, with works by Sibelius and Bartók adding to a dynamic evening of music.Before conducting Sibelius’ tone poem The Bard, Elder paid tribute to the late Paavo Berglund, the great Finnish conductor and champion of all things Sibelian, who died last month.

Sometimes concerts are just concerts: music is performed, and if the juxtaposition of two pieces happens to provide some insight into the composer or his music, then this is a pleasing by-product of the performance. Other concerts are barely-disguised lectures; these concerts have grand aims and programmes thick with scholarly arguments.

Combining Bartók’s second Violin Concerto with Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony was a bold move for Alan Gilbert. Bartók’s music is rough around the edges, abrasive and severe but also tepid in parts. Beethoven, on the other hand, is wild and bombastic; The Eroica Symphony is a larger than life work. Performing the two pieces in a single evening was ambitious, but proved triumphant.

Mettant à l'honneur plusieurs œuvres rares, ce programme des Berliner Philharmoniker dirigés par le chef français nous plonge dans un univers mélancolique illuminé par la performance de la violoniste allemande. 

Alan Gilbert und das NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester bringen ein wenig norddeutsche Heimat nach München.

La temporada Palau 100 se abre con un grandioso concierto a cargo de la NDR Elbphilharmonie que incluía la Séptima sinfonía de Bruckner y el Segundo concierto de violín de Bartók a cargo de Leonidas Kavakos.

À Lyon, le violoniste Renaud Capuçon offre une interprétation impressionnante du Concerto pour violon n° 2 de Bartók avant une savoureuse Symphonie n° 3 de Beethoven sous la direction de Krzysztof Urbański.

À la Philharmonie, l'Orchestre de Paris invite Jakub Hrůša à la direction, le violoniste Renaud Capuçon et la mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d'Oustac pour un programme riche et varié.

Un abrumador Zimmermann y una contundente orquesta inauguraron de forma brillante la temporada de la OSG

Von dionysisch-wild bis apollinisch-klar: Gil Shaham und das Symphonieorchester des BR unter Yannick Nézet-Séguin zeigen bei Bartók und Mahler überschäumende Musizierfreude und Begeisterung, die ansteckt.