Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"

With fabulous solo singing from Pavol Breslik and Elsa Dreisig, Beethoven's only oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives turns out to be a gem. Sadly, the Berg Violin Concerto misses the mark.

From the trials in love of a libertine, through the death of an angel, to the rise of an emperor, Rustioni takes charge of a rollercoaster evening of emotional turbulence.

As part of Philharmonia’s the Bittersweet Metropolis strand focusing on the music and culture of Germany in the interwar years, Esa-Pekka Salonen curated an interesting group of works designed to paint a picture of the more serious end of the music world in Berlin.

Early works by Schoenberg and Webern filled out an austere program.

Works by Alban Berg and Gustav Mahler recently heralded this year’s concert season in Zurich, where Artist in Residence Janine Jansen gave a superb performance. 

Classy performances from Leonidas Kavakos and Ying Fang, joining Christoph Eschenbach and the Verbier Festival Orchestra in a polished Berg Violin Concerto and a sublime Mahler 4.

A great programme of varied but accessible 20th-century music excites in spite of its imperfections; Faust gives a beautiful, introspective reading of the second Berg concerto.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under conductor Teodor Currentzis brought the audience to its feet with works by Alban Berg and Dmitri Shostakovitch.

A dream programme of works by Strauss, Berg and Sibelius, matched by performances from Sakari Oramo, Alina Pogostkina and the BBC Symphony Orchestra that really hit the sweet spot.

A refreshing Austro-German programme of works that neatly dovetailed into each other, presented with energy by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Robin Ticciati.

An exhilarating ride through Mahler's Seventh at the Barbican. 

The Grim Reaper swept the aisles of the Royal Festival Hall in Vladimir Jurowski's latest programme in the Southbank Centre’s “Belief and Beyond Belief” series which explores faith and spirituality. 

Karen Gomyo and the Vancouver Symphony present a ravishingly romantic programme of Berg and Rachmaninov

Both guest artists of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s concerts this week appeared in Australia for the first time: the octogenarian Christoph von Dohnányi and the versatile violinist, less than half his age, Carolin Widmann. The great German conductor must feel a certain pride in his ancestry, as he kept the Hungarian spelling of his surname.

Bach, Berg, and Shostakovich at Symphony Hall "The Breakfast Of Champions".

Dohnányi offers hugely satisfying interpretations of varied programme at the Southbank Centre with the Philharmonia and Carolin Widmann.

A superlative Berg Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos makes up for disappointing Schumann from Gatti. 

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

Third time’s a charm? Or is three a crowd? It isn’t often that an orchestra takes up an entire weekend at Carnegie Hall. Could this be too much of a good thing?

Linked together by Bach's chorale “Es ist genug”, the Philharmonia performed Lindberg's enigmatic Chorale, Berg's Violin Concerto and Schubert's Symphony no. 9 in C major “Great”. After an underwhelming first half, some invigorating Schubert saved the day.

Bernard Haitink and Leonidas Kavakos join the New York Philharmonic for a programme of Webern, Berg, and Beethoven.

If you like your Beethoven clean, precise and streamlined, you should go hear Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra perform the First and Seventh Symphonies, along with the Berg Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory at the Maison Symphonique.

Franz Welser-Möst misses few opportunities to declare his affinity with Anton Bruckner. The conductor, after all, is from Linz in Upper Austria, and Bruckner was born twelve decades earlier in a village just outside the same town. From London to Vienna, Welser-Möst has believed it necessary consciously to advocate for Bruckner’s music.

Last season Semyon Bychkov conducted the LSO in an “outstanding” performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony. This year he returned to conduct the First, the “Titan”, achieving similar success in a magnificent performance which radiated youthful zeal.A change of programme replaced Osvaldo Golijov’s Violin Concerto – still incomplete and somewhat overdue – with that of Alban Berg.

The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester are known as one of the best youth orchestras in the world, if not the best. As such, they do not shy away from the more difficult repertoire and tonight’s performance of Berg’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 reaffirmed their reputation.

The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester is one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. Bringing together young musicians from all over Europe, from Portugal to Russia, it is a model of international co-operation.

Drawing an end to a season of vigorous study under some of the world's leading maestri, the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove presented their penultimate concert in Truro School Chapel with a steadfast sense of achievement that derived from the fruit of labour combined with an eternal passion for music.

Thus reads the dedication of Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, written in 1935 to commemorate the short life of Manon, the 18-year old daughter of the famous architect Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus) and Gustav Mahler’s widow, the complex socialite, Alma Mahler. The apparently enchanting Manon (described as “an angelic gazelle from heaven”) died after suddenly contracting polio.

Unter dem Thema „Letzte Werke aus 100 Jahren Moderne” gastierte das London Symphony Orchestra unter Sir Simon Rattle mit Isabelle Faust in der Elbphilharmonie.

Isabelle Faust ! Joies d’une expression naturelle et spontanée, de ce tout immarcescible qui nous arrive comme tombé du ciel. Au contraire, l’art de Daniel Harding est celui d’un calligraphe scrupuleux : moins coloriste que son prédécesseur Paavo Järvi, il s’impose avant tout comme maître du contour.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste était invité à diriger le Philharmonique de Radio France pour un programme exclusivement viennois : Anton Webern, Alban Berg et Johannes Brams. C'est surtout la quatrième symphonie de Brahms qui faisait l'intérêt de ce concert.

No fue una noche exitosa para Portal ni para la orquesta. Desde la primera obra escuchamos una orquesta dirigida inapropiadamente

Visión sosegada y llena matices de una pieza expuesta con poco vuelo lírico y poca intención de tenerlo

Drei große Meister unserer Zeit versammelten sich in Berlin für ein Konzert mit den Werken Bergs, das tief berührte.