Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Symphony no. 3 in E flat major 'Rhenish', Op.97

François-Xavier Roth conducts sparkling, refreshing accounts of Debussy, Schumann and Strauss in the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln season-opening gala.

Renée Fleming sings Barber and Strauss at the Concertgebouw.

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

Susanna Mälkki was guest conductor for The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers@Severance concert, which also included Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony.

At Carnegie Hall the MET orchestra proves that, temporarily rudderless, it's still a top ensemble

Schumann and Wagner were twinned in a programme focusing on works written in 1850 with impressvie results. 

Darkly illuminated music at Berlin's Komische Oper. 

With disappointing Schumann followed by engrossing, but incomplete, excerpts from Wagner's Götterdämmerung, Marek Janowski and the Oslo Philharmonic fail to make a splash.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the Hallé in works by Bach, Stravinsky and Schumann.

Schumann's Violin Concerto is a relative rarity in the concert hall, but Patricia Kopatchinskaja's performance did little to suggest a neglected masterpiece.

Following their hugely successful Beethoven and Brahms cycles, Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe returned with Schumann’s symphonies and concertos.

Hans Graf conducts the Houston Sympony and proves even a line-up of symphonic favorites can be foiled by a tepid tempo.

Kazushi Ono's take on Schubert, Mozart and Strauss with the CBSO is one of lean elegance that doesn't fail to enthuse the aucience in Birmingham's Symphony Hall.

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

  Ticciati also leads a moody "Meditation" by Hosokawa and a blazing Schumann "Rhenish" Symphony. 

In the third installment of Rattle's Schumann/Brahms cycle in Berlin, Rattle provided new insights into both, marred by some basic deficiencies in the performance.

From introspective Mahler to flowing Schumann, Claudio Abbado is remembered at a concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Dresden's Frauenkirche.

“Europe’s answer to the ACO” was how composer Brett Dean described the Mahler Chamber Orchestra before its first concert in Sydney. Despite the similarity in names, the two are very different ensembles.

The day after Valentine’s Day, and Hall One at The Sage Gateshead was filled with love – the love between an orchestra and their conductor, and the love that all the musicians on the stage felt for the composers they were playing, in this their third concert of a Brahms and Schumann double symphony cycle with conductor Thomas Zehetmair.

How very fitting that the Berlin Philharmonic, an orchestra that claims to be made up of 128 soloists, should start Thursday’s concert and their European tour with perhaps one of the most soloistic orchestral pieces ever written: Ligeti’s Atmosphères.

Simon Rattle returned to Birmingham's Symphony Hall, a construction of his own initiation and the home of his successes with the CBSO, to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert as part of the hall's 21st birthday celebrations.

For its concert on Sunday afternoon, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Simon Rattle performed symphonic works which, the programme notes claimed, “invite us to think about the possibilities of hidden musical meaning”.Over the years, speculation has been rife on the famous F-A-F motif of the opening chords on woodwinds in the first movement of Brahms’ Symphony no.

The Philadelphia Orchestra may be in the news more often for its financial difficulties than for its music-making, but even a fleeting listen to one of their concerts demonstrates that the ensemble remains one of America’s gems.

Das Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks führten Schumanns „Rheinische" und Mahlers Lied von der Erde unter der Leitung von Sir Simon Rattle im Münchner Herkulessaal auf.

Während Gatti in der Genoveva-Ouvertüre seine Stärken als Operndirigent ausleben konnte, dominierte im Mahler Chamber Orchestra die Spielfreude und das Engagement.

Cuando en un programa aparece la leyenda “estreno mundial”, la expectativa de la novedad hace de esa obra el atractivo principal. Precisamente eso pasó este viernes en Bellas Artes: la Sinfónica Nacional nos ofreció el estreno de la versión definitiva del Concierto-son para flauta y orquesta del célebre compositor mexicano Arturo Márquez. 

Isserlis brachte seine ganze Leidenschaft in den Solopart ein, und auch die Arbeit von Dirigent und Orchester war ausgezeichnet, überzeugend und geschlossen. Gar eine Spitzenleistung?

Das Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich lief unter Kristiina Poska mit Janáček zu Höchstform auf.

Des bravos fusaient déjà à l’entrée de Muti sur scène. Plongés dans un Oiseau de feu légendaire, fascinant, évident, puis littéralement soulevés par un bis patriotique chargé de sens et d'énergie, les spectateurs de Pleyel ne se remettront pas aisément de la venue du maestro.