Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116

Looking at its past, its present and its future, the Boston Symphony returns to Symphony Hall after the Covid hiatus. 

David Grimal captures the rhapsodic nature of Chausson and Ravel's scores, but how well does the conductor-less approach work in non-concertante scores? 

Tamás Juronics choreographs the Concerto for Orchestra as a biographical ballet depicting a fragile Béla Bartók rising from his hospital bed.  

A sprightly program of Beethoven, anti-Beethoven and Bartók.

Andsnes’ rendition was a typical battle between Dionysian and Apollonian, won by the latter.

Michael Tilson Thomas had a spectacular debut with Montreal's Orchestre Symphonique. George Li's performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 was breath-taking. 

Robert Spano leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a powerful performance of Gandolfi's inspired Imaginary Numbers.

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.

A chance to experience two sides of Sir András Schiff's artistry, as pianist and conductor, made for an especially memorable experience in this collaboration between the Hungarian artist and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Salonen's own Cello Concerto lay at the centre of the evening's programme, with Truls Mørk as soloist. 

The Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich recently struck a perfect balance of emotive and restraint in music by Brahms, Bartók and Saint-Saëns.

Alexander Shelley conducts a folksong-infused programme of Kodály and Bartók, with Mariam Batsashvili performing Liszt. 

Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra – premiered by the BSO under Serge Koussevitzky and a familiar calling card ever since – opens the new season.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karina Canellakis and with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist, offer a scenic tour to territories once visualised by Sibelius, Dvořák and Bartók.

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra offer a stunning palette of orchestral colours in Elgar, Bell, Strauss, and Bartók.

Returning with a challenging 20th-century program, Vasily Petrenko shows that his stellar debut with the Cleveland Orchestra was no fluke.

...the perpetuum mobile character building to a raucously joyous finale that elicited genuine, generous applause.

In her first appearance with the CBSO at Sage Gateshead, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla switches between energy and tranquility with Sibelius, Brahms and Bartók.

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.

Sir Simon Rattle’s resurrection of a Hollywood extravaganza, the Genesis Suite, entertains at the Barbican. 

Evgeni Bozhanov marks his Liverpool début with the RLPO under the watchful eye of conductor Marzena Diakun. 

After a 34 year hiatus from the Konzerthaus stage, the Toronto Symphony gave a knockout performance that had everything in spades

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, joined by cellist Gautier Capuçon, presented modern, post-war masterworks in their first of two nights in Stern Auditorium.

In this concert, conducted by Simone Young, featuring works by Hungarians, Bartók and Eötvös,  the colour and virtuosity of both pieces was presented with an extra tingle factor.

Edward Gardner opens the Bergen Philharmonic's UK tour in great style. 

This unusual program had the unlikely pairing of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, for which Kirill Gerstein was a brilliant soloist. 

Guest Conductor Peter Oundjian led outstanding interpretations of three familiar pieces by Rimsky-Korsakov, Haydn and Bartók.

Bringing his six-year ‘Mini journey’ to Budapest for a Bartok mini-cycle, Joolz Gale delivered a detailed vision of the First Piano Concerto and the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Yet, a blazing performance of Bartók’s concerto for orchestra stole the show.

Contrasting Hungarian musical portraits from Dohnányi and Bartók anchored JoAnn Falletta’s latest Virginia Symphony concerts, coupled with a Tchaikovsky piano concerto that was long on bravura but short on poetry.

Gergiev bows out of his tenure with the London Symphony Orchestra with a scrumptious programme of Stravinsky and Bartók.

For their first and last ever visit to the Proms, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg and François-Xavier Roth gave a thrilling concert of 20th-century masterpieces, celebrating a rich history of creative inspiration.

Conductor Brett Mitchell also led worthy performances of Dvořák’s The Noon Witch and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, joined by student ensemble, the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra.

Mariss Jansons' festive, but poignant, farewell concert with the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra. Thomas Hampson contrasted folksongs by Mahler with Berio and Copland. Afterwards, while Jansons conducted Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

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. 

Prokofiev and Bartók bring out the best in Lionel Bringuier in his Philharmonia Orchestra debut, joined by pianist Simon Trpčeski. 

The RSNO shine in Strauss' and Bartók's contrasting responses to war, dislocation and loss, Metamorphosen and the Concerto for Orchestra.

For a folklore enthusiast like yours truly, the CBSO’s matinee last Saturday seemed the perfect recipe: take some Liszt, a generous amount of Bartók and a pinch of Brahms, then add to the excellent musicians for a delectable musical experience.

It is a wonderful thing to hear the full range and colour of a symphony orchestra used to its full effect during the course of an evening's programme and tonight the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo showed the diversity, versatility and sheer joy which for me really brings the music to life.

Within the framework of a concert series entitled “Alexandre Tharaud domaine privé” (“Alexandre Tharaud’s Private Domain”) at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and its musical director Emmanuel Krivine chose an eclectic program with three very different pieces showcasing the orchestra’s great abilities: J.

If the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is the Porsche of orchestras, then Mariss Jansons is something like the Michael Schumacher of conductors, guiding this most-celebrated of German radio orchestras through some of the most precipitous and heart-stopping shifts in speed I have witnessed.

The Budapest Festival Orchestra are a relatively well-kept secret, although goodness knows why. Perhaps it is something to do with their young age (formed in 1983) or their somewhat utilitarian name.

You might not think that a conductor nearing his 80th birthday and leading an orchestra from a swivel chair would be as effective as a conductor in full health, but you would be wrong.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s January 20 concert, the last in its “Focus on Eötvös” mini-residency, may as well have been called “Focus on Hungary.” The small, landlocked country, with barely over 9 million residents, has exerted – and continues to exert – a powerful influence on music.

The regular home of the Dresden Philharmonic, Dresden’s Kulturpalast, is currently being renovated, and as a result the orchestra is taking residence in a number of venues around the city, including the city theatre, and the renowned Frauenkirche. However, the majority of their concerts this season are taking place in the Albertinum, one of Dresden’s many art galleries.

As I write this, I have just realised that someone in a neighbouring flat is listening to some rather loud jazz, a man is shouting outside, probably at the car alarm that has just gone off, and there is a bee buzzing around my room.

Established in 1987 by Leonard Bernstein, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra last year joined the exclusive club of youth orchestras to have performed at the Salzburg Festival and was immediately invited back for a return appearance this season.

Flemish orchestra deFilharmonie came to Amsterdam on a sunny Sunday morning and brought even sunnier music with them. Lead by Jaap van Zweden, who knows the Concertgebouw like no other, they played a program containing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, two works of incredible high energy that left many a concertgoer with a smile on her face.

At first glance, Sir Antonio Pappano was not the obvious choice for a programme of twentieth-century orchestral works.

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.