Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Piano Concerto no. 3 in C major, Op.26

The muscular piano playing of Nikolai Lugansky could not save the Russian National Orchestra’s shoddy Enescu and Prokofiev.

The St Petersburg Philharmonic playing Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony – a work it premiered in 1937 as the Leningrad Philharmonic – was a highlight of a superb concert concluding its UK tour. 

Fifty years on, Argerich is still the legendary tigress of the keyboard, yet more besides.

An impressive programme from the RSNO at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall which only took off during Mahler's mighty First Symphony. 

Lang Lang's Prokofiev was ostentatious, but it was Duoit's visionary take on The Firebird that was truly the standout.

This Anvil concert revealed a “two sides of the same coin” quality from an illustrious orchestra that left a mixed, but mostly favourable impression.

The BBC’s biennial Young Musician competition reached its thrilling climax in an absorbing, nail-biting and inspirational final concert at London’s Barbican yesterday afternoon.

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano give terrific performances of Debussy, Prokofiev and Stravinsky as they embark on their American tour. 

Valery Gergiev led an athletic pilgrimage through composer-pianist Sergei Prokofiev’s five Piano Concerti, in numerical order, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Powerful Romeo and Juliet and triumphant Scriabin from the Philharmonia and Salonen, with moments of excitement in Prokofiev from Lang Lang.

What on paper might have looked like a circus act – wheeling out three pianists to plough through Prokofiev’s five piano concertos – turned out to be a fascinating opportunity to compare and contrast.

A five star evening with Sakari Oramo and the BBCSO in 1920s masterpieces.

The Detroit Symphony played its best concert in over a year, with Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto proving the highlight. 

In an exciting programme of Prokofiev, Penderecki and Lutoslawski, two musicians debuted with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Both impressed greatly.

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

This was a concert that provided the opportunity for so many individual musicians to shine and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s shone brightly, showcasing its truly amazing talent. 

Works from Magnus Lindberg, Prokofiev and Shostakovich set the tone for an exciting forthcoming season from the LPO.

Cristian Mandeal returned to the Hallé to direct an intelligent performance of Rachmaninov’s ever popular Second Symphony, with Sofya Gulyak playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3 in C major.

Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” symphony were wonderfully played by the Orchestre de Paris and Alexander Toradze at the Salle Pleyel, despite Mikko Franck's last-minute cancellation.

At London's new venue Milton Court, Kensington Symphony Orchestra played a mixed Bruckner 3 and an excellent Prokofiev concerto with soloist Nikolai Demidenko.

A combination of Russian and English masterpieces formed the fourth concert of the London Symphony Orchestra’s 110th season. Three of the pieces were written and/or performed during the Second World War, whilst the remaining piece – Prokofiev’s magnificent Piano Concerto no.

Featuring works inspired by Shelley, the Kalevala and Nietzsche (with a piano concerto thrown in for good measure), the programme for Prom 64 was certainly wide-ranging. The theme for the concert was the development of the tone poem, with the Bantock, Sibelius and Strauss pinned together by the idea of nature and the supernatural.

The opening concert of the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival was a Scottish-Russian collaboration. The RSNO, the home team on home turf, featured two Russian soloists, all under the baton (or, more accurately, the open hands) of Valery Gergiev at Usher Hall.

It took the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra a little while to settle into tonight’s performance – which was a shame, because Borodin’s overture to Prince Igor can be a fantastic programme opener. A slightly untidy brass chord began the measured introduction, which sadly lacked tension in the build-up to the sudden fanfare and breakneck main theme.

Who knew glaciers were so musical? Arensky Glacier, named for the composer of this all-Russian programme’s opener, flows south from Beethoven Peninsula into the north end of the Antartic’s Boccherini Inlet. There is nothing chilly, however, about the 1894 Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky by Anton Arensky (1861–1906).

Sometimes, when hearing an instrumentalist’s debut with an orchestra on a tight schedule of concerts and rehearsals, an encore tells you even more about the quality of the soloist than the concerto that precedes it. Such was the case here, as young superstar Daniil Trifonov obliged a typically generous audience at Lincoln Center with Liszt’s transcription of Schumann’s “Widmung”.

It can't be often that a poet declares that the selection and setting of his words to music has turned them into better poetry.

Friday's concert from the Sydney Symphony, "Fireworks and Fantasy", most certainly lived up to its title.

Russian was the theme and Russian the temperament in this concert, part of an ongoing series at the Barbican. This particular group of "Gergiev's Russians" consisted of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, in music spanning seventy years of compositional history.

It was your standard evening at the symphony: a brief standalone selection for orchestra, a flashy concerto, and, after intermission, a weighty symphonic masterpiece. Well, it seemed so on paper at least.

Musique russe et ukrainienne au programme de ce soir avec l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France sous la direction d'Andrey Boreyko et Lukas Geniusas au piano : Prokofiev, Tchaïkovsky et Silvestrov, compositeur trop peu joué en France à découvrir de toute urgence.

Voilà quelques années que Valery Gergiev a marqué cette musique au fer, et le jour viendra bientôt où maestro voudra faire entendre les cinq concertos au cours d’une même soirée. Pour l’heure, il s’en tient aux trois premiers...

Como el aprendiz de brujo, bajo su batuta mágica Antoni Wit logró que la Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra y el pianista Peter Jablonski transformaran las composiciones de los grandes compositores rusos del siglo XIX y XX en olas bulliciosas y torbellinos de vientos que cautivaron el auditorio del Baluarte.

Eine "klassische", auf Klarheit und Transparenz bedachte Interpretation, mindestens ebenbürtig zu denen bekannter Spitzenorchester, in manchen Aspekten sogar überlegen: wo sonst bekommt man Rachmaninow in dieser Klarheit geboten? 

Deux ans après la disparition de Claudio Abbado, mais près d'un demi-siècle après leur premier triomphe parisien, Martha Argerich revient poser le fin mot d'une longue histoire.  Difficile de ne pas éclater en superlatif – sinon en larmes – après pareil saisissement.

L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France très en forme en cette rentrée comme en témoigne ce concert avec Vasily Petrenko à la direction et le pianiste Behzod Abduraimov. Un plaisir pour le spectateur.