Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G major, BWV1048

At the George Enescu International Festival, a pair of new shows crossing genres and reinventing the classics, with mostly enlightening results.

Kim Brandstrup choreographs Bach favourites based on hip hop and street dance. Lie back on the bean bags at Usher Hall and enjoy...

Energetic commitment from the ACO at the Barbican, with precision and edge from Alexander Melnikov and Jeroen Berwaerts in an evening of darkness and light.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and soprano Julia Bullock invite us to listen to familiar pieces with fresh ears in invigorating performances at New York's 92NY.

A fascinating traversal of all six concertos in all their colourful variety given compelling performances by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at The Anvil. 

With the audience sitting on stage with the performers and in the choir loft, this feels like the kind of communal experience that Bach would have recognized.

All six concertos in one evening at Milton Court, presented with verve and talent by the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings. 

With two cantatas for solo alto bookending the Third Brandenburg Concerto, The English Concert bewitches in this late-night all Bach programme. 

The organ virtuoso is the undisputed star of an otherwise shaky program of Baroque selections.

Familiar works by Bach, Handel and Corelli were enhanced by a fine performance of Mendelssohn's rarely played String Symphony no. 7.

The Singapore Symphony has never been a period instrument group and does not pretend to be one, but their all-Bach programme under Darrell Ang brought delight. 

Bach on modern instruments: superbly played but inconsistent

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra celebrates the beginning of its 30th season with a fittingly chosen programme.

Continuing a decades-long holiday season tradition, the SPCO presents five of Bach's six Brandenburg Concerti in performances brimming with energy and élan.

In Autumn the cicadas are out in force at Wigmore Hall...

A rare opportunity to hear the complete Brandenburgs was awarded by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a distinguished performance, with Huw Daniel its leading light.

Vilde Frang galvanises the English Chamber Orchestra, with the slow movement of Bach's E major violin concerto proving the highlight of the evening.

Laurence Cummings and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment celebrate two anniversaries in a programmed of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons. 

A strong thunderstorm delayed the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Blossom Music Center debut, but despite their fine playing, the venue proved too large.

Craig Ogden in Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Guitar Concerto no. 1 is the highlight of the Northern Chamber Orchestra's varied concert of (mostly) Italian music in Macclesfield.

Performing a complete cycle of Brandenburg Concertos in one evening may take less time than a Wagner opera, but it is equally an epic undertaking for any Baroque ensemble.

The Scottish Ensemble's seasonal concert by candlelight looks at J.S. Bach and those inspired by his music.  

A charming, if uneven, concert from Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble in Auckland. 

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra perform "Vivaldi unwired", including Max Richter's re-composition of The Four Seasons.

Zurich’s Tonhalle audience enjoys a triple-bill programme of fine polyphonic music under the baton of Dutch conductor Ton Koopman.

Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra is no stranger when it comes to working with world-renowned soloists – their earlier collaborative roster includes the likes of Sviatoslav Richter, Menuhin, Rostropovich et al, but their rapport with Emmanuel Pahud is something that transcends musical partnership and wanders into the organically-knit companionship territory.

There's nothing like a Brandenburg to blow away Christmas cobwebs. Alongside contrasting cantatas, the Dunedin Consort offered the 3rd and 5th from Bach's 1721 set of six concerti grossi. This made for a compact and nicely balanced programme, contrasting the sacred with the secular and vocal with purely instrumental timbres.

Robert Spano conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus in an ambitious concert in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. The results were as mixed as the programming, which featured J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 and Magnificat, alongside Messiaen's Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine.

Bach's Brandenburg concerto No. 3 (BWV 1048) doesn't have a slow movement. In the place where you would normally expect to find one, what's written out is just two chords. And in most modern performances, those chords get a perfunctory embellishment, a quick bit of a cadenza, and on we go. That's the shape in which the piece now sits in the classical canon, so nobody expects more than that.

À la tête de ses Musiciens de Saint-Julien, François Lazarevitch propose une intégrale des six concertos brandebourgeois qui ne manque pas de virtuosité mais a fortement tendance à courir.

El Festival de Santander se acerca a su fin con los Conciertos de Brandeburgo a cargo del conjunto Akademie für Alte Musik de Berlín.

El conjunto francés Café Zimmermann presentó en el ciclo Universo Barroco los seis Conciertos de Brandeburgo de Johann Sebastian Bach, una magnífica manera de celebrar el aniversario del compositor.

La Universidad Autónoma de Madrid rinde homenaje a Francisco Tomás y Valiente con un programa integrado por los seis conciertos de Brandeburgo de Bach capitaneados por la dirección y el clave de John Butt. 

« Y aurait-il quelque part un mécène capable d’entendre notre appel ? » lit-on dans nos programmes de salle. Tel est sans doute le vœu originel qui sous-tendait ce concert de la Petite Bande à Gaveau...

Une soirée avec le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu à Saint Bonaventure de Lyon, c’est un véritable tableau vivant de la musique baroque. N’imaginerait-on pas ainsi l’Avent en Saxe, dans un sanctuaire médiéval, le maître de Leipzig à son clavecin, dirigeant une maîtrise dans l’une de ses cantates ?

On ne peut que louer à l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande en petit effectif la volonté d'ouvrir son répertoire au baroque. Malheureusement la réalité fut moins heureuse et a semblé un peu nous faire revenir des années en arrières point de vue du style, n’échappant pas à une certaine platitude.

Verhaltene Spielfreude in den Konzerten verhindert mitreißende Kontinuität im Sog des feierlichen Bach-Programms.

Das Ensemble Resonanz beendet seine Saison mit zwei Brandenburgischen Konzerten von Johann Sebastian Bach und Werken von Toshio Hosokawa.