Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Don Juan, Op.20

Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris opened the Elbphilharmonie season with a vivid journey from Strauss’s dramatic energy, through a reflective new Horn Concerto, to Sibelius’s luminous, precise grandeur.

By the close of the performance, one sensed that the audience’s exhilaration stemmed less from polished execution and more from a shared immersion in the music’s dramatic arc—elements that lingered as the defining memory of this eventful evening.

Making his London Symphony Orchestra debut at the Barbican, Gustavo Dudamel’s Ravel fares better than his disappointing Strauss. 

Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes his local debut in Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto, followed by a fantasia on Arabella conceived by Music Director Manfred Honeck. 

Leaping in at short notice, Alpesh Chauhan conducts The Hallé in Strauss, Herz and Prokofiev with lively charisma in a colourful programme.

The Finnish conductor drove the orchestra as expertly as a racing champion in Strauss, Bartók and Salonen's own Sinfonia concertante for Organ and Orchestra.

Thomas Søndergård and the CBSO take a cool, cursory approach to music by Strauss, Thomas Adès and Brahms, resulting in an occasionally powerful but ultimately skin-deep performance. 

At the opening weekend of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, Nodoka Okisawa leads the Saito Kinen Orchestra in a programme that pays tribute to the late Maestro.

Semyon Bychkov leads the New York Philharmonic in flattened Strauss, wondrously physical Rachmaninov, and the New York premiere of Bryce Dessner’s terrific Concerto for two pianos.

Richard Strauss, self-styled "first-class second-rate" composer, has been having a moment in London with several tone poems on show.

This X-rated programme brought numerous children to the Royal Festival Hall... with plenty of orchestral thrills for them to enjoy.

Zubin Mehta conducts a trio of Strauss tone poems as the Australian World Orchestra arrives back in Sydney. 

With the help of soprano Fatma Said and a compelling programme, the incoming City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra chief conductor made good on his promise and past performances.

Andrew Manze conducts the RLPO in a mostly Scandinavian programme in which the world premiere of a viola concerto proves to be an intriguing listen. 

Stylish Mozart and volcanic Beethoven from the Philharmonia orchestra and their principal guest conductor Jakub Hrůša.

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.

A dynamic and dreamy concoction from the London Philharmonic under Lawrence Renes, with impeccable performances from harp virtuoso Xavier de Maistre and LPO Principal Flute Juliette Bausor.

Grieg's Piano Concerto is the highlight of this closing concert of the Oslo Phil's centenary tour, with Leif Ove Andsnes' exceptional technical skill helping to cast the work in a new and flattering light.

RSNO Season opens in Dundee on Vienna’s Golden Age, Søndergård conducting a boisterous Don Juan, Karen Cargill singing Berg Seven Early Songs and a sparkling Mahler Symphony no 1.

A last-minute cancellation resulted in a blazing performance of Tchaikovsky from LSO leader Roman Simović, paired with Strauss' orchestral masterworks.

The Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla in a compelling performance of Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni and Strauss's Don Juan, with soloist Francesca Dego bringing to life Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major.

The Berliners' second concert comprised the core repertoire for which they are famous, Beethoven and Strauss. Under the dynamic baton of their incoming Principal, Kirill Petrenko, these warhorses were made fresh again.

Rafael Payare, in his first appearance with the RPO, has musical encounters with Don Juan and Don Quixote, and a Mozart symphony provides a suitable contrast.

Elīna Garanča brings subtle sonorities to an otherwise bravura and boisterous concert by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

The Philadelphia Orchestra gives us convincing renditions of Bernstein, Schumann and Strauss.

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra are at a distance from performing at their usual top form in their returning concert in Hong Kong.

Fabio Luisi and the DNSO did not disappoint audiences in San Francisco, presenting a captivating program of Beethoven, Strauss and Nielsen.

In his Houston Symphony debut, Behzod Abduraimov holds court with Beethoven, even though the orchestra couldn't quite match him. 

Riccardo Muti inaugurated the Chicago Symphony's season with what they do best: two orchestral showpieces and a magisterial Bruckner symphony.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted his hometown Orchestre Métropolitain in a concert Hollywood couldn’t have scripted better nor the Cirque du Soleil made more fantastic. 

Britannia rules the waves on the LSO’s tour of Eastern Europe. 

Okko Kamu conducts the Hallé in Strauss' Don Juan, Grieg's Piano Concerto with Alexander Gavrylyuk, and Sibelius' Fifth Symphony at the Bridgewater Hall

Alisa Weilerstein and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Payare rendered a thrilling performance of Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto in Leeds.

Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal imbued programmatic works with a sense of excitement, sprinkling the magic dust that brought each works’ characters to life.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra began its latest London residency with an impressive concert of Strauss and Mozart.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under guest conductor Mario Venzago presented a concert of familiar fare that were treated to exemplary performances. 

Lars Vogt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra bring freshness to a programme of German classics. 

Epic Sibelius and velvety Grieg from Sakari Oramo and Javier Perianes, but Stravinsky that was too neat and careful. 

Under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform for the first time at the BBC Proms, with mixed results.

The Oslo Chamber Music Festival present a mixed bag of new music and chamber arrangements of Strauss tone poems.

Why would Mariss Jansons leave the Concertgebouw? Because he has the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra... 

Andris Nelsons plays conjuring tricks, conducting Strauss and Stravinsky with Erin Wall and the CBSO at Sage Gateshead.

My last encounter with conductor Susanna Mälkki was her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic two and a half years ago. I was impressed with her crisp style of conducting that delivered near-seismic impact in Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra.

The contention that black and white are not colours felt doubtful upon seeing the customary RSNO white tie and black tails reversed; the truly colourful array of dresses offsetting white tuxedos allowed one to see, more easily than usual, the gender balance of the RSNO – which, in this Valentine’s concert, seemed about 50–50.

Strauss’ Don Juan has a long tradition as one of the Vienna Philharmonic’s more dazzling curtain-openers but a recent tendency, even with Gustavo Dudamel, who conducted this work with the orchestra last autumn, has been for more subdued accounts which downplay the brilliance and virtuosity of the orchestral writing.

Friday night’s performance by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra was not just in the National Concert Hall: it was also recorded live for RTÉ Lyric FM. Despite the additional pressure of a national audience, the orchestra performed to their much-acclaimed high standard.

Following their acclaimed 'Bartók: Infernal Dance' series, the Philharmonia moved on Thursday to another of the twentieth century’s great composers: Richard Strauss. Strauss’s youthful tone poems, Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche were contrasted with his gloriously autumnal Four Last Songs, with Mozart’s 25th Symphony serving as a rather unexpected companion.

The opening night of the Hallé’s 2011-12 season was a thrilling tour through highly descriptive and technically challenging repertoire, and will leave Manchester concert-goers with much to look forward to.The 1889 premiere of Richard Strauss’ tone poem Don Juan was conducted by the composer, then aged 25.