Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

The road to immersion is paved with modish deflections as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs 20th-century English string music. 

Warm Vaughan Williams and energetic Richter and Vivaldi from MacGregor and the BPO strings, with an astonishing performance of Tavener’s The Protecting Veil from Guy Johnston the highlight. 

John Williams put butts in seats with the New York debut of his Piano Concerto, but the NY Phil's first performances of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphony no. 5 stole the show.

Maxim Emelyanychev forges connections between composers ancient and modern, but it's the Baroque composers who come off best as played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Candida Thompson’s performance of Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel with understated beauty, immaculate phrasing and restrained emotion, steals the show.

Vaughan Williams' Ninth Symphony is not yet an audience favourite, but Andrew Manze and the London Philharmonic Orchestra make an admirable case for the work as a masterpiece. 

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and its former Music Director thunder in Disney Hall in the latest stop on their US tour.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the CBSO give a flat rendition of Haydn in an otherwise emotionally-conflicted, moving evening featuring Weinberg, Elgar and Thomas Adès.

A timely performance of Faure's Requiem in Singapore, coinciding with the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II.

The Sinfonia of London excels in works by British composers at the BBC Proms, launching some of the season's themes. 

The  Zurich Chamber Orchestra gives fine performances of works by three leading 20th-century British composers in Zurich’s Tonhalle.

Benjamin Grosvenor's account of Ravel's Piano Concerto was outstanding in a Hallé concert with powerful Vaughan Williams and Sibelius, plus a novelty by Thea Musgrave.

Outstanding interpretations of two important 20th-century works based upon pre-existing compositions.

The Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis crowned an evening for the CBSO strings and brass to shine at Symphony Hall. 

A welcome return from the Philharmonia saw John Wilson exercising his passion for English music in a Vaughan Williams masterpiece and an impressive Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Saint-Saëns.

The Bergen Phil and the Edvard Grieg Choir trace music from Elizabethan themes to 20th century works on them, culminating in Pärt's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.

As Europe’s concert-giving tentatively emerges from the coronavirus lockdown, Simon Rattle and the BRSO celebrate its rebirth with a sublime pairing of Vaughan Williams and Mozart.

In these difficult times a reduced audience witnessed a concert of music that didn’t exactly offer much solace, but which possessed a powerful sense of loss and foreboding that seemed entirely timely. 

Making its London debut, the BSFO and Jan Latham-Koenig make an impression in both British and Russian classics. 

Warmly affectionate Vaughan Williams contrasting with angular and psychologically charged Wood, followed by an emotional performance of Elgar's The Music Makers.

On the cusp of the Summer Solstice, Sir Simon Rattle, the LSO and suitable orchestral reinforcements celebrate the heritage of folk music and the attractions of rusticity.

Marin Alsop and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment lead a searing account of Brahms' German Requiem and Vaughan Williams. 

Bergen Philharmonic’s programme of Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Gubaidulina’s violin concerto Offertorium offered fascinating insight into the relationship between orchestra and soloist.

The Ulster Orchestra and Rosanne Philippens dazzle in Vaughan Williams and Sibelius under the baton of Jac van Steen.

Runnicles presents a concert weighted towards a splendid second half.

Music from Vaughan Williams is contrasted with two pieces from Dobrinka Tabakova  in The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concert, Ascent. Senior NYOS strings swell the ranks to produce a reflective evening of richness and warmth.

Breaking up is hard to do. If his First Symphony is anything to go by, William Walton took it particularly badly.

A moving first half of Vaughan Williams and Tchaikovsky and a mysterious Shostakovich 15 in the second half. Andreas Brantelid's superlative musicianship wowed.

The start of Pinchas Zukerman's Summer Music Festival struggled to find inspiration.

Both new works by Michael Williams and James Ledger rose to the challenge of marking Anzac Day admirably with personal and intense responses to the tragedy of war.

Seven works by English composers created a journey from beauty to death as Remembrance day approaches. There wasn't much dwelling on the horrors of war itself, but plenty of human emotion and a sense of life sadly lost.

Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia ravishes, but BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Mahler Nine was unsettled as it was unsettling. 

On the night of 29 December, 1940, after a brief respite over Christmas, German bombers roared back over Britain. They dropped numerous incendiary bombs on the City of London, causing massive destruction, loss of life, and uncontrollable fires that raged for days. Miraculously, St Paul’s Cathedral survived the onslaught intact, even as much of the surrounding neighbourhood was reduced to rubble.

Gloucestershire is rich in musical heritage; well-known composers connected with the county include Parry, Vaughan Williams and Howells, but one name that is less familiar these days is that of Howells’ friend Ivor Gurney.

As London became a vision in white and all went quiet, the Southbank Centre was abuzz with all manner of arts-related activities. One rail replacement bus and a brisk walk behind me, I had made it to see the Philharmonia Orchestra’s matinee concert of 20th-century English music, framed around John Ireland’s Piano Concerto.

Prom 23 served up a menu of English music from the first half of the 20 century in all its variety, with impressionism by Delius, the lush strings of Vaughan Williams, heroic brass from Ireland, and jazzy, sophisticated excitement from Walton.The programme opened with a warmly affectionate performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.

At this concert we were treated to three completely different works which showcased the orchestra in a variety of styles and colours.

The evening of dreams began an hour before the concert, with Entre-Temps for oboe and string quartet by the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, an admirer of Debussy and a similarly ‘cinematic’ composer, with an ability to play with sound-colours which is alluring for film directors in search of atmospheres.

In a musical tour around Great Britain, the dramatic focus was centred on Wales and Scotland, with James MacMillian’s Three Interludes from The Sacrifice: and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie opening and closing the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s concert at the Basingstoke Anvil.

Pour sa prise de fonction à la tête de l'orchestre dresdois, le chef britannique a dirigé un concert d'ouverture passionnant, notamment dans une Quatrième Symphonie de Brahms très réussie.

La mezzo-soprano et l'orchestre placé sous la direction précise de Kaspar Zehnder ont fait forte impression dans les dix Chants bibliques op. 99 de Dvořák.

Edward Gardner und Mari Eriksmoen verzauberten mit spätromantischen Pretiosen beim „Wintermezzo”-Konzert aus Norwegen.

La Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, bajo la dirección de Marin Alsop, presentó con su particular caleidoscopio musical un interesante programa de obras inspiradas en las creencias de sus autores.

Geistliche, anglikanischen Werke des 20. Jahrhunderts bildeten das Programm des Münchner Rundfunkorchesters, das auf völlig unterschiedliche Weise versuchte, den Raum mit Klängen zu füllen.