Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Violin Concerto no. 1 in A minor, Op.77 or Op.99

Sayaka Shoji and Salonen remain in close dialogue in a riveting performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto. 

There is something peculiarly Russian about the capacity for suffering as exemplified in the music of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Maria Ioudenitch, Stanislav Kochanovsky and the Dresden Philharmonic are excellent interpreters at Cadogan Hall.

Ludovic Morlot helms an exhilarating, literally stunning, evening of music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Britten and Shostakovich.

Semyon Bychkov takes the Czech Philharmonic on a joy ride through heavy-duty Russian repertoire and a rock star's woodland fantasy.

Jurowski’s performances with the LPO are always thoughtfully curated, well prepared and entertaining. This concert was no exception. 

Taking a very different approach to programming for Valentine’s Day, Daniele Rustioni attracts a full-house to the Ulster Hall with Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. Francesca Dego is outstanding in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto.

From the podium, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare’s fine direction and unmitigated athleticism were part and parcel of the excitement.

Jakub Hrůša led The Cleveland Orchestra in the politically-fraught First Violin Concerto of Shostakovich along with a suitably majestic Beethoven Eroica.

Andrey Baranov's stunning performance of Shostakovich's harrowing Violin concerto no. 1 with Daniel Raiskin and the Belgrade Philharmonic overshadowed the other items in the programme.

Neither the conductor, Lionel Bringuier, nor the soloist, Valerij Sokolov, bring much intensity of expression in this RPO concert to a pair of 20th-century Russian masterworks.

An in-form Noseda and Benedetti meant that their Shostakovich was never to be lukewarm, as they portrayed the Soviet composer with fire and drama..

Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia explore different sides of Shostakovich in the latest of the Voices of Revolution series.  

Maestro Edo de Waart and violinist Augustin Hadelich team up to provide a spectacular performance of Shostakovich.

The UK première of Shchedrin's Dialogues with Shostakovich was followed by powerful Shostakovich. 

Bereft of its guiding light, the orchestra shows resiliency and promise with a familiar face at the podium.

Some rare and some great Shostakovich meet in concert while the BBC National Orchestra of Wales make an engrossing case for Sibelius' great Second Symphony.

Temirkanov avoided any useless gesture, while Leticia Moreno explored all the pain, sadness and violence of Shostakovich’s Concerto

Dutch violinist Simone Lamsa stole the show with a revelatory account of Shostakovich’s Violin concerto no. 1 while Tung-Cheih Chuang delivered a cracking Firebird Suite. 

Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma brings fiery intensity and technique in an otherwise lukewarm programme of Wagner, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich

A generous evening of heavyweight works with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Fabien Gabel.

A sensational young Japanese violinist and a sensational, little-known Fifth Symphony brought high approval ratings from the audience at a Japan Philharmonic, all-Russian concert last Friday.

Barnabás Kelemen gave a strong performance of Shostakovich to last a dark polar night in Turku. 

Valery Gergiev recently toured with the superb Mariinsky Orchestra, offering the Zurich audience a programme marked by startling contrasts.

Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s seven minute Divertimento proves the most emotionally potent in a concert at the Baltic Sea Festival also featuring works by Shostakovich and Górecki.

Pappano and the LSO prove many good qualities in Mahler 6 but fail to elevate it from the competent to the sublime.

Petrassi’s modernist Partita for Orchestra and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances fill out the program.

Musical Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin inspired wonderful performances from the American players on the last leg of their European tour. 

Yuri Temirkanov and the St Petersburg Philharmonic bring bracing versions of Shostakovich to Prague Spring.

A superlative performance of Shostakovich first violin concerto by Kavakos and lush textures in Gergiev's Wagner turned tonight's concert in a highpoint of the RCO's season.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in Shostakovich's Violin Concerto no. 1 with Viktoria Mullova and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé at the Bridgewater Hall. 

Nineteen year old Ross Gunning is so passionate about conducting, he has founded his own orchestra. The Glasgow Philharmonia tackled an ambitious programme of Bernstein, Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams.

The BBC Philharmonic delivered superb performances in a fascinating programme under their Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds, finding an unusual mix of wit and pathos at the Bridgewater Hall. The concert opened with Sibelius’s 1914 The Bard, one of the less frequently heard of the Fin’s tone poems.

The concert by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) on Monday concluded its 2011/2012 season, the first in its new home at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal.The evening got off to an upbeat start with Berlioz’s Le Corsaire overture. As a composer of overtures, Hector Berlioz may well have been the torchbearer for the Beethovenian tradition.

Riccardo Chailly was much loved as prinicpal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, a position he held between 1988 and 2004. And even though tonight he played with his own Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, he received a hero’s welcome at the Concertgebouw.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is an impressive conductor to watch. His movement is fluid, elegant and simple, yet he achieves a wide range of different gestures: I'm not an orchestral musician but I imagine that it would be very easy to follow his intent.

Prom number 40 saw a Russian conductor at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, playing a selection of music from some of the great Russian composers of the last two centuries, all with very distinct styles. Rimsky Korsakov’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain began the concert and conjured up all the fantastical imagery the name promises.

Dans Borodine, Chostakovitch et Stravinsky, le Philhar', son directeur musical finlandais et la violoniste norvégienne invitée ont montré toute la richesse du répertoire russe.

Mahlers „Titan“ und Schostakowitschs Violin-Symphonie wurden von Klaus Mäkelä überzeugend ausgedeutet.

Las desviaciones barrocas que anunciaba el título del programa fueron sorpresivas y dieron lugar a un concierto de muy buen nivel en el que además descubrimos a una solista solvente: Karen Gomyo.

La joven violinista María Dueñas despliega una técnica y musicalidad apabullantes en el Primer concierto de Shostakovich junto a la Sinfónica de Galicia bajo la dirección de Dima Slobodeniouk.

C'est un Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France solide qui offre un concert entièrement dédié au XXe siècle sur Culturebox, avec l'excellente cheffe Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

La Gewandhausorchester y Andris Nelsons mostraron una intensa compenetración y ofrecieron un brillante concierto lleno de intensidad. 

La Filarmonica della Scala était invitée à la Philharmonie de Paris pour jouer le Concerto pour orchestre de Bartók sous la direction de Riccardo Chailly, ainsi que le Concerto pour violon de Chostakovitch en compagnie de Maxim Vengerov.

Zwischen düsterer Nachtmusik und greller Groteske schwankt Schostakowitschs Erstes Violinkonzert.

Los músicos de la formación rusa dotaron a cada momento de continuidad, brindando, por lo demás, una exégesis rica en matices y detalles dinámicos, construidos a través de la articulación empastada y el gesto claro de Gergiev.

El director Giancarlo Guerrero y el violinista Ning Feng fueron los protagonistas del concierto que llenó de aires rusos el Euskalduna con obras de Shostakovich y Tchaikovsky sobre los atriles.

Im bewegenden Schostakowitsch-Abend der Nürnberger Staatsphilharmonie brillierten Eckehard Stier am Pult und die junge Geigerin Christina Brabetz

Die mehr als fünfminütige Kadenz spielte Kristóf Baráti mit schwingender Agogik, selbst in kräftigen Akzenten immer sonor, sauber im Klang und glockenrein – Ausdruck, nicht Eindruck oder extrovertierte Virtuosität.