Articles de Simon Cummings

Esa-Pekka Salonen brings the Baltic Sea Festival to an end in an eclectic, risk-taking programme of music by Biber, Beethoven and himself.

For all its ambition, the première of Jesper Nordin’s Emerging from Currents and Waves at the Baltic Sea Festival consisted of little more than slick surfaces and displays of overload

The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra present two works at the Berwaldhallen that both look to the past and future.

Hereford Cathedral experiences a mix of sacred and secular explorations of melancholy and triumph, from Stravinsky, Walton, Ravel and Lili Boulanger.

Geraint Bowen directs the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonic Orchestra at Hereford Cathedral in two works once unfairly dismissed.

Parisian choral works by Fauré, Dupré and Duruflé performed by candle (and electric) light in Cheltenham College Chapel.

Alisa Weilerstein delivered an amazingly raw performance of Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto, whereas Ilan Volkov and the CBSO’s renditions of Simon Holt and Brahms (reimagined by Schoenberg) proved alienating and overblown.

A showcase of Jörg Widmann’s talents as composer, conductor and clarinettist in works by Mozart, Weber and himself

Welsh composer Huw Watkins reflects on the thinking that led to his opera In the Locked Room, created in partnership with librettist David Harsent.

Dvořák is diminished in the wake of Bartók’s experimental zeal and Strauss’ fearless convolutions.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO escort the Symphony Hall audience through environments of safety and danger.

In anticipation of Dutch National Opera’s production in 2019, we talk to Stockhausen’s muse about the challenges and consequences of the composer’s week-long operatic cycle.

Tomáš Netopil directs ideal, ‘non-dairy’ performances of Mozart and Dvořák.

An introduction to the latest iteration of Dublin’s foremost contemporary music festival, the first overseen by artistic director John Harris.

Stunningly fresh performances of ubiqitous classics from Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Simon Rattle returns to the UK in a (self-)portrait concert with the London Symphony Orchestra showcasing contemporary music

A curious combination of Mozart’s “Great” Mass and Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony fill Worcester Cathedral with exuberance.

In a concert of two halves, Worcester Cathedral experiences unforgettable pain and pleasure in works by Strauss, Rasch and Janáček.

Peter Nardone directs the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra in a problematic yet thought-provoking opening concert at Worcester Cathedral.

Sakari Oramo pushes the BBC Symphony Orchestra to breaking point at Symphony Hall