En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Peter Harvey

Iván Fischer’s take on Monteverdi’s opera offers a radical rewriting within the trappings of a traditional staging.

A taste of the opening weekend in Leipzig’s marathon Bach Festival. 

The Oslo Philharmonic was left to tell the story due to some rather emotionless singing.

Iván Fischer's staged concert had its flaws, but some original ideas and a strong cast gave an impressive performance.

Bach’s Magnificat featured superlative solos from both singers and musicians, but the RCO and Iván Fischer reached a higher plane in a beautifully crafted and optimistic Brahms’ First Symphony.

Das Concerto Copenhagen unter der Leitung von Lars Ulrik Mortensen eröffnet mit Israel in Egypt das diesjährige Resonanzen-Festival.

An authoritative account of Bach's music for Advent from Jos van Veldhoven and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging in Amsterdam.

Friday’s two Proms had a theme running through them: Resurrection, Easter and Ascension. I wasn’t quite sure how I would feel about listening to Bach’s small-scale oratorios after Mahler’s mighty “Resurrection” Symphony, but I needn’t have worried. Compared to Mahler’s angst and doubt in the symphony, Bach’s unwavering Christian faith was reassuring.

This concert saw the Budapest Festival Orchestra reduced to a period ensemble of fewer than ten musicians plus soloists for Bach’s cantata ‘Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht’, and after the interval packed closely together as they filled the large stage of the Konzerthaus with forces well in excess of the not-insignificant minimum required for a big Bruckner symphony.

A year after the first performance of his St John Passion, Bach made several significant alterations that divert the emphasis of the work away from Christ’s final triumph over death, focusing instead on human sinfulness.