En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Barbican Centre

En musique comme dans tout langage, un certain tropisme opère, avec son lot de lieux communs rassurants. On attend d’une formation américaine une certaine fraîcheur, et d’un chef vénézuélien, une chaleur trop souvent absente sous un climat tempéré. Il n’y a pas eu tromperie sur la marchandise. Gustavo Dudamel et le Los Angeles Philharmonic nous ont offert tout cela.

Le Barbican Hall accueillait le BBC Symphony Orchestra et son chef Sakari Oramo pour un programme d'une remarquable cohérence, à de multiples niveaux, et dont la gradation dramatique a conquis l'assemblée.

Dimanche 5 juillet au Barbican, le London Symphony Orchestra rejoint par des élèves de la Guildhall School et de nombreux choristes amateurs présentait "The Monster in the Maze" de Jonathan Dove, un opéra très enthousiasmant dirigé par Sir Simon Rattle, suivi par une symphonie de Walton elle aussi exaltante.

Mardi 2 juin, Janine Jansen jouait le Concerto de Mendelssohn avec le London Symphony Orchestra, et Daniel harding dirigeait en deuxième partie la Symphonie n°5 de Mahler. Un moment inoubliable, d'une intensité exceptionnelle.

Pour le dernier concert de la série du Barbican "Boulez at 90", l’Ensemble intercontemporain jouait Boulez, mais aussi Yann Robin et Matthias Pintscher sous la direction de ce dernier. Une performance d'exception, superbe hommage au maître.

Le BBC Symphony Orchestra donnait un programme Beethoven/Lutoslawski au Barbican Hall. Le chef Michal Nesterowic et le pianiste Steven Osborne ont remplacé les têtes d'affiche initialement annoncées. Un changement de distribution qui n’a pas empêché la soirée d'être réussie.

En ouverture de leur saison et préfigurant la célébration des 250 ans de Mozart, le Classical Opera, offrait au Barbican un concert de l’inachevé. Un programme monumental et une interprétation fidèle, pour un rendu presque trop soigné.

L’alliance d’Arvo Pärt et de Dhafer Youssef peut paraître surprenante, et en effet, le fil conducteur de ce programme au Barbican est plutôt frêle. Oui, il est admirable que le maestro Kristjan Järvi privilégie la musique du monde; oui, il est bien possible de dresser un lien abstrait, aussi ténu soit-il, entre la spiritualité de l’estonien Pärt et du tunisien Youssef.

In a mismatched pairing of Elgar and Mahler, the London Symphony Orchestra produce immaculate instrumental sound quality, but is that enough?

The young Spanish violinist proves an ardent advocate for a work originally dismissed as a “Hollywood Concerto” as the BBC Symphony Orchestra closes its Barbican season.

Songs and symphonies from Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, concluding with a vision of “heavenly life” from Gustav Mahler. 

Billy Childs Diaspora receives its UK premiere at the Barbican, performed by saxophonist Steven Banks. 

Giving their 27th performance of the oratorio, the London Symphony Chorus excel as angelic angels and demonic demons. 

The Academy of Ancient Music poses the question what might have been in Leipzig with stunning performances of Bach and his competitors to be the new Thomaskantor. 

Vilde Frang joins Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican for transcendent Korngold alongside darker fare.

With a spring in his step, Evgeny Kissin returns to Barbican Hall and gives well-wrought accounts of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann.  

Yeol Eum Son's superb performances of Bartók and Finzi are matched by intense and heady readings of Stravinsky and Weir by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo. 

At the Barbican, Laura Bowler's new work for Barbara Hannigan translates Han Kang's novel into a soundscape of icy stillness

Powerful Herbert Howells, together with affecting Shaw and engaging MacMillan from the BBC Singers, with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Sofi Jeannin.

Good, bad, but never ugly, a curious evening unfolds at the Barbican, inspired at times, ill-judged in places.

A bewildering evening at the Barbican, where ambitious Icelandic programming collapses under its lofty ambition of defying genres and making music more appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

Seong-Jin Cho continues his Artist Portrait series with the LSO by performing Chopin's poetic Second Piano Concerto. 

Tenor Ed Lyon fulfils a long-held ambition to sing Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals, conducted by his former teacher, Laurence Cummings at Milton Court.

After a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili at the Barbican, Stravinsky’s Perséphone stands the test of time. 

Opening her LSO Artist Portrait series, Patricia Kopatchinskaja plays Béla Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto before Rattle and the LSO whisk the audience to Falla’s Andalusia. 

MacMillan's large scale choral work offers a rich variety of texts and musical ideas, the composer conducts the BBC Symphony with unerring precision.

From Schubert and Schumann to Liszt, Arcadi Volodos makes a triumphant return to London's Barbican. 

Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams make rare bedfellows, but Pappano's grip on these disparate scores impresses, with the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra on wondrous form. 

A new edition of Puccini's score springs to life in a meticulously prepared Opera Rara concert performance at the Barbican. 

Debussy and Ravel frame a performance of Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra as Alexandre Bloch guests with the London Symphony Orchestra. 

Seong-Jin Cho brings pianistic glamour to a bold programme of premieres in the LSO's Futures concert. 

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conclude the UK leg of their European tour at the Barbican, pairing Janáček’s Taras Bulba with Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.

Thomas Adès and the London Symphony Orchestra make the best possible case for SIbelius' lesser played symphonies, the Fourth and Sixth and Johan Dalene turns on the romanticism in Rautavaara.

Fusing the Renaissance polyphony of Les Arts Florissants with the contemporary dance of Compagnie Amala Dianor was an ambitious experiment, which displayed great virtues but didn't quite come off.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra opens its season at the Barbican on top form in Mahler's last completed symphony. 

Sir Antonio Pappano the charioteer whips his forces to attack the fleeing Shostakovich in the Tenth Symphony at the Barbican. 

Prokofiev opens Seong-Jin Cho’s LSO Artist Portrait series, sandwiches between symphonies by Shostakovich and Beethoven. 

To launch his second season with the LSO, Sir Antonio Pappano parades his American inheritance with a blazing evocation of faith, hope and resilience. 

Even locked behind a music stand, like a caged panther in a sleek black gown, Grigorian’s Salome bristles with dramatic energy in Barbican concert performance of Strauss’ “scherzo with a fatal conclusion”. 

Till Eulenspiegel and Ein Heldenleben frame Lisa Batiashvili playing Mozart's "Turkish" concerto. 

An exciting programme of Berlioz and Szymanowski makes for a delectable concert under Sir Antonio Pappano with violinist Lisa Batiashvili. 

Hindoyan, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Pablo Ferrández prompt musings on life, death, dance and the pursuit of beauty in London’s Barbican.

Julia Perry and two Europeans exiled to America feature in Susanna Mälkki's London Symphony Orchestra programme, featuring Leila Josefowicz as soloist in Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. 

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

The greatest music of the 18th century – no arguments, please – is given a fine reading at London's Barbican. 

Sakari Oramo continues to champion rare English repertoire, conducting Doreen Carwithen and Malcolm Arnold at the Barbican. 

Sir James MacMillan's Second Violin Concerto receives a convincing reading from Nicola Benedetti, bookended by fine performances of celebratory Shostakovich from Gianandrea Noseda and the LSO.

A BBC day of talks and concerts yields delight and revelation in equal measure. 

An evocative reading of Tippett's early masterpiece sits proudly alongside a blistering performance of Beethoven's lasting gift to the world.