Artiste: Rodrick Dixon

The first instalment of Covent Garden's new Ring is excellent all round from orchestra and voices, with Barrie Kosky providing plenty of ideas to tease us as to how the cycle will continue. 

Artistic advisor James Conlon presents a triptych of works by Adolphus Hailstork, Alvin Singleton and Joel Thompson next to an edgy, ironic reading of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

An admirable but disjointed performance of Beethoven's sacred choral work did not benefit from an extratextual art installation.

The Cleveland Orchestra’s Sunday evening concert at the Blossom Music Center seemed like a mishmash on the printed page, but it turned out to be a perfect summer evening: an all-American program with great tunes (selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess featuring three excellent soloists and the Blossom Festival Chorus), not too intellectually challenging (a fanfare by John Williams and excerpts