Instrument: Speaker

The Vienna Philharmonic's first concert at this year's Salzburg Festival pairs Oedipus Rex with the Symphonie fantastique, with Esa-Pekka Salonen stepping in for Lorenzo Viotti. 

A memorable, impassioned performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder in Disney Hall. 

At the Southbank Centre vivid performance of seminal works shows how Schoenberg added colours to the Chameleon and enriched our sound world. 

A thrilling performance of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time by members of the London Sinfonietta follows two rarely heard chamber works by Krzysztof Penderecki.

The Brodsky Quartet deliver deeply moving performances of all 15 Shostakovich string quartets, with added value and insight from writers Elizabeth Wilson and Marina Frolova-Walker. 

Marking the beginning of a new artistic direction, the Komische Oper's new production of Nono's Intolleranza 1960 proves a success, with director Marco Štorman's deep rethinking of the theatre stage.

Romeo Castellucci's intense production of Bartók's opera reaps its rewards in the performance under Teodor Currentzis, but Carl Orff's opera-oratorio De temporum fine comoedia feels little more than a drab filler.