Performer: Ed Spanjaard

A performance by Leo van Doeselaar on the Concertgebouw’s Maarschalkerweerd Organ in Saint-Saëns’ Symphony no. overshadows all else in the Concertgebouw.

A mélange of documentary, Chinese opera and contemporary music does not really bind into a solid whole, but Sichuan opera star Shen Tiemei’s performance is complete musical theatre.

Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde was the high point at an opera gala in support of young singers at the Concertgebouw.

A winning young cast discovers that all's not well that ends well in the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century’s virtuosic Così fan tutte at the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam.

The Young Composers Meeting Apeldoorn was opened by the 'Orchestra of the 21st century' under Ed Spanjaard, with fascinating pieces by Anna Meredith and Louis Andriessen.

When you go to see a student orchestra play a concert, your expectations are generally lower than with professional orchestras. And so, when the Symfonieorkest of the Amsterdam Conservatory and soloists from the same Conservatory came to Leiden with an exciting program of Ravel, Prokofiev, Dvořák and Janáček, I thought it’d be a fun night, but not necessarily impressive.