Aldeburgh World Orchestra in Britten, Mahler and Shostakovich

Like an exquisite insect with a fleetingly brief lifespan, the Aldeburgh World Orchestra has been created as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and brings together young people from 35 countries across all five continents for a few intense weeks of rehearsal, tutoring and performances under the baton of Sir Mark Elder.

Sir Mark Elder celebrates 50 years at Covent Garden by returning to his first opera there in 1976 – Verdi's Rigoletto – in a revival of Oliver Mears' excellent 2021 production.

Elder's reading of A Sea Symphony has the maturity and surefooted-ness of a conductor who has fully absorbed the work and long since recognised it as a masterpiece.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the world premiere of Huw Watkins' Concerto for Orchestra and Strauss' gargantuan Alpine Symphony.

Aigul Akhmetshina is on the verge of becoming the definitive Carmen; in this first revival of Michieletto's 2024 production at Covent Garden, she delivers the standout performance. 

Together with soloist Sir Stephen Hough, the CBSO and Sir Mark Elder reinvent Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, present the complex non-narrative of Janáček The Fiddler's Child and suggest real happiness in Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony.