Venue: Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg

A nine-day celebration that could be also seen as a mini relaunch for the controversial building 

The octogenarian phenomenon that is Martha Argerich still has something different to say about Schumann's Piano Concerto, while Sylvain Cambreling adopts a bright and breezy approach to Schubert's Ninth Symphony.

The chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker challenges his audience with a pairing of disparate symphonies by Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. Not something you encounter every day.

Making connections between works real and emphasising the value of tradition were addressed in this mix of Bartók, Martinů and Mahler from Manfred Honeck, Frank-Peter Zimmermann and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester.

In a patchwork assembly of German Romantic and French impressionistic works, the chief interest in the Budapest Festival Orchestra's latest programme was the appearance of star violist Tabea Zimmermann in pieces by Schumann and Kurtág.

Teodor Currentzis, conducting the SWR Symphony Orchestra, and Yulianna Avdeeva do Prokofiev proud in his Third Piano Concerto and Fifth Symphony: all the colours of the rainbow delivered with sophistication, élan and boundless effervescence.

Appropriately for a Russian-themed programme, two works in a minor key, one by Prokofiev and the other by Tchaikovsky, bring out the best in Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester.

Vasily Petrenko unleashes powerful and poetic sounds in Sibelius' Second Symphony and Jess Gillam dazzles in one of Michael Nyman's works while the European Union Youth Orchestra shows off its remarkable qualities.