Work: Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59: Suite

By the close of the performance, one sensed that the audience’s exhilaration stemmed less from polished execution and more from a shared immersion in the music’s dramatic arc—elements that lingered as the defining memory of this eventful evening.

Making his London Symphony Orchestra debut at the Barbican, Gustavo Dudamel’s Ravel fares better than his disappointing Strauss. 

Renée Fleming makes a worthy return to the Marschallin, but this all-Strauss program, led by Andris Nelsons, is more notable for its deficits.