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Jonathan Kent's Tosca was a lifeless affair. And David McVicar's Figaro was overly restrained, unlike his Giulio Cesare, which was tremendous in a bawdy sort of way
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Till Fellner keeps rhetorical excess at bay in his performance of Schubert's last sonatas, while a Janá?cek opera is not quite ruined by a silly production
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Moments of unintended hilarity lighten an otherwise second-rate production of Wagner's Ring. But Haitink's Beethoven cycle with the LSO is exceptional
A taste of the Wigmore
John Gilhooly's first season as artistic director of the Wigmore Hall will be a test of taste and judgement rather than of personality
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Riccardo Chailly is sick and tired of young conductors and singers, but his move to the Leipzig Opera and Gewandhaus Orchestra is a welcome one
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An intriguing programme at the QEH highlights the transformative effect of Hungarian folk music on Bela Bartók—and vice versa
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Iván Fischer's Budapest Festival Orchestra prove that Bartók was the 20th century's greatest. And why is Radio 4 encouraging us to fast-forward Beethoven's 9th?
Abbado on film
The move from CD to DVD in classical recordings can mean seeing too much of the orchestra. Not so with Claudio Abbado conducting Mahler
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Berlioz was so good that I left before the Beethoven. St John Passion would have been better with a proper interval instead of a poetry reading
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Mahler strived for the Wagnerian ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk—opera as a total work of art. The Kirov failed to attain this at Covent Garden
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Paul Daniel's last appearance as the ENO's music director was a triumph under the circumstances. And the ENO forgets the point of performing in the vernacular
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The St Matthew Passion at the Cadogan Hall revealed the depth of British tenor talent, but the Ring at Covent Garden is so far only a partial success