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FOUND: Bartok - You Need To See This

BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Oramo/ Son review – rainy days, rolling hills and enchanted creatures

Judith Weir’s salute to the Indian monsoon kicked off a concert on nature and folk themes, Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son brought poetic flourishes to works by Bartók and Finzi, while the magical Firebird made a rousing finale

The Guardian - UK

From shiveringly vivid Mahler to the eclectic Hermes Experiment: our top classical recordings of 2025

Opera may be conspicuous by its absence, but the brilliance of Berlin Philharmonic’s Schoenberg and the exceptional South Korean Yunchan Lim gave us plenty to sink our teeth into this year

The Guardian - UK

Royal Concertgebouw / Mäkelä review – Proms showcase legendary orchestra and its star signing

The masterly Amsterdam ensemble were at the Proms for two concerts with their Chief Conductor Designate Klaus Mäkelä. In works by Berio, Mahler, Mozart, Prokofiev and Bartók there was dazzling playing and immaculate attention to detail

The Guardian - UK

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Budapest Festival Orchestra / Fischer review – palpable joy in a vivid Prom pairing of Beethoven and Bluebeard

Conductor Iván Fischer and his players teased out the tiny details in a stirring Seventh Symphony, while Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was full of grisly Hungarian intensity

The Guardian - UK

Béla Bartók: Complete Piano Concertos album review – Tomáš Vrána rises to the challenge

The young Czech pianist tackles Bartók’s formidable concertos with confidence and technical accomplishment, although tempi can feel a little sluggish

The Guardian - UK

Bartók: Piano Works album review – Sonya Bach guides us from romantic roots to expressionist power

In six carefully selected works, the Korean pianist tracks the evolution of Bartók’s keyboard music but doesn’t tell the whole story

The Guardian - UK

Organised Delirium: Piano Sonatas by Boulez, Shostakovich, Bartók and Eisler album review – coruscating and exceptional

Stefanovich brings total mastery, athleticism and power to her recordings of Boulez’s second sonata, and other 20th-century piano works

The Guardian - UK

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LSO/Pappano review – new era begins with ghosts and great beauty

Chief conductor’s kicks off his first season with the London Symphony Orchestra with energy and thrilling drama in beguiling Sibelius and a new work from James MacMillan

The Guardian - UK

Wendy Ritson obituary

Other lives: Violinist, teacher and psychotherapist who was a member of the 1970s prog rock band Centipede

The Guardian - UK

Bartók: The Wooden Prince album review – very fine recording of rarely heard fairytale ballet

Bartók revised his ‘pantomime ballet’ many times; the BBC Scottish Symphony orchestra’s new disc is the first ever recording of its final version

The Guardian - UK

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle review – erotic, unsettling and beautifully staged

A last-minute cast substitution added a remarkable gender twist to Bartók’s opera about marital disintegration

The Guardian - UK

‘It’s quartet Disney World!’ Getting to grips with world’s biggest string quartet festival

This year’s String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam saw big names and rising stars play 113 works from Beethoven to Larcher, plus masterclasses, a DJ – and free biscuits. Can you have too much of a good thing?

The Guardian - UK

Seiji Ozawa, longtime conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has died at 88

The pioneering Japanese-American conductor who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for nearly decades died Tuesday.

WEKU

LSO/Ward review – soaring and accomplished, Faust resisted flashy indulgence

In Bartók and Chausson, violinist Isabelle Faust was elegant and expressive, and conductor Duncan Ward brought orchestral colour and focus to orchestral showpieces by Debussy and Janáček

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Concerto Budapest SO review – András Keller conducts with a chamber musician’s instinct for detail

In a programme of Mozart, Beethoven and Bartók (with soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard) the Hungarian orchestra brought fine playing full of detail and focus

The Guardian - UK

Elvis Costello on writing The Juliet Letters: ‘It initially caused panic’

‘It’s been translated into different languages, there’s a version for a cabaret band – and the songs have been covered many times. Björk’s version of Why? is better than mine!’

Evening Standard

Prom 39 at the Royal Albert Hall: Budapest Festival Orchestra put on a night of surprises and spontaneity

The programme of Ligeti, Bartók and Beethoven included a virtuoso performance by soprano Anna-Lena Elbert

The Guardian - UK

Philharmonia/Hrůša review – genteel beginnings cede to compelling drama

If his Dvořák felt a little bland, with Bartók and Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils, the Royal Opera’s music director designate gave London audiences a glimpse of the vivid excitement he can bring

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The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: It’s a Wonderful Life; A Child of Our Time; IMS Prussia Cove – review

ENO’s warm-hearted production of Jake Heggie’s operatic take on the classic Frank Capra film is full of poignant ironies

The Guardian - UK

Prom 36: Vienna Radio SO/Alsop review – tight teamwork and carefree swagger

Marin Alsop led the orchestra through lively performances of Bartók, Prokofiev and Dvořák, full of rhythmic drive, as well as the UK premiere of Hannah Eisendle’s evocative Heliosis

The Guardian - UK

RLPO/Hindoyan review – shock but not enough awe in Bluebeard concert staging

Domingo Hindoyan brought grace to Mahler and sonic terror and conviction to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle

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