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INSANE: Mahler | Vintage Vibes

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

BBCSO/Lintu review – there’s a good reason these Boulez and Mahler works aren’t often performed

Despite eye-catching percussion and deluxe orchestral playing, these strange, overlong pieces are for die-hards only

The Guardian - UK

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Pioneering period instrument performances: Five key Roger Norrington recordings

Five essential recordings by the trailblazing conductor who has died aged 91

The Guardian - UK

Penarth chamber music festival review – scaled-down Mahler’s Fourth Symphony emerges as if newly minted

The joy and anarchy of Mahler were brilliantly captured, alongside wild Shostakovich and mellow Brahms

The Guardian - UK

Mahler 8 at the Multitudes festival: 'five stars, if not for the screensaver visuals'

4/5 The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner, excel at Mahler’s 8th but the experimental video accompaniment was only partially successful

Evening Standard

Aurora Orchestra/Collon review – reduced Mahler still packs a punch

A chamber reduction of Das Lied von der Erde formed the centrepiece of this spring-themed concert

The Guardian - UK

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The week in classical: BBCSO Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez; RLPO/ Hindoyan: Mahler Symphony No 3; Joyce DiDonato and Maxim Emelyanychev – review

An invigorating all-day tribute to the maverick French composer-conductor felt like the end of an era. Plus, heartfelt Mahler and a star mezzo’s Winterreise

The Guardian - UK

On my radar: Raja Shehadeh’s cultural highlights

The Palestinian writer and campaigner on Mahler, Gaza, Edinburgh – and the peace of his West Bank garden

The Guardian - UK

Mahler Symphony No 3 album review – slightly sub-par outing for ‘least hysterical’ work

Curiously the Czech Philharmonic, ideally placed as an interpreter of Mahler, don’t achieve the necessary ecstatic intensity here

The Guardian - UK

Czech Phil/Bychkov review – fiendish Mozart duo contrasts with gargantuan Mahler

The Labèque sisters gave an uncannily composite performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos, then chief conductor Semyon Bychkov took the Czech Philharmonic through a mighty rendering of Mahler’s Fifth

The Guardian - UK

Mahler: Symphony No7 album review – sheer brilliance: this is one of the finest Mahler 7’s on disc

Simon Rattle and the BRSO’s account of Mahler’s tricky seventh symphony is direct and vivid.

The Guardian - UK

LSO/Harding/Trifonov review – nuanced and individual Schumann, then propulsive Mahler

Making a much-anticipated London appearance, Daniil Trifonov balanced lyricism and vigour in Schumann. Daniel Harding’s well-judged account of Mahler 7 caught the symphony’s sense of impending disintegration

The Guardian - UK

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra/Dudamel review – epic Mahler is exhilarating but overwhelming

Gustavo Dudamel drove the massed ranks of the Venezuelan orchestra with ferocious energy, but it was all too much too soon

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Philharmonia/Blomstedt review – the collective performance of a lifetime

The 97-year-old conductor led the Philharmonia – on exceptional form – in one of the finest performances of Mahler’s epic Ninth Symphony one is likely to hear.

The Guardian - UK

LSO/Tilson Thomas review – emotional depth as Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony gleams

The London Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas celebrated his 80th birthday with an authoritative but restrained account of Mahler’s Second with soloists Alice Coote and Siobhan Stagg

The Guardian - UK

Hallé/Wong review – new chapter begins with muted Mahler

Kahchun Wong starts his tenure as the Manchester orchestra’s principal conductor with Mahler’s first and a suite from Britten’s Prince of the Pagodas

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Eugene Onegin; Last Night of the Proms; Mahler: Symphony No 2 ‘Resurrection’ – review

Plucky Northern Ireland Opera triumphs with elegant, homegrown Tchaikovsky; Stephen Hough and Angel Blue rise above the pomp; and biblical car park Mahler

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The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Yuja Wang x Hockney; Proms 61 & 62: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Rattle – review

Surrounded by giant projections of her friend David Hockney’s art show, star pianist Yuja Wang pushes the boundaries of what a concert can be

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: BBC Proms week one review – hallelujahs all round

First Night fireworks with Elim Chan and co, a triumphant farewell from Mark Elder, and a ravishing love triangle kicked off a re-energised Proms

Evening Standard

Prom 4: The Hallé/Mark Elder review: a rapturous reception for this great orchestra from Manchester

It made for a fine climax to its conductor’s distinguished tenure

The Guardian - UK

Mahler: Symphony No3 album review – grandeur and beauty in Vänskä’s sober approach

Conductor completes his Mahler cycle with this unfussy and effective recording

The Guardian - UK

Southbank Sinfonia/Reynolds review – remarkable young orchestra shows that less can be more

Lee Reynolds’ reduced arrangements of Schoenberg and Mahler were convincing and involving

The Guardian - UK

Hallé/Adès review – an exhilarating and magnificent partnership

The Hallé’s playing was triumphant as Thomas Adès oversaw a challenging programme including a rare Tippett masterpiece and new work from Oliver Leith, while the conductor’s own piece was an immense statement

The Guardian - UK

Mahler: Symphony No 8 album review – Vänskä’s interpretation feels still a work in progress

There’s a lingering sense of unevenness in this recording of Osmo Vänskä’s final concert as the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director

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