Concert Reviews – Page 4 – Seen and Heard International

LPO’s Ravel packs a punch and says hello to the circus

16/05/202501/05/2025 by Christopher Sallon

United Kingdom Ravel: Circa (Yaron Lifschitz [artistic director, stage and lighting designer], Libby McDonnell [costume designer]), BBC Singers, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner (conductor). Royal Festival Hall, London. 23.4.2025. (CSa)

Acrobats of Circa performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra © Pete Woodhead

Brief invitation to long farewell: a journey of transformation with The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble

16/05/202530/04/2025 by Edward Sava-Segal

United States Chabrier, Adès, Mahler: Susanna Phillips (soprano), Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), Ben Bliss (tenor), The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor). Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, 28.4.2025. (ES-S)

Pianist Bryan Wagorn, soprano Susanna Phillips and bassoonist William Short © Jennifer Taylor

Aziz Shokhakimov’s Stravinsky allows the Strasbourg Philharmonic to show its virtuoso colours

30/04/2025 by Colin Clarke

France Debussy (orch. Büsser), Mozart, Stravinsky: Jan Lisiecki (piano), Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg / Aziz Shokhakimov (conductor). Salle Érasme, Palais de la musique et des Congrès, Strasbourg, France, 25.2.2025. (CC)

Aziz Shokhakimov conducts pianist Jan Lisiecki and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg

Eleonora Buratto was an outstanding Cio-Cio-San in Berlin Philharmonic’s exceptional Madama Butterfly

29/04/2025 by Jim Pritchard

Germany Puccini, Madama Butterfly (concert performance): Soloists, Rundfunkchor Berlin (chief conductor: Gijs Leenaars), Berliner Philharmoniker / Kirill Petrenko (conductor). Broadcast live from the Berlin Philharmonie (directed by Michael Beyer) on the Digital Concert Hall, 27.4.2025. (JPr)

Kirill Petrenko conducts Jonathan Tetelman (Pinkerton), Eleonora Buratto (Cio-Cio-San) and the Berlin Philharmonic © Berlin Philharmonic

The Canton Symphony, Ohio’s hidden gem, shines in Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony

30/04/202529/04/2025 by Mark S Jordan

United States Vaughan Williams, Boyle – ‘Voyage on the High Seas’: Dashon Burton (bass-baritone), Bonnie Frauenthal (soprano), Canton Symphony Chorus (director: Doug Beery), Mount Union Concert Choir (director; Beth Polen), Canton Symphony Orchestra / Matthew Jenkins Jaroszewicz (conductor). Umstattd Hall at Zimmermann Symphony Center, Canton, 26.4.2025. (MSJ)

Matthew Jenkins Jaroszewicz conducts Ina Boyle’s *A Sea Poem* © Kelly Klein Photography/CSO

The English Concert hits all the right notes gloriously with Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Berkeley

29/04/2025 by Harvey Steiman

United States Handel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto: Soloists and orchestra of The English Concert / Harry Bicket (artistic director and harpsichord). Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, University of California Berkeley, 27.4.2025. (HS)

Mark Chambers bids a stylish farewell to Sestina Music with a celebration of the Concerts Spirituel

01/05/202529/04/2025 by Robert Beattie

United Kingdom De Lalande, Corelli – Concert Spirituel: Sestina Music / Mark Chambers (Director), Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 25.4.2025. (RB)

Sestina Music’s *Concert Spirituel* at Fisherwick Presbyterian Church © Frederike Gerstner

Michael Tilson Thomas’s 80th birthday concert favors delights over tearful goodbyes

28/04/2025 by Harvey Steiman

United States Various: Sasha Cooke, Frederica von Stade (mezzo-sopranos), Jessica Voss (vocalist), Ben Jones (tenor), San Francisco Symphony Chorus (director: Jenny Wong), San Francisco Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas, Teddy Abrams, Edwin Outwater (conductors). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 26.4.2025. (HS)