Cleveland opens Blossom with Osmo Vänskä leading piercing performances of mythical epics

United StatesUnited States Blossom Music Festival 2025 [1]: Shelén Hughes (soprano), Reginald Mobley (countertenor), John Brancy (baritone), Blossom Festival Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä (conductor). Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, 12.7.2025. (MSJ)

Osmo Vänskä conducts Carmina Burana with soloists (from l) Reginald Mobley, John Brancy and Shelén Hughes © Roger Mastroianni/TCO

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In Eugene Onegin Wild Arts’s greatest strength is that it acts as a collective not a collection of starry individuals

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin (arr. Orlando Jopling, sung in English translation by Siofra Dromgoole): Soloists, The Wild Arts Ensemble / Otis Lineham (conductor). (conductor). Thaxted Parish Church, Essex, 12.7.2025. (CC)

Xavier Hetherington (Lensky) and Timothy Nelson (Onegin) © Alan Titmuss

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Outstanding concert by Stéphane Degout and Quatuor Diotima at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

FranceFrance Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 [4] – Ligeti, Respighi, and Schoeck: Stéphane Degout (baritone), Quatuor Diotima (Yun-Peng Zhao, Léo Marillier [violins], Franck Chevalier [viola], Alexis Descharmes [cello]). Conservatoire Darius Milhaud, Aix-en-Provence, 10.7.2025. (MB)

Stéphane Degout (centre) and Quatuor Diotima

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Much to admire and enjoy in Don Giovanni at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

FranceFrance Festival d’Aix-en-Provence [2] – Mozart, Don Giovanni: Soloists, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (conductor). Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 8.7.2025. (MB)

Don Giovanni at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 © Monika Rittershaus

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Quiet radiance of Fauré’s chamber music revealed at the 92nd Street Y

United StatesUnited States Fauré: Joshua Bell, Irène Duval (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), Jeremy Denk (piano), Blythe Teh Engstroem (viola). 92nd Street Y, New York, 9.7.2025. (ES-S)

Joshua Bell, Irène Duval (violin), Jeremy Denk (piano), Blythe Teh Engstroem (viola) and Steven Isserlis (cello) © Michael Priest

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