Classics in Concert

Hear the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, in concert at Jordan Hall, with a hair-raising performance of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, as well as surprisingly offbeat music by two of his contemporaries.

The young Dutch violinist was once known as much for her good looks as for her good playing. Today, she turns heads with a fearless approach to music and excellent technique. Hear Jansen play Tchaikovsky's classic Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Conductor Nicholas McGegan bids farewell to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in a concert that sparkles with Handel's Royal Fireworks and weaves an array of magic spells. Also featured are works by Edward Elgar and contemporary English composer Peter Maxwell Davies.

Hear the members of the young choral group Stile Antico make their U.S. debut at the Boston Early Music Festival. They sing music from their new CD, Song of Songs, featuring surprisingly passionate poetry from the Bible.

This year's contest ended in a surprise tie for first place. Hear both Gold Medalists perform, along with other final round contestants at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, held every four years in Fort Worth, Texas.

Haydn's Symphony No. 103 startled audiences right away with its unique drum roll introduction. Few others could have flaunted form like that and been applauded for it, but by this time in his career Haydn had the trust and affection of every music lover in London.

Bartok's obsession with folk music fueled much of his career as a composer and scholar. The Hungarian band Muzsikas joins the Takacs String Quartet for a concert of Bartok's own music, and the peasant dances and that inspired him.

The mystery of which type of French horn Brahms intended for his lyrical Horn Trio may never be solved. But there's no denying that Brahms came up with some of the very best music for the horn, with or without valves, in the history of the instrument.

Eighteenth-century music might seem tame by today's standards, but the London-based Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment demonstrates that there were plenty of bold strokes in the music of Mozart, Haydn and C.P.E. Bach. Hear the ensemble in concert in St. Paul.

Schiff has been playing all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas in chronological order at Disney Hall over the course of a two-season span. Listen to the brilliant pianist finish off the cycle with a performance of Beethoven's final three sonatas.

In the late 1950s, a family of guitarists from Spain came to America to make its mark. Fifty years and a few new family members later, Los Romeros still reigns as the Royal Family of the Guitar. Hear the group in concert in Boston.

One of America's premier concert halls has just been remodeled, with a pedestrian-friendly feel, glow-in-the-dark wood paneling and a suspended dance studio. Hear the opening-night concert from Alice Tully Hall, at New York's Lincoln Center.

At the height of WWII, Aaron Copland used excerpts from Lincoln's speeches, combined with musical quotations from American songs, to create one of the most enduring works in American music. In honor of Lincoln's 200th birthday Thursday, hear the U.S. Marine Band perform Lincoln Portrait in concert.

Gustav Mahler's larger-than-life symphonies have become orchestra staples. With that in mind, conductor Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony programmed three of Mahler's lesser-known orchestral works. The result is a fresh take on the music of the monumental but troubled genius.

Due to a fluke injury, pianist Gary Graffman was robbed of the use of his right hand at the piano. He makes up for the loss by excelling in the intriguing literature written for the left hand alone. Hear the venerable pianist in concert.

Led by founding member Menahem Pressler, the Beaux Arts Trio performs an emotion-laden final U.S. concert at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, the venue where the ensemble got its start 53 years ago.

Born nearly 100 years apart, Mozart and Mahler shared a knack for writing transcendent music under stress. Live from the Mostly Mozart Festival, hear Mozart's 40th Symphony, filled with pride and pain, and Mahler's ode to eternity, The Song of the Earth.

Guitarist Manuel Barrueco invoked the "something old, something new" formula for his concert with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, juxtaposing an 18th-century Vivaldi concerto with a new piece by Roberto Sierra.

Schumann's Piano Concerto was the result of a major rewrite. Paul Chihara did a little reworking of his own on Schumann's Overture, Scherzo and Finale. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays both remodeled pieces at Carnegie Hall.

The lavishly staged Baroque opera at the biennial Boston Early Music Festival has become the must-see event of that week-long musical feast. But the must-hear concert of the festival is presented by the opera's world-class period instrument orchestra. In 2007, the orchestra honored the festival's French theme with a performance of dance music from a selection of operas by Rameau.

With the apple-pie wholesomeness of a Norman Rockwell painting, but with a touch of melancholy, Barber created an American classic when he composed Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Carolyn Sampson sings it in concert with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

In time for Earth Day, McPartland pays loving tribute to an early environmental hero, Rachel Carson, in a composition for symphony and improvised piano. The piece begins with a simple bird-song motif and moves through both the triumph of nature and its possible dramatic end.

Originally written in 1969, Bryars' first major composition, The Sinking of the Titanic, still sounds as vital, fresh, and forward-thinking now as it did then. The piece was performed as part of the Wordless Music Series recorded by WNYC in New York City.

John Adams' early work Christian Zeal and Activity provides the hymn-like center of a musical triptych called American Standard. In a concert from the Wordless Music Series, recorded by WNYC, a string orchestra reverently performs the piece with "sonic found objects."