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Brad Mehldau, committed improviser

Mar 12, 2010 2:02pm

The American pianist doesn't so much stride between jazz, classical music and pop as swirl and eddy between them, says Mike Hobart...

Stereophonics, O2 Arena, London

Mar 11, 2010 2:10pm

This was a performance so workmanlike it might have come in a fluorescent jacket and holding a thermos flask of hot tea, says Ludovic Hunter-Tilney...

Songs in the Key of London, Barbican Hall, London

Mar 11, 2010 2:10pm

There was little sense that this concert was about a city where half the citizens, from the mayor on down, were born abroad, says David Honigmann...

San Francisco Symphony, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

Mar 9, 2010 2:46pm

The conductor's musical preoccupations have ranged far and wide during his stewardship of this orchestra, and there's no better gauge of where his interests lie than hearing them on tour, says Allan Ulrich...

Das Rheingold, Paris Opera (Bastille)

Mar 9, 2010 2:45pm

The staging has a dated patina but Günter Krämer has at least enticed world-beating performances from his Alberich and Loge, writes Francis Carlin...

Gabriel Kahane, Lincoln Center, New York

Mar 8, 2010 2:05pm

The singer-songwriter's compositions are pleasingly hectic, but he cannot resist the temptation to demonstrate everything he can do, all the time, writes Emily Stokes...

Third Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition, Bamberg, Germany

Mar 8, 2010 2:05pm

By awarding Ainars Rubikis first prize, the jury is sending a strong message to the music world – it was a vote for substance and truth above sensationalism, says Shirley Apthorp...

The Nose, Metropolitan Opera, New York

Mar 8, 2010 2:05pm

The opera is wild and witty, dark and grotesque, nasty and silly – a sociopolitical satire predicated on chatter and clatter, writes Martin Bernheimer...

Tamerlano, Royal Opera House, London

Mar 7, 2010 2:02pm

Kurt Streit is a passable replacement for Plácido Domingo, but without his star turn, the four-and-a-half-hour run time feels interminable, writes Andrew Clark...

A voice fit for any occasion

Mar 7, 2010 9:19am

Philip Langridge's ongoing search for new challenges was a perfect fit with the versatility that saw him, at the start of his career, capitalise on an explosion of interest in early music, writes Richard Fairman...

NY Phil/Muti, Avery Fisher Hall, New York

Mar 5, 2010 3:31pm

Apparently you can lead New Yorkers to modernism, but you can't make them listen. Not even with Riccardo Muti – current man of the hour in musical Manhattan – wielding the baton, says Martin Bernheimer...

La Bohème, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Mar 5, 2010 2:55pm

At £12.50 per stalls ticket, this production was politically a five-star 'Bohème', and it wasn't bad artistically either, says Andrew Clark...

Rudder, Charlie Wright's, London

Mar 5, 2010 2:55pm

The New York jazz quartet's clarity and power won the encore but over two sets, the beats were just a little too worked out, says Mike Hobart...

Joanna MacGregor: 'not one to tie her hair back'

Mar 5, 2010 2:45pm

Throughout her career the pianist has shattered preconceived ideas about music and art through her choice of repertoire and her involvement as a composer, curator, conductor and teacher, says Laura Battle...

The xx, Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Mar 4, 2010 12:55pm

South London's The xx must be one of the shyest 'bedroom bands' to poke their heads from under the covers, says Richard Clayton, as he sees them negotiate their largest gig to date – strictly on their own terms...