A retrospective of recent coverage of Great Orchestra concerts on this site, Colin’s Column.

Saturday, December 20, 2025 – Leonard Slatkin conducts NHKSO et al in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (‘Choral’), the first of five Tokyo performances (also 21st, 23rd, 24th & 26th).

Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein – Franz Welser-Möst conducts Beethoven’s Fifth & Overture Leonore III, and Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen. Live relay on Österreich 1 [oe1.ORF.at].

Berliner Philharmoniker & RIAS Kammerchor – Raphaël Pichon conducts Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B-minor. Live Digital Concert Hall webcast.

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra – Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare’s play also an inspiration for Hans Werner Henze’s Eighth Symphony. Hannu Lintu conducts, with Truls Mørk playing Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto. Live Yle Areena webcast.

London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano at Barbican Hall, Sunday December 7 – Tchaikovsky Four and Vaughan Williams’s Flos Campi & Dona nobis pacem. Recording broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday December 15 @ 7.30 p.m.

Berliner Philharmoniker – Andris Nelsons conducts Shostakovich Ten, with Benjamin Beilman playing Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, and Jan Liebermann as organist in Marcel Dupré’s Cortège et Litanie (Opus 19/2). Live Digital Concert Hall webcast.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – George Benjamin conducts his own Concerto for Orchestra, Oliver Knussen’s Choral, and Harrison Birtwistle’s Deep Time, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing Clara Iannotta’s Piano Concerto ‘The purple fuchsia bled upon the ground’. Live relay on BR-Klassik.

Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein – Jakub Hrůša conducts Kodály/Galánta, Bartók/Mandarin (Suite), Dvořák/Wood Dove, and Janáček/Taras Bulba. Live relay on Österreich 1 [oe1.ORF.at].

Detroit Symphony Orchestra – Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider plays Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 & conducts Brahms’s Symphony No.2. Live DSO webcast.

Berliner Philharmoniker – Jordi Savall conducts Rameau and Gluck, and Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony (No.41/K551). Live Digital Concert Hall webcast.