Wonderfully played and conducted; the Bergen musicians prove this music is not the sole preserve of the Brits.

Super-sized Messiah: no fries, but plenty of spicy extras.

★★★★☆ Sensitive, nuanced reading of Beethoven’s massive choral masterpiece. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Choral and movie blockbusters, plus top soloists headline the 2017 season, while Sir Andrew Davis conducts Thaïs. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Sir Andrew Davis explains the revolutionary nature and historical vicissitudes of the music Beethoven never heard. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Live recording reveals Davis's hero to be surprisingly earthbound.

★★★★☆ A knock-out Brahms shares the bill with a double dose of Shakespearian innovation. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

★★★★☆ Berlioz’s fantastic passions gets the Australian franchise of the BBC Proms off to a solid start. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Davis reinvigorates Mahler with his generous attention to detail. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The conductor who has led more Last Nights than any other will helm the Proms’ first ever sojourn outside of England. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The new four day festival, BBC Proms Australia, brings the world’s biggest classical music festival Down Under. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Far from hinting at the avant garde orchestral works to come, Charles Ives’ symphonic debut could almost have been penned by Dvorˇák with Brahms and Tchaikovsky looking over his shoulder. Ives had heard the New York premiere of the New World Symphony and he paid it more than a passing nod, almost channelling the famous Largo (including cor anglais). This engaging work, written when he was still at Yale, shows the insurance salesman-cum-composer was no mere hobbyist. It includes a highly competent fugue in the Scherzo, engaging melodies and skilful use of orchestral palette. The five-movement Second Symphony, championed by Bernstein, is more characteristic with snatches of Stephen Foster’s Camptown Races and American hymns vying with quotes from Beethoven, Brahms, Bach and Wagner. There’s a hint of what was to come in the final bars where it ends on an abrupt, comical key change – a musical thumbing of the nose? The work was applauded at its premiere although Ives is said to have spat at its reception. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra are clearly relishing their collaboration with Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis judging from the playing in both works. Phrasing and tempi are excellent and technically they are up there with overseas orchestras. Production from Chandos is exemplary….