Guardian Music — Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThe Spring Symphony is perhaps the most overlooked of Benjamin Britten's major works, possibly because it is uncharacteristically joyous and untroubled, but more likely because this huge choral extravaganza, requiring, amo... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonSome distinguished Elgarians maintain that The Kingdom is Elgar's choral masterpiece, a finer work even than The Dream of Gerontius. Whether Mark Elder would go that far, I don't know, but there is no doubt that he is doing more than ... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Festival Hall, LondonThe use of period instruments may not revolutionise the performance of late romantic orchestral music in the way it has the baroque and classical repertory over the last 30 years, but it is still fascinating to hear such mu... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican, LondonFive weeks ago, Vladimir Jurowski brought Mahler's reorchestration of Beethoven's Eroica to London for the first time; tonight, Marin Alsop's guest appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra provided the chance to sample more of Ma... more info

Guardian Music — Lighthouse, PooleMarin Alsop's annual guest appearances with the Bournemouth Symphony, the orchestra that she headed between 2002 and 2008, are becoming special occasions in Poole, her rapport with the audience there seeming as close as ever. For her... more info

Guardian Music — Millennium Centre, CardiffOperatic plots can be confusing at the best of times. In the case of Ariadne auf Naxos, in which two separate contrasting performances – an opera seria and commedia dell'arte – are forced to combine, Richard Strauss was ... more info

Guardian Music — Barbican Hall, LondonPeter Lieberson's five songs to poems by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda have quickly become renowned since their first performance in 2005. The reason for their special status is that these intensely personal love songs were writt... more info

Guardian Music — Gloucester CathedralThe composer and poet Ivor Gurney was born in Gloucester, sang in its cathedral choir as a boy, and left the city to study at the Royal College of Music and then to fight on the western front. It was there, too, that in 1922 he wa... more info

Guardian Music — Grand theatre, Leeds; Northington, Hampshire; Wigmore Hall, LondonThere's a fond belief that Donizetti's Maria Stuarda is about Tudor history. It is, to the extent that its chief characters are Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, and others have re... more info

The Telegraph — Sarah Connolly spits pure venom in Opera North's new production of Donizetti's Mary Stuart. Rating: * * * more info