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Theatre

Evening Standard column

Fiona Maddocks

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Vladimir Jurowski

Vlad the impaler

The London Philharmonic's intense Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski will continue to take the orchestra to new heights.

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Tales of love and loss in Les Contes d’Hoffmann

John Schlesinger's lavish 1980 staging feels magnificently antique in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, a quaint nod back at a time of plenty.

Romeo and Juliet dazzles

Valery Gergiev's take on Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is music of bold emotion and high drama, rather than the deepest feeling.

The Opera House Looks East

Covent Garden chief Tony Hall is behind a new state of the art outpost that will help regenerate the Thames Gateway.

Triumph for viola from Emerson Quartet

Emerson Quartet command a loyal and excited following at Wigmore Hall. And with the changing landscape of chamber music, their stock is ever rising.

Met drops O-bomb in Doctor Atomic

The final catastrophe in John Adams's Doctor Atomic is as imaginatively conceived and devastating as the ending of any opera.

Adès pulls the strings

An attentive Kings Place audience burst into whoops at the close of an all-Stravinsky recital which launched this week’s Aldeburgh on Tour series.

Flowing blonde on cello in Brodsky Quartet

The Brodsky Quartet play with familiar empathy. Three of them have been together since student days nearly three decades ago.

Mark Pamore and Britten Sinfonia provide brilliance

The evening was devised by tenor Mark Padmore who is gaining a parallel reputation as a programme maker of imagination and perception.

Love and Rossini triumph in Matilde di Shabran

There was some panto-like silliness at Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran, but with a cast of this calibre, the thrills are in the music, says Fiona Maddocks.

Masterpiece in the medium for Orion Quartet

The cream of London’s string players turned out to hear the Orion Quartet of New York in early and late Beethoven.

Shock and awe in this Donne raid

This concert built around poems of John Donne was electrifying, stirring and in every sense a revelation.

10 show talents with Walton

The Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists presented a stylish Walton double bill at the Linbury Studio, consisting of Façade and The Bear.

Brendel's tireless appetite

Beaming as he strode on stage, Alfred Brendel might have been starting a career, not ending one lasting more than 60 years.

Royal flush in Partenope

Crystallised through the stark imagery of French Surrealism, ENO's new staging of Partenope is packed with riches.

Pianist's pianist Schiff excels with Beethoven

Andras Schiff, named today as one of the Evening Standard’s 1000 Influentials, opened the autumn leg of the Temple Festival 2008 with a recital of four middle period sonatas.

John Eliot Gardiner's Brahms bites back

John Eliot Gardiner's concert began with choral pieces by Brahms and his antecedents. The result was an episodic, but fascinating first half.

Opening Ceremony is fit for a king

No need for balloons or fanfares. The new Kings Place provides its own architectural drama in Opening Ceremony.

Donatella Flick is real maestro

Donatella Flick has little time for the BBC's reality show — her £15,000 competition for young talent, takes conducting seriously.

La Calisto has never been more urban

All animal magic and dazzling Deco cum Op Art, The Royal Opera’s new staging of Cavalli’s La Calisto is fabulous entertainment.

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