theartsdesk at the Dresden Music Festival - orchestral abundance in a spectacular setting

The Saxon city’s world-famous orchestras front and centre in a full programme of events

Dresden is filled with music at this time of year. The Dresden Music Festival runs through May and early June, with concerts at all the famous venues – the Frauenkirche, the Semperoper – but also recitals in smaller halls and unlikely settings.

LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - a glimpse into Bruckner’s workshop

★★★★ LSO, RATTLE, BARBICAN A glimpse into Bruckner’s workshop

A compelling case made for each version of the 'Romantic' Symphony

For most Bruckner fans, the multiple editions and revisions of his symphonies are a problem. But Simon Rattle sees it differently; for him every edition offers more music to explore. That was the thinking behind this programme, presenting the Fourth Symphony in one and a half versions, a “discarded” scherzo and finale in the first half, and a complete version in the second.

Bernard Haitink: The Enigmatic Maestro, BBC Two review - saying goodbye with Bruckner

RIP BERNARD HAITINK (1929-2021) Candour and warmth in a superb BBC documentary

Candour and warmth light up a thoroughly musical portrait

Before his retirement last summer at the age of 90, Bernard Haitink worked magic on the podium, no one is in any doubt about that. Lining up one friend and musician after another to admit they don’t know how he does it hardly seems the most promising basis for a feature-length documentary. Yet John Bridcut’s film also works, rather like one of Haitink’s performances, by placing trust in his material and moulding its form with a nudge here, a pause there. The result, no less than his much admired portrait of Janet Baker, is worthy of its subject, and praise doesn’t come higher than that.

Prom 60: Ax, Vienna Philharmonic, Haitink review - moving mountains at 90

RIP BERNARD HAITINK (1929-2021) The last UK concert, a Prom with the Vienna Philharmonic

Time becomes perfectly-managed space in a great conductor's official UK finale

His movements are minimal (perhaps they always were). A more intense flick of the baton, a sudden wider sweep of the expressive left hand, can help quicken a tempo, draw extra firepower from the players, but Bernard Haitink's conducting is still the most unforced and, well, musicianly, in the world.

LSO, Guildhall School, Rattle, Barbican review - irresistible momentum

★★★★★ LSO, GUILDHALL SCHOOL, RATTLE, BARBICAN Patience pays off in sublime Bruckner

Patience pays off in sublime Bruckner

The Barbican Hall hardly boasts the numinous acoustic of Gloucester Cathedral for which Vaughan Williams composed his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, but Sir Simon Rattle has long known how to build space into the architecture of what he conducts.