Thierry Fischer takes the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to the Proms this month, conducting Messiaen's epic La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ in celebration of the centenary of the composer's birth. Listen live on BBC Radio 3.

During July Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducts the Camerata Salzburg in the world premiere of his new work Last Door of Light at the Carinthischer Sommer Festival in a programme also featuring another of his works The Fall of the Leafe as well as Haydn's Symphony No. 22 'The Philosopher' and Mozart's Symphony No. 38 'Prague'. This month also sees the premiere of two new works at the Cheltenham Festival - a new Piano Quartet for the Primrose Quartet and a Violin Sonata for Ilya Gringolts, as well as a BBC Discovering Music event on the iconic Eight Songs for a Mad King and various other performances of his music.

Ailish Tynan will appear in the City of London Festival on 9 & 10 July performing Mahler's Symphony No.8 with Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Paul's Cathedral. Other soloists include Zlata Bulycheva and Lilli Paasikivi and they will be joined by the London Symphony Chorus and the Choral Arts Society of Washington.

Leonidas Kavakos returns to the Verbier Festival this month, where he is a regular guest. This year, he appears as soloist with the UBS Chamber Orchestra and Manfred Honeck playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto, as well as playing duo and chamber recitals with friends and colleagues.

Kavakos will also play two concerts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer with the Dvorak Concerto, first at the Rheingau Festival in Wiesbaden and then at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in Bad Kissingen.

Earlier in the month, he will give a recital in the Concertgebouw Main Hall with pianist Enrico Pace as part of the Robeco Series in a programme of Beethoven, Shostakovich and Strauss.

Heinrich Schiff will appear with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert in Vail this month, playing Shostakovich's first cello concerto.

David Alden will direct Handel's Radamisto at Santa Fe Opera this season. The cast list includes David Daniels, Laura Claycomb and Christine Rice and the premiere will be on 19 July and conducted by Harry Bicket.

This summer, Intermusica looks forward to bringing the Netherlands Opera to the BBC Proms for a special centenary semi-staged production of Messiaen's St Francoise of Assisi.

Performed in French by a strong international cast, Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of the Netherlands Opera in Pierre Audi's new colossal and dramatic production. Consisting of an all-male cast with exception for the solo female (Heidi Grant Murphy) who plays the role of the Angel, Rodney Gilfry takes the lead as St Francis and tenor Henk Neven plays Brother Leo.

Already in production in the Netherlands, the Opera has been receiving some excellent reviews:

"Happily, Netherlands Opera's reliably high quality visuals were matched by a truly wonderful cast. [...] It is hard to over-praise Ingo Metzmacher and his superb Resident Orchestra for their thrilling reading of this gigantic score."
James Sohre, Opera Today, 9 June 2008

"Pierre Audi's staging strives for an atmosphere of holy awe, with Jean Kalman's sets providing mountains of crosses and a mood of ascetic austerity."
Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, 4 June 2008

A pre-concert talk with Messiaen scholars Peter Hill, Nigel Simeone and Pierre Audi will be recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 during the first interval of the performance.

Mikhail Agrest makes his debut with Opera Australia this month conducting Don Giovanni.

Martyn Brabbins conducts the London Sinfonietta at the BBC Proms this month after making a welcome return to the Cheltenham Festival.

Colin Currie premieres a new work for percussion and string quartet with the Pavel Haas Quartet at the City of London Festival during July. The new work Since Brass, nor Stone by Alexander Goehr was commissioned by the BBC and takes inspiration from a Shakespeare sonnet. Later this month Currie also performs at the BBC Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thierry Fischer in Messiaen's La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ in the first of two Proms this summer. Next month he returns to the Proms to perform Stockhausen's Kontakte for percussion, piano and electronics with Nic Hodges as part of a Stockhausen tribute day.

"A display of utter magic"
The Scotsman

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Music Director Riccardo Chailly stunned audiences at the Barbican last month, with a programme of Tchaikovsky, Pärt and Brahms Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos. The concert formed part of a wider European tour which included performances in La Scala, Vienna, Glasgow and Paris, where they continue their three-year relationship at the Salle Pleyel.

"At one extreme, Kavakos held the audience with his hushed intensity; at the other, he dug into the last movement’s Hungarian gypsy rhythms and made them burn with urgency."
Financial Times

"In the fury and nostalgia of Tchaikovsky's symphony the Gewandhaus-Chailly combination was irresistible."
The Times

Intermusica is delighted to be in partnership with Chailly and the Gewandhaus for a three-concert residency at the Barbican in the 2008/09 season, commencing in the Autumn. Programme highlights include Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.

Marin Alsop records new works by Michael Daugherty for Naxos with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra this month. Selected by BBC Music Magazine as CD of the Month (July 2008), Marin's recent Naxos recording of Dvorak's Symphony No.9 was described as “a performance that forces one to listen to the work anew... one of the most convincing readings I have heard... a superb issue."

Visit the Naxos website to keep an eye out for forthcoming releases.

Andrew Kennedy will appear in this year's BBC Proms on 19 July singing Finzi's Intimations of Immortality with BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel. Later on in the month on 31 July Andrew returns to the London concert platform to sing in the 'Love in Mozart' concert with the Classical Opera Company at the Barbican. Ian Page will conduct and the programme includes a selection of famous Mozart arias.

On 11 July Renata Pokupic will sing Dido in Purcell's masterpiece Dido and Aeneas with the Gabrieli Consort & Players conducted by Paul McCreesh at the Beaune Festival in France. Ronan Collett will sing Aeneas.

Intermusica were delighted to bring the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivàn Fischer back to London to perform at the Royal Festival Hall recently. Presenting an exciting programme which included Stravinsky's Firebird suite, the orchestra were joined by cellist Pieter Wispelwey playing Dvorak. A live 2006 recording of the concerto (with Wispelwey) was recently released on the Channel Classics label (with whom the BFO have a long and successful relationship) winning great critical acclaim.

Intermusica's next UK project with the BFO will be a main-season return in October 2008 for the start of the Orchestra's 25th Anniversary season, giving concerts in the Royal Festival Hall, Bridgewater Hall and Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.

“Dvorák was represented by three of his most exquisite miniatures and by an epic performance of the Cello Concerto...With Fischer at his most incisive, the orchestral sound was turbulent and beguiling - in short, a terrific interpretation that changed the way we think about the piece itself.”
The Guardian

"Stravinsky’s aurally voluptuous Firebird could almost have been written for the BFO, and its realisation of the score’s languorous exoticism in shimmering string textures and golden brass colour made this an unforgettable experience."
Evening Standard

On 26 July Sarah Tynan will sing Servilla La Clemenza di Tito with Edward Gardner and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Barbican. Other members of the cast include Alice Coote, Hillevi Martinpelto, Fiona Murphy, Toby Spence and Matthew Rose. The concert is part of the Mostly Mozart Festival and the company will later perform in the Lincoln Center Theater, New York, in early August.

Jun Märkl travels to Japan to conduct the Mito Chamber Orchestra and will conduct Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony at the Pacific Music Festival.

On 24 July Angela Hewitt will give a special performance of Book 1 of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. She will perform this in its entirety in the church where Bach was married in Dornheim, Germany as part of the MDR Musiksommer Festival. Other major German Festivals Hewitt appears in this month include the Rheingau Festival and the Europaische Wochen Passau.

This month Brett Dean performs his Viola Concerto with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Paul Mann, and while in Kuala Lumpur he also leads a masterclass for local string students.

On 16 July Susan Bickley will give a recital called 'Ballades et Histoires' at the Buxton Festival with Fiona McSherry on the piano. The programme will include songs by Ravel, Hahn and Caplet.

Marek Janowski returns to the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich this month as part of the Zürich Festival for two different programmes. The first is of Mahler Symphony No.10, Webern Six Pieces and Strauss Sinfonia Domestica, the second of Ives The Unanswered Question, Webern Im Sommerwind and Busoni Piano Concerto with soloist Marc-André Hamelin.

The London Symphony Orchestra travelled to Salle Pleyel last month for the last of their residency concerts there this season. Receiving rapturous applause for their performance of Mozart and Strauss, this was the Orchestra's second visit of the residency with Bernard Haitink, who conducted their very first concerts during the hall's opening week. The LSO's ongoing success in Paris continues into the 2008/09 season with the start of Gergiev's Prokofiev cycle in the Autumn, featuring Leonidas Kavakos and Vladimir Feltsmann.

Click on the links below to listen to live excerpts of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner performing Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture, and Valery Gergiev performing Mahler’s Symphony No.7. Both recordings were taken live at the Salle Pleyel this season as part of the Orchestra’s ongoing residency.

Richard Hickox continues his series of some 20 concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and across the UK, presenting the entire cycle of Vaughan Williams Symphonies to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. As part of the series, he conducted two semi-staged performances on 20 and 22 June of Vaughan Williams’ rarely performed opera Pilgrim’s Progress at Sadler’s Wells, also with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Click here for more details

Vuyani Mlinde will sing in the Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Concert on 20 July. He will perform extracts of Bartolo Le nozze di Figaro, La Roche Capriccio and Don Profundo Il Viaggio a Reims.

Ashley Holland will appear as Count Eberbach in Lortzing's The Poacher at the Buxton Festival. The opening night will be on 10 July, Festival Artistic Director Andrew Greenwood will conduct.

"Conductor-less and standing up throughout, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, with never more than 16 players on the platform at any one time, played with practised refinement...The concerto for violin and oboe, featuring the orchestra's leader Katharina Schreiber and its outstanding oboist Katharina Arfken, was the orchestral highlight of the concert..." The Guardian

Following their major success in London in the Spring, Intermusica is delighted to be touring the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra to the USA and Canada this month, for three exciting festival performances at the renowned Tanglewood Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival as well as Le Festival International de Lanaudière in Joliette, Canada. Soloists include the baritone Christian Gerhaher and critically acclaimed pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, clarinetist Lorenzo Coppola and horn player Teunis van der Zwart. Gerhaher and Bezuidenhout make their debut performances at the Lincoln Center in this eclectic all-Mozart programme which shall include the Fortepiano Concerto No.20 in D minor K466 and Non Più andrais from Le Nozze di Figaro.

Click on the link below to hear an extract from Haydn’s Symphony No. 92 in G Major recorded on the Harmonia Mundi label (HMC901849):

This month Baldur Brönnimann makes his return to the Auckland Philharmonia, conducting two all-Beethoven programmes including Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 and the 'Emperor' Piano Concerto with soloist Bernd Glemser.

Michal Dworzynski records Haydn and Brahms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra this month; his second appearance with the orchestra this season.

The Choir of Kings College, Cambridge have continued their touring momentum with UK engagements at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The choir were delighted to be asked to open the festival in Norwich Cathedral in a performance which included the exuberant Haydn Nelson Mass. In Manchester, the choir were joined by the Academy of Ancient Music in a programme including Zadok the Priest and Vivaldi’s Gloria. Later this summer, they travel to both Stresa and Aldeburgh festivals to perform a varied programme of works by Purcell, Britten, Gibbons and Weelkes.

In a recent interview with Manchester’s Evening News, Stephen Cleobury commented on his continuing enthusiasm and energy for his role as choirmaster:

“I'm still enjoying it hugely. I still want to go on learning about how to do the job and how to make it better." 

Click on the following link to hear an extract from Alleluia, I Heard a Voice, taken from their most recent release I Heard a Voice: The Music of the Golden Age on EMI Classics:

This month the Pavel Haas Quartet will perform two concerts at the City of London Festival. The first concert will be a performance of the Mendelssohn Octet with the Quatour Ebene, in the second they will be joined by percussionist Colin Currie to premiere a specially commissioned work by Alexander Goehr for percussion and quartet. The Quartet will also appear at the Cheltenham Festival, playing the Schubert Quintet in C with cellist Danjulo Ishizaka and perform at the Brinkburn Festival.