Classical music

It's been an 80-year tradition for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to give New Year's concert dedicated to the music of the Strauss family, renowned for waltzes including "The Beautiful Blue Danube" and "Radetsky March."

The Athens State Orchestra will be on stage at the Athens Concert Hall on Saturday, December 21, for a very special evening filled with the spirit of Christmas. The program on the night comprises Cantatas 1, 2 and 3 from one of Johann Sebastian Bach's most popular works, the Christmas Oratorio.

The Turkish Opera and Ballet will stage Puccini's classic Madama Butterfly next week in Antalya, on the Turkish Mediterranean.

The Ankara State Opera and Ballet (ADOB) will greet art lovers with the "Swan Lake" ballet, which was composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875 and staged for the first time at the Bolshoi Stage in 1877.

Turkish composer and musicologist Ahmet Adnan Saygun will be commemorated at a concert in Istanbul.

Greek National Opera Ballet director Constantinos Rigos takes a fresh approach to Tchaikovsky's all-time classic "Swan Lake" in a brand-new version in which the pioneering choreographer moves the action to a post-apocalyptic world where the characters are environmental refugees.

The concert of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, with conductor Tugan Sokhiev, concluded Sunday evening at the Palace Hall, the most extensive edition of the George Enescu International Festival thus far, after a 23-day musical marathon, with 84 concerts in Bucharest.

Composer and improvisational pianist Jean-Francois Zygel stated that he desires for the show that he will play on Wednesday in the square of the George Enescu Festival to be a "musical transcript of the city of Bucharest". He will play together with Damian Draghici. The improvisational concert, which will take place in front of the Romanian Athenaeum is called "The Music of Bucharest".

The Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra took to the stage for a special festival in Berlin, Germany on July 24 night.

Hailed as one of the greatest living choreographers, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has created a performance for Bach's Six Cello Suites, which she is bringing to Athens just days after Yo-Yo Ma presented his take on the series in the Greek capital.