IThis year has had many endings and few beginnings. Mark Elder leaves Halle after 24 years as Music Director of Manchester Orchestra, during which time he has guided the group to new heights. Kirill Karabits He has completed a 15-year term as Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Judith Weir's ten years as Master of Royal Music have come to an end (erolyn warren I'm wearing that crown now). radio 3 Sean Rafferty I stopped using In Tune headphones after 28 years. Roger Wright will curate the final Aldeburgh Festival, while David Picard steps down from his role as director of the BBC Proms.
Picard oversaw one of the most entertaining Proms seasons in recent years, even if there were significantly fewer star-studded international orchestras than there were a decade ago. Naysayers bemoaned the eight-week festival's non-classical elements, including a Nick Drake tribute, Tinariwen and Florence's late-night desert blues, and The Machine's frenetic 2009 debut Rungs. It was packed with performances and other events to bring in a new audience, something everyone was concerned about. At the top of their game.
But it was the core classic event that provided the biggest thrills. Klaus Makela (28) from Finland conducted a shocking performance of Stravinsky's Petrushka and Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique, with the audience listening to every note. Proms regulars Aurora Orchestra created magic once again with an imaginative, mesmerizing and dramatic exploration of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The drama was also a half-performance of Nesia Jones' keenly observed production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for Garsington Opera, starring Lucy Crowe as the domineering Titania.
The 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth took place at the Royal Albert Hall, with performances including Simon Rattle's elegant commentary on Symphony No. 4 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Gateshead's Glasshouse Music Center reached its peak as early as March with its ambitious Big Bruckner Weekend. Five concerts were presented with Halle, BBC Scottish and the Liverpool Philharmonic, including the last three symphonies as well as his Great Mass and String Quintet. Vladimir Jurowski's fresh, effortless live recording of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony became one of the year's top releases.
Mahler's symphonies were also rarely performed far from the concert venue. In October, Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the London Symphony Orchestra despite suffering from a brain tumor and gave a passionate and uplifting rendition of his Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.'' The following month, 97-year-old Herbert Blomstedt also seemed to defy his doctors with a charming performance of the composer's Ninth with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Daniel Barenboim was also a very welcome but timid visitor to the Southbank Center and the Proms with his West Eastern Divan Orchestra. Also at the SBC, the London Philharmonic Orchestra gave a wide range of concerts under principal conductor Edward Gardner, who showed that his predecessor Jurowski was not so difficult to follow after all.
This year, English National Opera's own drama was thankfully reserved for the stage. Simon McBurney's lively and warm revival of The Magic Flute captivated opera novices and veterans alike. In November, the company unveiled plans for its second home in Manchester, Glass' Einstein on the Beach, and frontline support efforts, with two new buildings at the Colosseum under artistic director Annelies Miskimon. Introduced directing: a style that incorporated Britten's “The Turn of the Screw'' and “The Lurkey Land Girls'' and Donizetti's Elixir of Love.
However, it was the concert production that most pleased the critics. In a restraining and shocking indictment of institutional abuse past and present, Miskinmon takes Puccini's tragedy of faith and human cruelty, Suor Angelica, from a 17th-century Florentine convent to 1960s Ireland. It was moved to one of the Magdalene washrooms. Sinead Campbell-Wallace as Angelica and Kristin Rice as her tortured, moralistic aunt each give unforgettable performances.
At Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano ended his 22-year tenure as music director on a high, with the thrilling Andrea Chénier. Jakub Hrúša is scheduled to pick up the baton in September 2025. Ted Huffman's zeitgeist and iconoclastic take on Eugene Onegin divided critics, but all agreed that: Liparit AbeticianLensky was outstanding. Puccini's 100th anniversary was celebrated with performances of La Boheme, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Pappano kept the party going in his new role with the London Symphony Orchestra, where he led a talented corps in a stunning concert performance of the composer's little-known “La Rondine.”
I haven't seen much new music this year. Francisco Col's Cello Concerto, composed for Sol Gabetta, stood out among the new Proms commissions. It was a glorious achievement, packed with a rainbow of detail in four concise movements. Elsewhere, Freya Waley-Cohen created the witty and original song cycle Spellbook and the LPO commission Mother Tongue, while Anna Klein joined Atlas in conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. , produced some of the most distinctive and memorable new works.
Violinist Vilde Frang's wonderfully expressive playing made his concert with Arcangelo and soprano Julia Doyle at Tetbury Festival one of the live highlights of this year. And her revelatory and authoritative reading of Elgar's Violin Concerto makes her recording (with Robin Ticciati and Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin) our Disc of the Year. “From the first note to the last, Fran never misses a beat,” wrote Andrew Clements.
The Welsh National Opera also did not give up an inch. The collaboration with No Fit State Circus combines Britten's breathtaking circus skills to create an extraordinary and unforgettable production of Death in Venice. How sad, then, that the WNO, with its vital funding dwindling, may no longer be in a position to sustain the uncompromising work for which it has always been praised.
