Rossini in romantic comedies and Feldman in football: the best classical music and opera of 2021 | Classical music

A group of thousands of people held our breath

I was a huge fan of the recording of Pavel Kolesnikov’s Goldberg Variations, and it was a pleasure to once again be part of a fairly large and focused audience of the Proms to hear him perform the work, the same but different. , at the Royal Albert Hall. I missed the feeling of being part of a group of thousands of collectively holding our breath. Yet what is more striking than seeing big events return is the way some smaller ones seized their chance: events such as the Oxford Lieder Festival, which continued with a huge program comprising of exciting new orders, efficiently delivered to the online audience and those in the room. In the face of the double whammy of Covid and Brexit, the resilience of the music business even in the face of canceled meetings of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports, clumsy press releases and general indifference has been Something. Erica Jeal

Lyric comedies were like balm for the soul

Italian lyric comedies, understandably perhaps, seemed like a balm for the soul coming out of lockdown. Rossini was in the foreground, with Glyndebourne delivering a dazzling new production of Mariame Clément’s Il Turco in Italia, while Garsington gave us the wacky version of Cal McCrystal on the wonderfully saucy Le Comte Ory. Beautifully directed by Julia Burbach of L’Amico Fritz, the sweet and sweet romantic comedy by Mascagni was Opera Holland Park’s choice, a perfect summer evening for a company that found an almost ideal solution to distancing social, with its open auditorium and mobile seating. Once the full audience returned, however, the lack of clear Covid guidelines resulted in confusion, with sites applying different policies regarding the issuance of paper tickets or e-tickets, print or downloadable programs, and – until recently – whether the wearing of masks should be compulsory or optional. We could really do with more consistency. Tim ashley

Nicola Benedetti has been a dynamic advocate for music education

In a year that has seen both misery and euphoria on a sometimes epic scale, it would be too easy to gloss over the heroes of classical music who run around every day. Along with the administrators who made performance possible in a world of ever-changing legislation and you-the-judge guidelines, we should celebrate the teachers who have continued to thrill musicians of all ages through masks and l isolation, through questionable wifi connections and multiple time zones. Few prominent artists have shown a more concrete commitment to the cause than Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti: During the lockdown, she Benedetti Foundation The “virtual sessions” involved over 7,000 participants and she remains a dynamic advocate for the vital importance of music education. Is it a coincidence that in July the Scottish government announced free musical instrument lessons for all students in 2021-2022? May be. But Westminster could certainly learn urgent lessons about the cultural reestablishment of such leadership. Flora Willson

Small local venues have taken off

With transportation and large venues causing health problems, small local venues have taken off. Local amateur musicians deserve medals for what they have achieved under uncertainty. Who needs London when I could walk 15 minutes from home to hear Steven Osborne in Crumb, Debussy and Beethoven? Equally special was Paul Lewis playing Scriabin and Mussorgsky in Amersham with an abandon that I had never heard from him before. Guy Johnston is too short Fall Chamber Music Festival at Hatfield House ran both close: a brahms cheerful piano quartet and a beautiful premiere by Joseph Phibbs. My main scarecrow this year was the same as 2020: not understanding how our expensive “smart” TV can pick up live performances, although I caught Roger Norrington’s inimitable goodbye Gateshead in time. My unparalleled highlight in 2021, however, was the Takács Quartet playing Janáček’s second string quartet at Wigmore Hall so intense that it even eclipsed their late Beethoven after the interval.
Martin Kettle

Turnage’s wacky and exuberant tribute to Arsenal

It’s hard to imagine two concert venues less alike than Snape Maltings in midsummer, with the sun setting over the marshes, and the Barbican Center in London in November, filled with football fans wearing their tribal colors, but both provided very memorable musical experiences. Juliet Fraser’s performance of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices, her voice meshing hypnotically around two recorded versions, created a magical twilight experience in Snape, while at the Barbican Arsenal fans relived the excitement of winning the league on the last day of the 1989 season as the BBC Symphony Orchestra created Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Up for Grabs, a score that is by turns dramatic, elegiac and exuberant delusion. At least since resuming concert life in May, the BBCSO has maintained its commitment to new and rediscovered works; too many programs elsewhere have opted for caution. Why should suspicious spectators be more tempted to return to live concerts to hear routine performances of all too familiar symphonies and concertos, rather than music that might be new to them escapes me. André Clement

Tabita Berglund’s Beethoven blew up the cobwebs

Back in the concert hall after what seemed like an eternity, Tabita Berglund’s shattering Beethoven 7 with the Hallé Orchestra was enough to blow up the cobwebs. Apart from that, praise must go to organizations that have proven their essential community function while others have gone eerily silent – Manchester Camerata and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, bow out. Green programs really took off this year, as the immediacy of the climate crisis slowly took hold on groups. A few have awkwardly integrated environmental themes into existing works (Repackaging Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to cope with the climate emergency? Come on). As the need for sustainability becomes increasingly evident, is the best answer we can come up with really a flow of single-use works that are draining resources? Hugh morris

Intimate and fascinating semi-semi-staging by Wagner

English National Opera’s recent Valkyrie has attracted attention, with some reporting the grief of members of the Wagner Society that the conductor Antoine Negus had been refused his one-time meeting at the Colosseum. He was reinstated, but their initial outrage was understandable. Negus, genius chairman of the Longborough festival opera Die Walküre, spoke of an unforgettable, intimate and compelling evening, despite a semi-semi-staging with socially distant singers. As Siegmund, Peter Wedd was a vocally and physically imposing presence, rare for tenentors to be so gracious. My other great experience dates back just a few days: John Woolrich’s Viola Concerto performed by Timothy Ridout with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, incredibly beautiful and moving. At 26, Ridout is an incredible talent. But we must have a thought for the young emerging whose work has simply disappeared thanks to the pandemic. Faced perhaps never quite making the career ladder, their complaints desperately need to be heard. Rian evans