Rian Evans

Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith
Pianists Hill and Frith’s February recital of Messiaen and Stravinsky – serenity and resonance – at Cardiff’s School of Music still stands out. Read the full review

Britten-Pears Orchestra/Knussen, Aldeburgh festival
At Aldeburgh, Oliver Knussen, all precision, conducted the Britten-Pears Orchestra in Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee. Knussen’s birthday tribute to his teacher became a memorial. Read the full review

I Puritani: WNO, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Annilese Miksimmon’s WNO production of Bellini’s I Puritani made dramatic sense and Rosa Feola’s gorgeous singing of the unhinged Elivra made it super-memorable. Read the full review

Alfred Hickling

Krzysztof Penderecki/RNCM Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall Manchester
At 82 years old, Krzysztof Penderecki came to Manchester in June to receive an honorary doctorate from the Royal Northern College of Music. While he was at it, he conducted the student orchestra in the first ever British performance of his mammoth Seventh Symphony (actually more of a thundering Old Testament oratorio) the Seven Gates of Jerusalem. Read the full review

The Dream of Gerontius, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Vasily Petrenko Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic celebrated its 175th-anniversary season in style but, natural showman that he is, Vasily Petrenko saved the best till last. Petrenko isn’t the first Russian to find an affinity with Elgar; but having conquered the symphonies, his annexation of the great choral works is a thrilling prospect. The keys to the Kingdom must soon be his. Read the full review

Kiss Me Kate: Opera North, Grand Theatre Leeds
Opera North has never been sniffy about musicals: though even a company renowned for its dalliances with Kern, Rodgers and Gershwin had never entered Cole Porter’s dizzy orbit before. Jo Davies’s production deftly combined lightness of touch with an impressive weight of resources. OK, it wasn’t an opera. But I defy anyone to tell me it wasn’t operatic. Read the full review

Martin Kettle

Mastersingers of Nuremberg: ENO, Coliseum
Richard Jones’s production was even better at the Coliseum in February than when it was unveiled in Cardiff in 2010. And if Edward Gardner’s conducting didn’t quite match Daniel Barenboim’s near definitive version in Berlin in October, this was the best homegrown Mastersingers in a generation, and a fitting capstone to Gardner’s years at the Coliseum. Read the full review

Le Roi Arthus, Opéra Bastille, Paris
Ernest Chausson’s Arthurian opera waited more than 100 years for its Paris premiere. But Philippe Jordan’s conducting and Roberto Alagna’s admirable Lancelot made the case for this neglected post-Wagnerian treasure, spoiled only by an underwhelming Graham Vick production. Read the full review

Elgar Symphony No 2, Berlin Staatskapelle/Barenboim, Royal Festival Hall
Every Daniel Barenboim visit to London is important, but this impassioned reading of Elgar’s second, preceded by Lisa Batiashvili’s scintillating account of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, was superbly conceived and wonderfully played by Berlin’s “other” orchestra. Read the full review

Erica Jeal

Benjamin Grosvenor’s debut Barbican recital
What a pleasure to witness a prodigy develop so quickly into a mature performer with something to say. Grosvenor’s playing of Chopin, Rameau and others was always searching, always alive. Read the full review.

Shostakovich 15: Carducci Quartet at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
All 15 Shostakovich quartets, played end to end in the candlelit seclusion of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse: this was a test of stamina for the players, and a revelation for the audience. Read the full review

Michael Tilson Thomas, Jeremy Denk and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at the Proms
A joyous programme from Michael Tilson Thomas and his own, formidable orchestra, centring on Henry Cowell’s fabulous, rarely heard Piano Concerto, played by Jeremy Denk with hands, elbows and fists. Read the full review

Kate Molleson

Éliane Radigue at Tectonics Glasgow
Britain’s hippest orchestral festival featured the exquisitely slow sounds of Éliane Radigue, pioneer of synthesiser long-form. Read the full review

St Matthew Passion at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow
They do it every year and it only gets better each time: bags of charisma and lithe, lucid storytelling from John Butt and the Dunedin Consort. Read the full review

Pekka Kuusisto’s Nielsen with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Raucous, unshackled playing that stripped right back to Nielsen’s folk roots and reminded us how concerto form can still sound totally fresh. Read the full review