What were your musical highlights of 2012?

[Lateralthinking1]

Please don't slap me down for this, but I actually enjoyed the music in the Olympic Opening Ceremony!

I will take Errollyn Wallen - Spirit of Hope/Principia - at The Paralympics Ceremony. I was determined not to enjoy the rest of the Olympics and for the most part I succeeded. I understand that tens of Legacy Committees aren't at all bothered about legacy issues or are perhaps officially "uncertain". I doubt that anyone needed to read it in the tea leaves. It was obvious from day one.

[pastoralguy]

For me, meeting Ida Haendel at the Wigmore Hall on February 23rd. I have the photos to prove it!

How such a small left hand is capable of such stunning playing is amazing.

[MrGongGong]

Now that we are right at the end
I have to admit that after starting the year with a spell in intensive care
the real musical highlight for me was hearing a fairly big piece of my own being played by one of the London orchestras
not because of it's quality (lots of things I want to change) but more that I had some moments at the start of 2012 where I thought that it really was the end of my involvement in music...........

apart from that

Hearing for the first time a piece by a 15 year old that I had encouraged him to write played by the OROH with Tony Pappano conducting.......one of the most moving musical experiences I have ever had.

[Simon B]

As all-too-often I'm hopelessly late to the party... Still, clearing up the residual paper detritus of 2012 today prompted me to go through the pile of shriveling tickets, do a bit of arithmetic and recall the real highlights with the benefit of some distance.

With alarm I find that I was a punter at 74 concerts/operas (46 London incl. 18 Proms, 9 Birmingham, 7 Liverpool, 6 Manchester, 3 Hereford, 2 Cardiff, 1 Edinburgh). I don't expect to ever be able to do that again unless non-availability of work again forces me back to short term contracts in the London area...

Inevitably, a lot of them haven't left much lasting impression but this makes ten of the best stand out more strongly:

• RLPO/Petrenko: Shostakovich 7, Liverpool
• CBSO/Nelsons: Strauss Tod und Verklarung/Also Sprach Zarathustra, Birmingham
• ENO/Gardner: Strauss Der Rosenkavalier
• LPO/Elder: Elgar 1, RFH
• Opera North/Farnes: Wagner Die Walkure, Birmingham (excellent playing and singing in a fantastic acoustic, with abstract semi-staging blissfully free of directorial excrescence)
• Hallé et al/Elder: Elgar Apostles, Proms (a bigger chorus, plus the grandeur of the RAH organ and the setting meant I preferred this to the Manchester performance)
• RLPO/Petrenko: Shostakovich 10, Proms
• BBCSSO/Manze: RVW 5 (only 5 was truly exceptional IMO), Proms
• BBCSO et al/Adams: Adams Nixon in China, Proms (worth the entrance fee for Kathleen Kim's vocal acrobatics alone)
• ENO/Brabbins: RVW Pilgrim's Progress (the difficulties of staging it weren't really overcome and probably can't be, but musically outstanding)

If I had to pick just one it would be the RLPO/Petrenko Shostakovich 7. The Naxos recordings (despite good reviews, several of these are technically inadequate recordings of very good performances IMO) don't come near capturing the power of on-form RLPO/Petrenko Shostakovich in the excellent and immediate acoustic of Philharmonic Hall.

Picking this one also creates a neat symmetry with my choice of "Wrongest review of the year" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...ol-review.html). While "other subjective opinions are available" is of course the guiding principle in these matters I can't help thinking that more musicians than might admit it would enjoy the comment below the review in the Torygraph where a loyal supporter offers (hopefully in jest, but it's far from clear!) to settle his difference of opinion with Fanning over 3 rounds at a Toxteth boxing gym!

[Simon]

a loyal supporter offers (hopefully in jest, but it's far from clear!) to settle his difference of opinion with Fanning over 3 rounds at a Toxteth boxing gym!

Good link - thanks - but oh dear! Thereby confirming the stereotype that violence settles arguments in the 'pool.

I often find the comments after these articles as fascinating as the reviews, if not more so. Especially the ones that disagree with the reviewer...

[Beef Oven]

My highlight was Nezet Seguin's segued Christus Factus Est/symphony#9/Te Deum in London in February.

Ken Ward of the Bruckner Journal review:-

http://www.bachtrack.com/review-lpo-nezet-seguin-bruckner-ninth-symphony-te-deum

[Serial_Apologist]

The Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, at the Cadogan Hall Chamber prom on August 27th.

[Bryn]

Though Feldman's String Quartet Number 2 (Smith Quartet, Glasgow City Halls), and For Philip Guston (John Tilbury, Carla Rees & Simon Allen, Huddersfield) were pretty special, it's the Cage Prom which tops the list for me, curate's egg as it was.