Shock and awe: our critics pick the best live-action classics of 2025 | classical music

I was only able to listen to live music for less than three months this year, but among the few events I attended was one of the most notable operatic performances I have heard in over 40 years. Commissioned by the Royal Opera, and based on the film and play of the same name by Thomas Vinterberg, Festen was Marc-Anthony Turnage’s fifth large-scale opera, and clearly showed how the emphatic dramatic instincts revealed by his first theatrical works, The Greek and the Silver Tassie, had matured into an operatic language of enormous power and flexibility. Not a word of Lee Hall’s script is wasted in revealing the dark family secrets revealed at a 60th birthday party, while Turnage’s wonderfully varied and harsh score never takes a wrong step. The horror of the drama is emphasized relentlessly by Richard Jones’s production, with a cast that makes every role terribly believable. The best British opera in half a century? probably. Andrew Clements

Beethoven with a riot of colors and freshness

Some highlights are more predictable than others. The Australian Chamber Orchestra has been wowing audiences for half a century, with Richard Tognetti as its maverick conductor for 35 years. But even this track record couldn’t prepare me for the raw energy of the ACO’s latest UK outing at the Barbican in March with a program of Bach, Shostakovich and Gubaidulina. The concert began while the world-class string players were still marching, their balance of artistic control and creative freedom absolutely in control from the first contact of bow to string. A few months later, the Aldeburgh Festival provided the most memorable discovery of my year, when the Gildas Quartet premiered Colin Matthews’ String Quartet No. 6 alongside Bridge’s Three Idylls and Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’ Third Quartet. It was the latter that stayed with me above all else – such a riot of color and intense freshness that it seemed like another first performance. Flora Wilson

Energizing Janacek and Wagner’s magician

I’ve spent some wonderful evenings at the Royal Opera House this year. By the time I met Festen, I had heard glowing things about him from all directions, and I was not disappointed. Katie Mitchell’s production of Janacek’s The Makropulos Case was not universally loved, but for me, her reimagining of the story was invigorating: I found myself deeply rooted in the anti-heroine’s centuries-old song, as sung by Osren Stundit, and excited by the orchestral sound – Jakob Hrscha’s tenure as company music director got off to a good start. And in May, the orchestra played splendidly before its former principal, Antonio Pappano, when he returned to perform Die Walküre, the second part of Wagner’s Ring cycle. There are magical touches to Barry Koski’s stage, not least the enchanting presence of Erda, the earth goddess. I can’t wait until Siegfried in March to see what happens to her next. Erica Jill

Honoring Palestrina and Barthes

Images of violinist Caroline Weidmann, recently forced to fly by airline staff with her prized Guadaganini plane wrapped in a jacket on her lap, its empty trunk in the hold, were hardly credible. However, it was a powerful reminder for me of Widmann’s stunning playing – on this particular instrument – of her brother Jörg’s Violin Concerto in the BBCNOW concert he conducted. A truly exhilarating performance.

At St George’s, Bristol, the Thales Students’ Concert to celebrate Palestrina’s 500th anniversary and Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday, a model of clarity and elegant line, was one of two outstanding choral programmes. I Fagiolini, in the other, paid homage to Orazio Benevoli, the wonderful resonator who adds to the beautiful sound of the place.

Pianist Tamara Stefanovic’s virtuosity in contemporary and 19th-century music is undisputed, so her Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s performance of music by the Bach family – Johann Sebastian, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian – was extraordinary, authoritative and unforgettable. Ryan Evans

Shostakovich ulcers

There was a real sense of freshness and innovation in the air this year. The Southbank Centre’s inaugural Multititudes festival has proven to be a stimulating mix of artistic cross-pollination. The London Philharmonic Orchestra collaborated with the Australian Circa Ensemble in a death-defying acrobatic rendition of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, while Vasily Petrenko’s stunning account of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony is complemented by thought-provoking images from artistic director Kirill Serebrennikov and video artist Ilya Shagalov.

On stage, Annilese Miskimmmon’s brutally faithful production of Dead Man Walking, directed by Jake Heggie, was the first fully professional presentation of the work in the UK. English National Opera presented an outstanding cast led by Christine Rice who brought enormous emotional reserves to Sister Helen Prejean, the nun at the heart of this story of truth, love, mercy and redemption. Finally, Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra showed why they are perhaps the best orchestra on the planet playing Beethoven and Bartok at this year’s BBC Concerts. Clive Paget

Somehow, the creative genius of performance survives

Classical music is in a “long-term battle for survival,” says Simon Rattle. It definitely is. And yet, despite Arts Council England’s war on excellence in the name of its curdled theory of anti-elitism, the creative genius of performance somehow remains. In February, the Regent’s Opera staged a magnificent Wagner Ring cycle in an east London boxing hall with reduced forces and a retreating orchestra of 22 under Ben Woodward. In November, the Gothic opera was saved by no less, Offenbach’s Die Rheinnixen, which contains much of the music that would appear again in Hoffmann’s tales. Both were a triumph of talent, commitment and resourcefulness. Both overcame endless practical challenges. Neither of them received a penny from the ACE coffers. “We will do it because we have to,” Woodward wrote. Heroic words. Musicians across the UK continue to create marvels amidst the prevailing political and societal trend. But they – and the global need for live music – deserve much better. Martin Kettle