What was your best live music of 2024?
UncategorizedLooking back at my year, three summits stand out as unique and unrepeatable.
1 The return of Murray Perahia on Neville Marriner’s 100th birthday, at the Wigmore Hall, London.
2 La voix humaine and Erwartung at the Teatro Real Madrid – a stunning realisation of two monodramas.
3 Michael Tilson Thomas miraculously conducting Mahler’s Resurrection.
So what were yours?
(If we get enough responses, we might make a chart).
1. Semyon Bychkov conducting the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonic Choir in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass at Carnegie Hall.
2. Andris Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a host of soloists in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at Symphony Hall Boston.
3. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, his own Cello Concerto with Senja Rummukainen, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 with the Cleveland Orchestra.
I attended your first two and they were superb.
Two concerts [Bruckner 5 and Rachmaninoff/Korngold/Dvorak] by the Berliner Philharmoniker at Carnegie.
Frau Ohne Schatten at the Met with Isaccha Savage singing the Emperor.
The highlight of 2024 for me was hearing the wonderful Leonkoro Quartet give the world premiere of Judith Weir’s String Quartet No. 2 (“The Spaniard”) at Snape Maltings in June. With its elusive allusions to Beethoven and Britten, this magnificent piece reminds us that the string quartet genre is alive and kicking in the 21st century.
1. The MET’s Die Frau Ohne Schatten – the extraordinary Strauss score rendered by a first-rate cast, the MET’s peerless orchestra under YNS, and the awesome production capacity of the MET combined for a truly impactful experience.
2. Gianandrea Noseda conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in Otello- the NSO has long been an ensemble of fine players that didn’t always jell. Everything jelled here.
3. Manfred Honeck conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner 9 – need one say more?
And opera From Sydney
1 Hamlet (Dean) Opera Australia
2 Julius Caesar (Handel) Pinchgut
3 Watershed: The death of Dr Duncan (Twist) Opera Australia
I reside in Salt Lake City, Utah, and have attended the main Utah Symphony concert series (labeled “Masterworks” by the marketing and communications section of the organization) for 25 seasons, since the 2000-2001 season. Each of these programs has two concerts (on Friday and then Saturday), with an occasional three-concert series, when a Thursday concert takes place in Ogden, Orem, Provo, or Logan, Utah.
My top four best live orchestral music experiences of 2024 all involve the Utah Symphony — I rarely travel.
January 12-13, 2024, with Donald Runnicles (in his Utah Symphony debut) leading Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture, the world premiere of Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto (‘The World of Yesterday,’ with Hough as soloist), and Vaughan Williams’ 5th Symphony.
Transcendentally compelling — and saturated with atmosphere.
February 15-17, 2024, with former associate conductor Connor Gray Covington leading Haydn’s Symphony No. 88, the world premiere of Quinn Mason’s Trombone Concerto (with Mark Davidson, principal trombone, as soloist), Strauss’ Don Juan, and Barber’s Symphony No.1.
Mason’s trombone concerto should become part of the standard repertoire for trombone concertos — accessible and compelling, both rhythmically and lyrically.
May 17-18, 2024, with Delyana Lazarova (filling in for Elena Schwarz, but months in advance), also in her Utah Symphony debut, now the newly announced principal guest conductor (beginning next season), leading Dobrinka Tabakova’s “Orpheus’ Comet,” Ravel’s Shéhérazade (with local star soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer), and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
The Rimsky-Korsakov was sweeping and suffused with pointed phrasing.
November 21-23, 2024, with music director-designate Markus Poschner leading the orchestra in Britten’s Piano Concerto (with Benjamin Grosvenor as soloist) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.”
These performances and interpretations cemented the reasons for Poschner’s appointment: abundant, sustained musicality, insight and precision, with incisive purpose, and dynamic, warm, and enthusiastic leadership.
The Utah Symphony was honed into a superb ensemble by the musicians under the galvanizing leadership of Thierry Fischer (former music director from 2009-2023, now music director emeritus), and Markus Poschner and Delyana Lazarova are superb choices to build on Fischer’s transformative skills.
The Utah Symphony is as good on any given concert night as any major, full time, professional orchestra in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, or Australasia.
I venture to say that the down votes may be from those who have never heard the Utah Symphony perform live in Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah in the last 15 years.
Surely the Salzburg Festival production of “The Idiot” by Mieczysław Weinberg- one of the most important musical events in recent years: Hopefully the DVD will be released during 2025: This will be a major event.
1. Gotterdammerung – Fabio Luisi, Dallas
2. Gurrelieder – Zubin Mehta, L.A.
3. Yunchan Lim – Hollywood Bowl
4. Fanciulla del West – Central City Opera, Colorado
5. Otello – Gianandrea Noseda, Washington D.C.
My top one was Mahler 2 with MTT and the LSO. Put aside the Barbican acoustic it was actually magical and fabulous occasion.
Interestingly my 2nd was also Mahler 2 with Thomas Sondergard and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra two weeks earlier. I performed in this but think I’m still allowed to choose this as one of the finest Mahler performances I’ve been involved in.
And number three had to be Mahler 5 with Sir Mark Elder saying his farewells with The Halle at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall in August.
I have noticed it might all be Mahler but I have been to so many other fabulous concerts out there.
The Mahler 5 Prom with the Hallé was my choice. Would be great if Sir Mark recorded it for the label (albeit unlikely)
In Cologne, the NDR Vokalensemble, the WDR Rundfunkchor & WDR Symphonieorchester and Cristian Măcelaru with a heartwarming Brahms Deutsches Requiem on a cold night in March.
In Taipei, the Wiener Symphoniker and Omer Meir Wellber with an explosive Beethoven 9th Symphony, releasing all their remaining energy at the end of their Asia tour after previous concerts in Japan and South Korea. The very homogeneous and idiomatic chorus was comprised of members of the Wiener Staatsopernchor (20 singers) alongside the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus (60 singers). Amusing detail: While the Viennese looked at their scores in front of them, the Taiwanese sang hands-free and from memory.
In Ferrara, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Elim Chan: Mao Fujita with an exquisite rendition of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto, followed by an equally phenomenal Mendelssohn 4th Symphony. Sparks were flying abundantly in this thrilling, fresh take on a seemingly familiar classic, and it was a joy to see the players being all smiles throughout the entire piece.
A journalist asked Hans Knappertsbusch why he read always the score in rehearsals and concerts, even in works he had conducted hundreds of times. The answer: ’I can read scores’.
I heard that concert in Ferrara and agree: the Beethoven and Mendelssohn were extraordinary. A few days before, I was fortunate to hear a *staged* version of the Verdi Requiem at the Hungarian State Opera that was incredibly powerful in its emotional impact.
Joanna Mallwitz leading the Concertgebouw in a remarkable LvB 7 and an equally remarkable Bartók 3 with Igor Levit.
I saw this I found it one of the worst of the Concertgebouw’s season.
Please explain your reasoning regarding your point of view.
Jan Lisiecki – » Préludes « recital (37 préludes ranging from Bach to Górecki, plus a Schumann romanze as an encore), at Wiener Konzerthaus
Samara Joy – solo evening, her debut in Wien, at Wiener Konzerthaus
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden/Daniele Gatti – » Verklärte Nacht « and Mahler I, at Grafenegg Festival
Kurtág’s » Fin de partie « at Wiener Staatsoper
Wolfgang Muthspiel – » Etudes/Quietudes « recital, ranging from Bach to Lennon/McCartney, at Wiener Konzerthaus
1. Das Rheingold at the Munich State Opera
2. MTT’s Mahler 2 with the LSO
3. Klaus Mäkelä’s Rite of Spring, also with the outstanding LSO
Bruckner’s 9th at St Florian
Bamberger Symphoniker
Herbert Blomstedt
I attended two Bruckner 9s at St Florian within 12 days this summer, one on the day of his 200th birthday. Yours was almost certainly better than either of mine.
Two December wonders at Berliner Philharmoniker: Bruckner 8 conducted by Andris Nelsons and Bruckner 9 conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.
Dame Imogen Cooper at the Phillips Collection, Washington DC (Apr).
My own teacher, a fine patrician Southern Lady and 4th generation teacher, responded to that question by saying live music is like porn. Why would she watch other people do what she would rather be doing herself?
This is a rarely commented on difference between the sexes.
With a handful of exceptions, men much prefer listening to classical music and going to classical concerts than women while women much prefer reading novels than men.
Shostakovitch Symphony #5, Oregon Symphony conducted by David Danzmayr
Liszt Totentanz, Oregon Symphony conducted by Asher Fisch, pianist Joyce Yang
Guest conductor Markus Stenz led a fabulously propulsive and lyrical account of Robert Schumann’s 2nd Symphony with the Oregon Symphony in late January 2024.
• Bach/Goldberg Variations ~ Víkingur Ólafsson at Jordan Hall, Boston
• Rachmaninoff/Piano Concerto No.3 ~ Yunchan Lim with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tugan Sokhiev at Symphony Hall, Boston (SH)
• Stravinsky/The Firebird ~ Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä at SH
• Schubert/Sonata D.784, Prokofiev Sonata No. 7 ~ Yefim Bronfman at Groton Hill
• Janáček, Brahms, Kurtág, Bartók, Adès ~ Christian Tetzlaff & Kirill Gerstein at Jordan Hall
• Shostakovich/Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk ~ Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons at SH
• Rameau, Chopin, Ravel, Liszt ~ Bruce Liu at Jordan Hall
• Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Prokofiev ~ Evgeny Kissin at Carnegie Hall
• Shostakovich, Barber, Chopin ~ Yuja Wang at Ozawa Hall
• Wagner/Götterdämmerung, Act III ~ Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood
• Mahler/8th Symphony ~ Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons at SH
• Schubert/The Last Sonatas ~ Paul Lewis at Jordan Hall
• All Duke Ellington ~ Boston Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Wilkins at SH
• Mozart/Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 ~ Jan Lisiecki with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philippe Jordan
• Chopin/Nocturn in C# minor, Op. Posth. ~ Jan Lisiecki encore
• Bruckner/5th Symphony ~ Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko at SH
I heard the Tetzlaff/Gerstein program at the Library of Congress. Indeed fabulous – and free!
The request was for your top three. Why give us 16?
Cyrille Dubois’s Faure song recital in Paris; also Paris, the 7 Sibelius with Mikko Franck; Barrie Kosky’s Das Rheingold at ROH; all-Schreker orchestral concert at Berlin’s Konzerthaus (Eschenbach); Child of Our Time at RCM, Martin Brabbins.
I’d give my eye-teeth to have been at just about all of those listed (chamber music excepted – sorry) and the chief ones being Mahler 2, 5 & 8, Bruckner 5, 8 & 9, Wagner (Rheingold, Gotterdammerung), Gurre-Lieder, Shos 5, Glagolitic Mass, Die Frau Onhe Schatten, Deutsches Requiem. For health reasons haven’t been able to go to a live performance for 6 years. Some of you seem to globe-trot to do so as well! Enjoy.
1. Alisa Weilerstein playing Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Berlin Phil conducted by Lahav Shani at the Philharmonie in Berlin in September.
2. Shostakovich 10th, Klaus Mäkelä conducting Chicago Symphony at Symphony Center Chicago in April.
3. Mahler 6th, Simon Rattle conducting Bavarian Radio Symphony at Symphony Center Chicago in April.
I agree with you about the CSO concert: The Shostakovich 10 was spectacular. With Gabetta’s Shostakovich Cello Concerto, a really fine program.
1. Die Frau at the Met
2. Glagolitic Mass with Bychkov/Czech PO/Prague Philharmonic Chorus at Carnegie
3. Mahler 3 with Nezet-Seguin and Philadelphia at Carnegie (instead of Kimmel Center where I normally hear them)
4. Connesson’s Cello Concerto with Capucon and Devene with Philadelphia (in Philly this time) – US premiere, at long last, of a terrific addition to the virtuoso cello repertory
Watching Ailyn Pérez perform Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Real in Madrid was an unparalleled experience. I never anticipated being so profoundly and utterly captivated by her extraordinarily compelling performance.
I had the opposite experience hearing Ailyn Pérez perform Rusalka at Santa Fe last summer. It ranked among my ‘worst of 2023’.
Some great choices of performances here. But, we really wonder why anonymous people give so many excellent thoughts on best of the year a thumbs down. Strange. Just wondering, nowt as queer as folks…
Miss Davidsen in Forza delDes, at 30 Lincoln Center.
– Martha Argerich and Charles Dutoit at the Granada Music Festival (July 2024)
– Gil Shaham at the Wigmore Hall (November 2024)
Tragically, no encores at either concert!
1–Shostakovich: Sym #10–Chicago SO/Makela
2–Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor with Nadine Sierra–Royal Opera Covent Garden
3–Bruckner: Sym #5–Berlin Phil/Petrenko in the golden acoustic of Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
The best live performance I saw in 2024 was Regents Opera’s Siegfried in London. Great singing and playing, and amazing to be only a few feet away from the stage. Can’t wait for the complete cycles in February 2025!
1. Martinus “Die drei Wünsche” in Chemnitz
2.Handels “Saul” at the opera in Copenhagen
3.Mozarts “Zauberflöte” in Paris
Without hesitation, the BBC Singers’ centenary concert at the Barbican.
Like the the ghostly angelic voices of those who have confronted extinction, they defiantly stared down the cynical apparatchiks whose red pens wished to obliterate them from Britain’s cultural life…(https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2023/bbc-new-strategy-for-classical-music#:~:text=At%20the%20heart%20of%20the,English%20Orchestras%20by%20around%2020%25.)…
executives who paradoxically continue to thrive empowered and enriched in the controlling echelons of the BBC.
The juxtaposed counterpoint of ethereal beauty Vs corrosive cynicism made this the cultural highlight of the year for me.
I heartily agree. Their performance at this special concert was magnificent and demonstrated just how good they are and why they are regarded so highly by their audiences and the musical world. Only a fool would have thought them worthy of disbandment. I’m told that a ‘spectre of the feast’ was seen at the after show party!
Three italian cities and three italian composers. In chronological order:
1. Prometeo by Luigi Nono in Venice (in San Lorenzo church, the same place of the first performance in 1984)
2. Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria by Monteverdi in Ravenna
3. La forza del destino by Verdi in Milan
1. Doppelgänger at Park Avenue Armory. Claus Güth directing Jonas Kaufmann.
2. Forza at the Met.
3. Bychkov conducting Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall: Trifonov in Dvorák Concerto followed by Glagolitic Mass.
Doppelgänger was performed 4 times in September, 2023, not 2024. I button hold Kaufmann last December asking him when the DVD would be going out. He said it was in the C-Major’s hands now.
Already submitted three but a late entry, from last week:
Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou at the Library of Congress.
This was Barbara Hannnigan in her full “I’m not a normal opera singer” guise – in works by Messaien and John Zorn; fully committed to the bit. And Chamayou – who I’d never heard (or heard of) before – was stellar, not an “accompanist” but a full co-conspirator and also terrific in two Scriabin pieces.
Also – the DC audience, at least at the Kennedy Center or Strathmore – is kind of a bored suburban group, where two curtain calls is considered generous. Library of Congress tends to get the more crunchy, geeky types who would turn out (and wildly cheer) Messaien and Zorn; my kind of people. Love the vibe.
1) Offenbach Les Brigands @ Garnier
2) Donizetti Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze teatrali @ Wexford
3) Verdi Aida 1913 @ Verona
1st runner-up: Strauss Der Rosenkavalier @ Santa Fe Opera
Conductor Matthew Halls leading the Pacific Symphony in performances of Vaughan Williams’ 6th Symphony in January 2024.
1. Simon Rattle conducting the LSO in American music including the world premiere of John Adams’ “Frenzy”. That John was present made it a special occasion.
2, A Khatia Buniatishvili recital at the Barbican. A full house with her many fans because of her star power certainly made it a yoyous occasion.
My concert going for 2024 was cut short because of illness. So the third place would likely have been between Ann-Sophie Mutter playing the Brahms Violin Concerto in Oxford or the Sir Stephen Hough/Sir Mark Elder performance of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto with the Hallé Orchestra at the Warwick Arts Centre.
My highlight for 2023 was Vasily Petrenko’s conducting Mahler 3 with the Royal Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall. The performance was astounding and it opened my eyes to the quality of the work. As my friend said during the applause, “What a Symphony!”.
Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performances of Bruckner’s 1st Symphony in January 2024.
1. John Wilson/Sinfonia of London’s Harmonielehre at the Proms.
2. Angela Hewitt’s Goldberg’s at Wigmore.
3. Counter-intuitively (because I heard the “difficulties”), MTT”s Mahler 3 at The Barbican a few months before his 2. Because, for a whole variety of reasons, that was even more miraculous than the latter. A miracle doesn’t require perfection.
1) Fabio Luisi with “Götterdämmerung” in Dallas
2) MTT Mahler with LSO
3) Fabio Luisi with “Siegfried” in Dallas
4) Bychkov Janacek in New York
Quatuor Ebene – Beethoven op130 at the Wigmore Hall, December. Complete understanding and perfection in quartet playing.
For the most part, it was a beautiful performance. But the second movement (marked Presto) was so fast that it just sounded garbled to me.
All opera – in no order
Der Rosenkavalier at the Santa Fe Opera
Elizabeth Cree at the Glimmerglass Festival
Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali at the Wexford Fesitval Opera
Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali was indeed scintillating. I think we will be hearing a lot more of the amazing coloratura soprano Sharleen Joynt.
Zemlinsky – Der Zwerg & Schönberg – Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene @ Deutsche Oper Berlin
Messiæn – Turangalîla-Symphonie @ Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Vassily Petrenko
Brahms, Schumann, Webern & Kurtag – Isabelle Faust & Alexander Melnikov @ Den Sorte Diamant, Copenhagen
Spring –
Tugan Sokhiev gave a stunning performance of the monumental Shostakovich Fourth Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra. This performance finally supplanted my memory of Ormandy’s amazing American Premiere of this great work, which I attended while in high school.
Fall –
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s presentation of the joint concert of the Belcea Quartet, and Quattro Ebene, performing the Octets of Mendelssohn and Enescu, was first class.
The program included the information about every instrument we heard, many created by the Italian Masters. What an extraordinary concert! Eight virtuosos, with breathtaking musicianship, playing their hearts out on extraordinary instruments, in the acoustically wonderful, intimate Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center. These two monuments of chamber music, composed by teenage geniuses from two different centuries, performed as they were, gave us a concert to remember for life.
Some knockout memories of 2024:
– Jeremy Denk’s Bach Partitas @ Wigmore Hall
– Golda Schultz’s Fiordigli (with Alexander Soddy) @ ROH
– Schoenberg Chamber Symphony No.1 with London Sinfonietta
– Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Sibelius 1 with the Philharmonia
Mahler 3 Carnegie Hall. Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick and Joyce DD
Mozart’s last symphonies with Rattle & Mahler Chamber Orchestra