It’s that time of the year again. That lull between Christmas and New Year when news editors fall back on reviews of the year just gone and best-of lists to fill column inches. For myself, it’s an opportunity (or an excuse for self-indulgence) to look back over the concerts I’ve been to in the year, to see which ones I remember and which make me say “Did I really go to that? I don’t remember it at all.”

It was a pretty good year for those perennial favourites Mahler and Shostakovich, beginning in January with a memorable Mahler 2 in Manchester from the Hallé and their new principal conductor Kahchun Wong, while John Storgårds continued his exploration of Shostakovich with the BBC Philharmonic as well as giving us an exceptional Mahler 3 in June. Above all it was a good year for minimalists: Glass’ Satyagraha in Nice, a feast of John Adams in London, Berlin and Manchester, and Colin Currie rounding off the year with Steve Reich in Manchester.

But which concerts stand out the most? Let’s get the bad out of the way first.

Most Disappointing Concert of the Year

There are a few candidates for this raspberry. Nicholas Collon is a conductor I admire enormously, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo is a fine orchestra, but their concert in April really didn’t work. On paper it was an excellent programme of Debussy, Poulenc and Bartok, but orchestra and conductor just didn’t gel. You could see it in the body language. Who knows why this sometimes happens, but it was a shame.

Still, that doesn’t take the crown. For that we have to look to the Proms. Perhaps it was my fault, perhaps I chose the wrong concerts, but of those that I went to only John Storgård’s semi-staged account of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District lived up to my expectations. The Arvo Pärt 90th birthday concert disappointed as well, though that may be simply that my expectations were too high, but the winner – insert sound of envelope being opened – was the Vienna Phil and Franz Welzer-Möst with Berg’s Lulu Suite and Bruckner 9. Beautifully played, of course, but oh so bland. Utterly unmemorable, but for the fact it was so disappointing.

Best Jazz of the Year

A new award this year, but it’s been a good twelve months for jazz. A couple of excellent evenings in London tacked on to visits to the Proms: Denys Baptiste led a McCoy Tyner tribute, and the Hungarian (but London-based) pianist Matyas Gayer was a discovery. Buxton may not seem an obvious jazz centre, but the Buxton Festival always has a jazz festival within, and Xhosa Cole playing Thelonius Monk was the highlight there.

But best of all was in Leeds. I’ve always wanted to hear Misha Mullov-Abbado live, but in the past whenever he’s been playing near to where I live, events have conspired against me. This time I was not to be defeated. His latest album Effra is stunning; contemporary in feel and yet with clear links to tradition. Leading his sextet from the bass like a modern Mingus or Ray Brown, it was a wonderful evening. And yes, that name: Mullov-Abbado. Perhaps being the son of violinist Viktoria Mullova and conductor Claudio Abbado he was always destined for a life in music, but he really is supremely talented in his own right.

Most Surprisingly Enjoyable Concert of the Year

This may seem a strange category, after all, why go to a concert if you don’t expect to enjoy it?

But some concerts exceed expectations, and this was the case with the Orchestra of Opera North in May at Huddersfield Town Hall. Their Huddersfield concerts are always a pleasure and they often have big-name soloists. The town hall is quite small as an orchestral venue, with the balcony wrapping itself around the stage, and the result is often a sense of intimacy that compensates for the challenge the orchestra often has trying to fit everyone on stage.

What was unusual about the May concert was that it concentrated on the core members of the orchestra. Generally, to play full-scale concert repertory they have to bring in a large number of extras, but for this programme of Prokofiev, Schumann, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Haydn they weren’t needed. There wasn’t a conductor, with the orchestra being led from the first desk by Katie Stillman, and even the Schumann Cello Concerto was played by the principal cello, Jessica Burroughs.

Perhaps this reduced scale was a consequence of financial expediency, but the result was a tremendous sense of family and camaraderie. The players really enjoying themselves, playing for each other and showing what they could do. Ten out of ten.

Concert of the Year

Drum roll please. Time for the big reveal.

In any other year it would have to be the Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle playing John Adams’ Harmonielehre. A visit to the Philharmonie had long been on my wishlist, and when a window of opportunity opened up in October I might have gone regardless of the music, but that they were playing one of my favourite pieces was an incredible stroke of good fortune and Rattle has always been an excellent advocate for Adams. It was interesting to contrast this performance with that of John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London who gave a terrific account at the Proms in 2024. Simplistically, with John Wilson there was more of an emphasis on the music’s American twentieth century credentials, with the Berliners, and in particular the depth of sound from their strings, the nineteenth century roots were more obvious.

But no, wonderful though that was, the Berliners are only runners-up.

Sleep

 I’ve written about it before so I won’t go on at length, but hearing Max Richter’s Sleep at Alexandra Palace at the beginning of September was something else. Memories that are still with me and will probably never leave. An experience unlike any other concert.