2025 in Concert Reviews: women's voices, Barenboim defying age, rare melodrama, Ukraine at war, Big Baroque, and much-delayed Bliss

Bach: Mass in B Minor - Peter Whelan, Irish Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

The unusual, the rare and the undeservedly neglected often feature strongly in my own personal interests. 2025 featured a wide selection of these in our concert reviews.

Antoine Brumel's 12-part Earthquake Mass featured alongside better known Tallis from Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars. The English Concert performed terrific rarities by Humfrey and Blow alongside better known Purcell at Wigmore Hall. The Mozartists featured a tantalising scene from Benda's melodrama Medea as part of their 1775 Retrospective.

Peter Whelan drew a remarkably communicative and urgent performance from the Irish Baroque Orchestra (IBO) in a large scale account of the Dublin version of Handel's Alexander's Feast at BBC Proms. Whelan and the IBO were in more regular formation on home turf, with a vivid Bach Mass in B Minor in Dublin. And there was more Handel in near perfect circumstances with Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli in Solomon at Inner Temple. And Solomon's Knot completed their year at Wigmore Hall with a daringly compact account of Israel in Egypt.

Konstantin Krimmel included Carl Loewe alongside Schubert as part of Wigmore Hall's Schubert Birthday Concert. Daniel Barenboim conducted his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in a relatively main-stream programme, but the conductor's defying of age and illness was compelling.

Igor Levitt's powerful account of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2 was closely followed by music from his opera Semyon Kotko alongside Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky's dramatic war-inspired symphony

Bliss' powerful war-inspired cantata, The Beatitudes finally returned to the BBC Proms after 60 years.. Britten Sinfonia and Sinfonia Smith Square united for a thrilling account of Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Malcolm Arnold's Symphony No. 5 featured in Gergely Madaras and BBC NOW celebration of Cheltenham Music Festival's 80th birthday

Benda: Medea - Alexandra Lowe, The Mozartists, Ian Page at Cadogan Hall (Photo: Martin Kendrick)

Gweneth Ann Rand and Simon Lepper made Judith Weir's woman.life.song a powerful part of a typically fearless programme at Wigmore Hall. There were more women's voices with four Irish women composers giving voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries from Lotte Betts-Dean and Deirdre Brenner at Oxford International Song Festival.

• A glorious, yet sophisticated noise: Handel's Solomon from Paul McCreesh & Gabrieli with Tim Mead as Solomon in Inner Temple Hall
• 1775 - A Retrospective: Ian Page & The Mozartists on terrific form in a deep dive into the sound-world of Mozart's 1775 including Benda's melodrama Medea
• Konstantin Krimmel in overwhelming form for Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall, with a welcome group of Carl Loewe too
• Power and poetry: all-Prokofiev programme from Igor Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer at Royal Festival Hall
• Powerful stuff: Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky's dramatic war-inspired symphony alongside marvellous music from Prokofiev's Ukraine-themed opera, Semyon Kotko at Southbank Centre
• Compelling and magisterial: Sunwook Kim directs Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the piano in Beethoven's third and fourth piano concertos at the Barbican
• Looking at these modern classics anew: Britten's Canticles at the Barbican with James Way, Natalie Burch & friends at the Barbican
• Fierce virtuosity and sheer delight: oboist Olivier Stankiewicz, soprano Lucy Crowe, violinist Maria Włoszczowska & friends in a captivating evening of Bach, Zelenka, Handel, Vivaldi
• The sheer joy of performing together: Music in Secondary Schools Trust's 12th Annual Concert. Over 300 students from beginners to Grade 8 come together to celebrate 12 years of MiSST with students from 28 different schools across the country demonstrating the sheer joy of performing together
• Britten Sinfonia, Sinfonia Smith Square and the Choir of Merton College, Oxford, unite for a thrilling and exhilarating concert concluding with Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum
• The earth moves: Antoine Brumel's 12-part Earthquake Mass & Tallis' 40-part motet from Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars
• New music to the fore: Gergely Madaras & BBC NOW celebrate Cheltenham Music Festival's 80th birthday in rousing style with music from the first festival alongside music for today
• Will definitely stay in the memory: Gweneth Ann Rand & Simon Lepper in Judith Weir's 2000 song cycle for Jessye Norman, woman.life.song as part of a typically fearless programme reflecting women's music and women's lives at Wigmore Hall
• Travelling hopefully: defying age & ill health, Daniel Barenboim conducts his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Wagner, Mendelssohn & Beethoven at the Salzburg Festival
• Rarely has large-scale Handel felt so vital & involving. Unashamedly Big Baroque. Peter Whelan drew a remarkably communicative and urgent performance from the Irish Baroque Orchestra in the Dublin version of Alexander's Feast at BBC Proms
• Making restitution: Sir Arthur Bliss' powerful war-inspired cantata, The Beatitudes, written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, returns to BBC Proms after a gap of 60 years alongside Ruth Gips' 1943 tone-poem
• Strong emotions, vocal virtuosity & orchestral colours: Jakob Lehmann conducts Rossini's Ermione & Stabat Mater with Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique at Cadogan Hall
• There was no closure here: four Irish women composers give voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries in remarkable performances from Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner at Oxford International Song Festival
• Vivid presence & engagement: Peter Whelan & Irish Baroque Orchestra in Bach's Mass in B minor at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
• Beyond St Cecilia: Purcell's large-scale ode alongside superb anthems by his contemporaries Humfrey & Blow from The English Concert & Harry Bicket at Wigmore Hall
• Carrying the narrative strongly & directly: Solomon's Knot daringly perform Handel's great choral oratorio Israel in Egypt with just eight singers at Wigmore Hall

Handel: Alexander's Feast - Irish Baroque Orchestra & Chorus - BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Never miss out on future posts by following us

The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.

Elsewhere on this blog

• Letter from Florida: Manfred Honeck conducts Mahler’s 4th with New World Symphony in Miami - concert review
• Carrying the narrative strongly & directly: Solomon's Knot in Handel's Israel in Egypt at Wigmore Hall - concert review
• Well-upholstered & rather different: On Christmas Night from London Choral Sinfonia & Michael Waldron on Orchid Classics - record review
• Christmas Megamix: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's final gig in its Christmas Estates Tour 2025 - concert review
• Letter from Florida: Opera Up-Close - Unveiling the Dramatic Process with Paul Curran at Palm Beach Opera - opera review
• The extreme psychological approach weakened the dramaturgy: Handel's Ariodante returns to Covent Garden - opera review
• Enjoying it for its own sake: there is much we don't know about 17th-century Exeter organist John Lugge but on this new disc William Whitehead leaves us engaged & intrigued - record review
• Beyond St Cecilia: Purcell's large-scale ode plus Humfrey & Blow from The English Concert & Harry Bicket at Wigmore Hall - concert review
• 'The Lord gave the word': communicability to the fore in Handel's Messiah from Academy of Ancient Music & Laurence Cummings - concert review
• Home