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Classical Music

The best London classical and opera of 2023

By Claudia Pritchard on 14/12/2023

Our top 10 artists and events in a challenging year for music and musicians

Favourite female singer: Aigul Akhmetshina

With her vivacious heroine Rosina in Rossini'sThe Barber of Seville at the Royal Opera House in the spring, Russian-born mezzo-soprano and Londoner Aigul Akhmetshina confirmed her place in the top flight of today's international opera singers. Her Habanera from Bizet's Carmen raised spirits in Marina Abramović's otherwise dour 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at English National Opera, and we can look forward to the whole of her Carmen in Damiano Michieletto's unmissable new ROH production in April. Booking opens Thursday 11 January.

Favourite male singer: Nick Pritchard

After his delightful Candide in Leonard Bernstein's opera with Blackheath Halls Opera at the end of 2022, British tenor Nick Pritchard (no relation!) demonstrated the breadth of his range when he moved from comic innocent to sorrowful narrator in Bach's St John Passion at St John's Smith Square, in an outstanding performance on this Easter piece by Polyphony. Catch him in more Bach when the Oxford Bach Soloists make their eagerly awaited London debut on Saturday 6 January at St James's Piccadilly, and in Handel's Messiah at C adogan Hall on Wednesday 17 April. And listen out for further appearances as Evangelist in Bach's Passions.

Favourite instrumentalist: Isata Kanneh-Mason

At the BBC Proms on 1 August, the pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason gave a really spirited performance of Prokofiev's demanding and hugely entertaining Piano Concerto No 3, at the Royal Albert Hall. This exciting solo BBC Proms debut sealed the pianist's reputation globally – the Proms are listened to and watched worldwide – and notched up yet another achievement by last year's Culture Whisper favourite performers of 2021, the Kanneh-Mason family. Hear her in recital playing Mendelssohn, Fauré, Chopin and Beethoven with cellist brother Sheku Kanneh-Mason at the Barbican Hall on Tuesday 28 May – and hope for a return to the Proms.

Favourite conductor: Barbara Hannigan

The loss of Sir Simon Rattle, returning to Europe and his Munich home, did not leave his London Symphony Orchestra high and dry. To launch the 2023/24 season, it was American conductor and singer Barbara Hannigan's job to keep the ball rolling at the Barbican, with her opening LSO concerts. One of the pioneer women conductors in a now-growing field, she talks about music as well as she performs it, and is always a name to look out for.

Favourite orchestra: Aurora

With their family-focused concerts and innovative by-heart performances, the scintillating players of Aurora Orchestra under Nicholas Collon come up with something fresh every time. The stand-out achievement of 2023 was its performance from memory of Stravinsky's jagged and rhythmically challenging mould-breaker, The Rite of Spring, at the BBC Proms.Chiswick Cinema screens this event on Thursday 18 January at 6pm. Look out for Aurora's annual Proms performance, in the festival running from Friday 12 July to Saturday 14 September 2024. And sample the orchestra's unique dynamism at Kings Place on Saturday 3 February, in Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss and others, as part of the year-long celebration of Scottish music, Scotland Unwrapped.

Favourite new works: 'Blue' and 'Itch'

It's a rare treat to be spoilt for choice in this category, but it was impossible to choose between two outstanding productions of two operas, new to London. In date order only, English National Opera's UK premiere of Jeanine Tesori's Blue was powerful and moving, with tremendous performances by soprano Nadine Benjamin, bass Kenneth Kellogg and the talented young tenor Zwakele Tshabalala as their much-loved son. ENO's forced removal to Manchester from its own home, the Coliseum, after funding cuts, does not end their relationship with the capital entirely. Fingers crossed for a Blue revival. Meanwhile, the world premiere of Jonathan Dove's Itch (pictured) was the absolute highlight of the busy Opera Holland Park summer. Eye-catchingly staged with affordable resources, intelligently sung, unashamedly entertaining but relevant, Itch can expect a long life, to the enormous credit of OHP. Look out for its 2024 season, Tuesday 28 May to Saturday 10 August.

Favourite venue: Milton Court

Celebrating its 10^th year, Milton Court, is Barbican and Guildhall School Music and Drama's chamber-sized concert hall. Easy to reach, comfortable and with good public spaces, it often puts on big names in a small space, bringing artists and audiences both physically and emotionally closer together. In early 2024, concerts to catch include a concert on Tuesday 9 April, featuring Culture Whisper's top male singer 2021, tenor Nicky Spence and the Britten Sinfonia. The programme includes a world premiere of Hugh Watkins's horn concerto.

Favourite surprises: Yuja Wang and the Gospel Messiah

In another dead heat, two left-field performances. At the Lightroom in King's Cross, pianist Yuja Wang (pictured) played a personal and colourful selection of pieces in response to evolving iPad-generated images by artist David Hockney. The appeal of this virtuosic soloist and the insatiable appetite for Hockney's optimistic vision of the natural world attracted a lively new and appreciative young audience to the classical repertoire. And for an upbeat end to the year, the first London performance of the Gospel Messiah again brought a wider audience to the music of Handel. Marin Alsop conducted the soul-and-funk reimagining of the Christmas story, and Zwakele Tshabalala from Blue was back, as soloist – and scat singer. You can still hear it on BBC Sounds.

Christmas turkey: Nadine Dorries

The mischievously appointed former Culture Secretary made no secret of her contempt for and ignorance of the arts and broadcasting. During her brief, brash tenure, she presided with glee over the unseating of English National Opera and the mortal wounding of many other hard-working bodies, and tried to axe Channel 4, home of many arts programmes. Her likely successor with a change of government, musician Thangam Debonnaire, is already demonstrating her appreciation of the arts, taking a lesson with a cellist from the funding-deprived Britten Sinfonia, and talking positively with arts organisations. After title-greedy Dorries, the only way is up.

The best London classical and opera of 2023

Our top 10 artists and events in a challenging year for music and musicians

Favourite female singer: Aigul Akhmetshina

Favourite male singer: Nick Pritchard

Favourite instrumentalist: Isata Kanneh-Mason

Favourite conductor: Barbara Hannigan

Favourite orchestra: Aurora

Favourite new works: 'Blue' and 'Itch'

Favourite venue: Milton Court

Favourite surprises: Yuja Wang and the Gospel Messiah

Christmas turkey: Nadine Dorries

English National Opera

Handel

Aigul Akhmetshina

Nick Pritchard

Aurora

Best concerts and opera in December

Opera Holland Park 2024

Aigul Akhmetshina interview: 'It's Fifty Shades of Carmen!'

English National Opera 2023/24: a starry showcase

Scotland Unwrapped, Kings Place

Oxford Bach Soloists, London debut concert