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Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie leads the Orchestra of St Luke’s in a superbly sung and played performance of Bach’s fiery and dramatic St John Passion. 

Majestic performances all round in Handel's oratorio, with a strong solo team led by Allan Clayton as Samson, and a convincingly well-drilled performance from the Philharmonia Chorus.

Adele Thomas makes a good case for Semele's operatic credentials in her production which makes effective nods towards Baroque opera’s devotion to spectacle.

Franz Welser-Möst creatively fused Schubert's “Unfinished” Symphony with Berg's Lyric Suite, before leading an opulent performance of Mass no. 6 in E flat Major.

New York City's Metropolitan Opera restages its shorter, family-friendly version of Mozart's The Magic Flute with great music and delightful visuals.

A brilliant programming decision paired Adams’s 9/11 memorial with Mahler’s life-affirming Symphony no. 4, with the fine soprano Joelle Harvey as soloist.

An exquisitely matched pair of sopranos as Susanna and the Countess make up for some quirky casting elsewhere. 

Mahler's Eighth was the composer’s “gift to the nation”; Dudamel’s performance was a gift to Los Angeles. 

This weekend’s performance of the Symphony no. 2 in C minor had innumerable beautifully detailed moments, with two excellent soloists and an immaculately prepared chorus. 

Thomas Søndergård’s final performance as chief of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales sees them pull off Mahler 8 in style.

Interviewed at the time of this production's first outing, McVicar declared that “Entertainment is not a dirty word”. His Giulio Cesare remains a hugely entertaining opera production.

Even without stage machinery or sets, The English Concert’s performance of Handel’s Rinaldo was enchanting. 

There were plenty of vocal fireworks in this concert performance of Handel’s opera. 

A strong cast led by Anna Stéphany's Sesto made the most of the last opportunity to hear Glyndebourne's production of Mozart's final opera.

A grimly dark setting for Mozart's final opera, Sesto and Tito haunted by childhood memories. 

Salvation sweetness and light in DC's annual Messiah.

John Adams' Christmas oratorio sees some fine performances, but was ultimately found wanting.

Five star reviews are flowing Arcangelo’s way. It’s easy to see why. Five years after it was founded by Jonathan Cohen, the quality of this zestful ensemble just keeps soaring. 

At carnival time, Cavalli’s mission was to make his audience laugh, wow them with a bit of vocal gymnastics, butter up their romantic feelings with a few delicate cadences, and maybe leave a tear or two in their eye. It’s a potent formula, and it still works.

There aren’t too many more ambitious pieces of music one could choose to celebrate a birthday than Beethoven's Missa solemnis.

Joélle Harvey, Iestyn Davies, Nicholas Phan and Hanno Müller-Brachmann shine in Franz Welser-Möst's sometimes meditative interpretation of Bach's Mass in B minor.

There is something pleasurably straining, for the big-hall, velvet-accustomed operagoer, about the experience of sitting for three hours on a very tiny bench in a charmingly chiselled, candlelit little theatre that invites contemplation in its own right – beyond the attractions, musical and other, set up within its frame.

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus in Mason Bates’ explosive Liquid Interface and Beethoven’s Mass in C.

J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor was described by its first publisher as “the greatest musical work of art of all times and nations”. It’s also the culmination of one man’s great life of musical creativity, and a great personal statement of faith.

The New York City Opera has spent the season reinventing itself from a large company with a large theater to a peripatetic one presenting small works. Perhaps it was apt that they closed their season with Telemann’s Orpheus.