Instrument: French horn

With a smaller programme and a humbler premise, the stars of the show – those young, immensely talented performers – could have shone even brighter

Not even the BAFTAs going on next door offered the star quality on display in the QEH.

Sir Roger Norrington's all-Mozart feast was a joyous evening dedicated solely to playing as the composer and his audience would have recognised it. His affable introduction and the OAE's superb playing made a splendid evening.

A Dvořák-Schubert double bill at this year’s celebrated Schubertiade featured a host of extraordinary artists in a tight and dynamic performance.

A rare opportunity to hear the complete Brandenburgs was awarded by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a distinguished performance, with Huw Daniel its leading light.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the US première of Tansy Davies' Forest, a work intended to evoke a Romantic sensation of mystery and nature.

Clear playing from Pierre-Laurent Aimard in the Emperor Concerto and a sense of the dramatic in Also sprach Zarathustra brought life to old warhorses, while a new concerto from Tansy Davies made waves.