Rossini to romcoms and Feldman to football: the best classical music and opera of 2021

In a second year of disruption to classical music performances, we asked our critics to tell us about their highlights, and what aspects of 2021 they’re showing the red card to

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I was a big fan of Pavel Kolesnikov’s recording of the Goldberg Variations, and it was a pleasure to be once again part of a reasonably big, focused Proms audience to hear him play the work, the same yet different, in the Royal Albert Hall. I had missed the feeling of being part of a group of thousands collectively holding our breath. Yet what’s been more striking than seeing big events return is the way in which some smaller ones have seized their chance: events such as the Oxford Lieder festival, which kept going with a huge programme including some exciting new commissions, efficiently delivered to online audiences and those in the hall. Facing the double whammy of Covid and Brexit, the resilience of the music business even in the face of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s cancelled meetings, cack-handed press releases and general indifference has been quite something. Erica Jeal

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