Homecoming king… Simon Rattle with the LSO at the Barbican in September. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Fiona Maddocks’s best classical music of 2017

This article is more than 6 years old

Opera for babies, late-night Bach, Debussy to die for, plus women – and men – making waves

Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

Whichever way you shake 2017, it was the year of Rattle. Simon Rattle. Appointed music director of the London Symphony Orchestra two years ago, galloping in ever louder and quicker like a Rossini crescendo, he finally arrived. The first official concerts began in September. This Is Rattle, blasted the series title. It looked like hype but was spot on. Who else would launch their tenure with an uncompromising programme of 20th- and 21st-century music?

Rattle’s advent gave a new boost to plans for a London concert hall, which advanced rapidly with the appointment of an innovative firm of New York architects and the launch of the City’s “culture mile” project around the Barbican, where the hall will be. Not everyone is convinced, but the success of the admired Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, both new this year, have set examples.

The opening concert of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, Hamburg, January 2017. Photograph: Christian Charisius/AFP/Getty Images

Life for female musicians made more strides towards normality, if not yet equality. St Paul’s Cathedral appointed its first full-time female chorister – south Londoner Carris Jones – and the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel choir broke a 500-year gender taboo when mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli sang solo with the 50-strong choir of men and boys. Sofi Jeannin became the first female director of the BBC Singers. Composer Roxanna Panufnik and librettist Jessica Duchen made a mark with their Silver Birch opera for Garsington. With inexhaustible determination, slashing through red tape, Wasfi Kani “built” a new opera house for Grange Park Opera at West Horsley Place, Surrey, in less than a year. Two women won Cardiff Singer of the World 2017: mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison and, in the audience prize, soprano Louise Alder.

But there were end-of-year troubles. Mariss Jansons, a much-loved but old-school maestro, admitted that women on the podium – now at last breaking through to take senior jobs – were not his “cup of tea”. After the clamour, he issued an apology. The Metropolitan Opera, New York, suspended its long-term music director James Levine pending an inquiry on sexual misconduct allegations. Andris Nelsons raised hackles by claiming there were no sexual harassment problems in classical music. Perhaps not for heterosexual men on the podium. A survey by the Incorporated Society of Musicians found that 60% of respondents had experienced sexual harassment.

The Brexit effect hit hard. The Oxford-based European Union Baroque Orchestra announced it would move to Antwerp, while the London-based European Union Youth Orchestra will relocate to Italy. Anti-Brexit protesters got into trouble for waving EU flags at the BBC Proms. Daniel Barenboim, at a Prom with his Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra, gave an impromptu speech calling for European unity (not mentioning Brexit) and warned Britain against “isolationist tendencies”.

David Butt Philip in the title role, Jennifer France as Ophelia, in Glyndebourne’s touring production of Brett Dean’s Hamlet. Photograph: Richard Hubert Smith

The nation’s opera houses settled in with new conductors: Czech-born Tomáš Hanus triumphed with a Russian season at Welsh National Opera. Stuart Stratford’s successes at Scottish Opera included a mesmerising Pelléas et Mélisande (in David McVicar’s new production). Opera North was less lucky; the promising Aleksandar Marković left without explanation almost as soon as he arrived. Martyn Brabbins made his music directorial debut at ENO with an expertly directed and performed Marnie. Nico Muhly’s new work, together with Ryan Wigglesworth’s The Winter’s Tale (ENO), Brett Dean’s Hamlet (Glyndebourne) and Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel (ROH), all had fans and detractors. In December, Glyndebourne announced the immediate departure of the admired Sebastian F Schwarz after two years as general director (more Brexit fallout?).

Conductors Jeffrey Tate, 74, and Jiří Bělohlávek, 71, were mourned. Peter Hall’s contribution to opera should be remembered. The untimely death of the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, 55 – silver-haired, handsome, above all a wonderful singer/actor – caused widespread sorrow.

And the unsung: Deborah Lamprell, 45, worked front of house at Opera Holland Park. She died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June. An all-star performance of Verdi’s Requiem was given in her memory. She’d have been astonished.

Timothy Connor as Pulcino in Scottish Opera’s BambinO. Photograph: James Glossop

10 best performances

Pelléas et Mélisande/BambinO Scottish Opera, Glasgow
Hauntingly staged, beautifully performed. Equal praise for the touring BambinO for babies (seen in Rochdale).

Hamlet Glyndebourne
Brett Dean’s new opera, strong in the festival, took flight on tour.

Little Shorts Opera North
Brilliant programming of short, often unfamiliar operas (Osud, Trouble in Tahiti etc).

Peter Grimes Bergen Opera at Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Storm-tossed performance conducted by Edward Gardner, with tenor Stuart Skelton and a chorus to drown for.