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Rarely does a concert entirely devoted to a big Mahler Symphony later acquire a second half, let alone one containing just twenty minutes of a cappella singing. 

A fascinating new companion piece to Elgar's Enigma Variations, from 14 contemporary composers, in celebration of Martyn Brabbins' 60th birthday, performed with enthusiasm by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Canellakis is an elegant conductor who invests so much in the music and inhabits its lilts and thrills with her whole demeanour.

Gimmicks galore in this genre-hopping spectacle from the BBC Singers and world music fusion band Kabantu.

This final concert of the BBCSO’s Total Immersion day dedicated to György Ligeti, proved to be something a revelation, both in terms of the variety of the music and the quality of the performances.

The BBC Singers sounded as ecstatically joyful in the first three parts of Bach's seasonal offering in Chelsea. 

Berlioz was well served in a performance that rose to heights of inspiring dignity and devotional beauty.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's First World War opera both moves and dazzles at the Barbican.

New conductor Sofi Jeannin delights with her fresh thinking on choral concerts.

English choral classics from 100 years ago, contrasted with a confident and effective new piece by Laura Mvula, all given strong performances by the BBC Singers and Sakari Oramo.

Jake Heggie's spectacular vocal writing combine with Terence McNally's perfectly paced libretto to provide intense music drama which forces you to confront darkness.

It's a rare treat to hear Spanish opera in London; Josep Pons and the BBC SO made a worthy case for hearing Falla’s El amor brujo and Granados’ Goyescas more often.

An intriguing programme marked by diversity and novelty from two world-beating ensembles. 

The effervescent conductor took six little-known Czech works into another ether: one in which the footprints are invisible.

Judith Weir's dramatic new choral work receives a convincing world première from David Hill and the BBC Singers at Southwark Cathedral. 

Semyon Bychkov turned in a magisterial account of Mussorgsky's rugged score, aided and abetted by some strong vocal performances.

English National Opera join with the BBC Singers to make Royal Festival Hall debut.

Five years after the composer's death, his musical collaborator David Murphy ensures that Shankar's only operatic work finally gets heard.

At the Barbican last night, Gerald Finley, John Adams and the BBC Symphony Orchestra combined to deliver the heaviest operatic punch I’ve been subjected to all year.

Put Sakari Oramo in front of the BBCSO and invariably something magical happens. This concert included rare repertoire from two of Oramo's favourite Scandinavian composers. 

An excellent performance of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s The Last Supper receiving its Scottish première, with Roderick Williams and Susan Bickley heading a luxury cast.

The 2016 Proms come to a riotous close at the Royal Albert Hall.

This Late Night Prom was a fitting way to remember the man. Such events draw a lighter scattering of musical night owls, minimising the hall and allowing for meditative concentration.

Karita Mattila produces a star turn in the title role, but a pure concert staging does little to bring out the cleverness of the libretto of Janáček’s Makropulos Case.

The ultimate musical misnomer, Rossini's last major work is beautifully sung in the wonderful surroundings of the Chapel of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

A lush programme of Fauré, Stravinsky, and Poulenc is let down by Minkowski's erratic conducting, but is partially redeemed by two of France's fastest rising singers.

A youthful Bellini opera able to stand on its own two feet? Perhaps not, as Adelson e Salvini gets the Opera Rara treatment. 

A programme of personal choices curated by George Benjamin in collaboration with Oliver Knussen – that didn’t quite hang together but with two UK  premières it was a fascinating evening. 

In spite of the not insignificant problems, Opera Rara are utterly convincing that Leoncavallo's Zazà is a work that should be seen and heard more often.

Flags, balloons and musical revelry bring the BBC Proms season to a close. 

How to compare Nielsen and Ives? Possible similarities aside, however, the impact of their work is, on the whole, wildly contrasting.

Stimulating sounds from the Academy of Ancient Music in late night Bach at the Proms. 

A packed Royal Albert Hall cheered as rocker-come-classical composer Eric Whitacre took to the stage for this Sunday matinee.

For modern ears, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy is a curious beast, a hybrid of orchestral, concertante and choral genres and thus quite difficult to programme in a regular concert. 

A mixed programme thrills, launching the season with a bang

“What Czech does not like music?” declares Beneš, the jailor in Smetana’s opera Dalibor. Certainly not Jiří Bělohlávek, who is as superb an advocate for Czech music as any conductor in the world right now.

Segerstam elicits oustanding playing from the BBCSO in an immense Bruckner 8, preceded by the BBC Singers exquisite Bruckner motets.

Brett Dean's The Annunciation offers a Moderninst take on Christmas traditions. Curiosities from Respighi and Strauss complete an eccentric programme.

Andrew Litton and the BBCSO and the BBC Singers create order out of chaos at the Barbican Hall in a challenging programme including Charles Ives monumental 4th Symphony.

Sakari Oramo takes the reins for his first Last Night of the Proms, alongside dazzling violinist Janine Jansen and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Who needs scenery anyway? A blistering Elektra from Semyon Bychkov, starring Christine Goerke, lights up the BBC Proms by sheer force of performance. 

Steve Reich's 'opus number one', It's Gonna Rain, for magnetic tape, and The Desert Music for chamber ensemble and singers, came together for this Late Night Prom. Both pieces were almost hypnotic, and made for a very intense, but highly satisfying musical experience.

An impressive performance of Oedipus Rex under Sakari Oramo, demonstrating that his rapport with his new orchestra has grown rapidly. 

A feast of Strauss and Elgar delights all in Prom 19, featuring Vasily Petrenko, Inger Dam-Jensen, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

For the first time in the Proms' history, the programme for the first of this season's Late Nights included the premiere of A Man from the Future, a groundbreaking new piece about codebreaker Alan Turing.

An ultimately disappointing Fauré Requiem gave way to an outrageously funny performance of Poulenc's comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot.

As a very generous birthday present for ‘Accrington’s Finest’, Harrison Birtwistle, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martin Brabbins pulled out all the stops to give a revelatory performance of the composer’s most Wagnerian opera, Gawain.

Kirill Karabits’ imaginative programme revealed CPE Bach as a difficult composer to place, with a symphony bearing all the hallmarks of a young Mozart and an ode with pre-echoes of Haydn’s The Creation, counterbalanced by the UK première of his 1784 St John Passion where, in the chorales at least, CPE demonstrated that he was a chip off the old block.

Exceptional performances of Grisey, Dufourt and Boulez were let down by weak Beethoven from the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov at the Barbican.

What a pleasure it was to see the effervescent Marc Minkowski conducting a programme of 20th-century French music with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was certainly a lively and well-thought-out concert, with Minkowski bringing all the clarity and detailed awareness of colour that he has bought to his performances of early music.