Rooted in Orkney culture, the midsummer arts festival celebrates the past and the present of these beautiful islands, and, if the music of Peter Maxwell Davies is no longer its backbone, his guiding spirit remains

Alpesh Chauhan balanced energy with elegance in Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony and found exuberance and emotion in works by Maxwell Davies and Beamish

There was excitement – and incense – in the air at a boundary-breaking festival in Suffolk

Hebrides Ensemble
(Delphian)

Two new works and a London premiere, alongside revisits to three other pieces, rode the spectrum from elegant and concise to dark and ruminative

Gražinytė-Tyla was the name of the year, Chineke! took off, Levit and Trifonov blazed a trail and ENO delivered opera of the highest standards

Sean Shibe (guitar), Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Gernon
(Linn)

Losing one voice helped Sally Beamish find another. Two decades later she has come full circle. She tells how her daughter, her mentor Peter Maxwell Davies – and a blackbird – have inspired her new work, and her own return to playing

Professional and amateur performers join Simon Rattle and the LSO for opera premiere

Glyndebourne’s touring production of Saul is even better than its summer hit

A lyrical but profound new string quintet by Peter Maxwell Davies was the centrepiece of the Nash Ensemble’s 50th anniversary celebration