I’ve been posting my ‘best of the year’ lists since I first started writing here in 2016, and on each occasion I felt a need to mention in passing the state of the UK and of the world. Well, we may have got rid of the wretched Tories, but what with Trump, Musk et al, not to mention climate breakdown, I can’t say I feel any more optimistic than I did 12 months ago. (I really do wish we were expecting Henry Fonda for President – see below.) Since the BFI decided to retire me from the programming team in August, I’ve had even more time now to brood about such matters than before. Still, love, friendship, nature (what’s left of it) and the arts continue to provide pleasure and solace, and the last of those forces is what this post is about.
I saw more movies than last year – though fewer than I would have done before the pandemic – and very little TV. I again listened to a lot of music, and somehow managed to go to more concerts than ever; my best live-music lists cover only around a sixth of those I attended! I don’t do theatre, but I did make an exception to catch Isabelle Huppert at the Barbican in Robert Wilson’s Mary Said What She Said – she was, as ever, extraordinary (see photo at bottom). I caught a fair few exhibitions (though not, sadly, the Van Gogh show) and read quite a few books, not least some great stuff I was given for my 70th birthday.
So here are some of the things I enjoyed most in 2024. I hope you too will be able to derive pleasure from some of them.
FILMS SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME:
NEW FILMS (20, roughly in order of preference):
=1. At Averroès & Rosa Parks (Averroès & Rosa Parks) + The Typewriter and Other Headaches (La Machine à écrire et autres sources de tracas) (Nicolas Philibert)
3. About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
4. I’m Still Here (Walter Salles)
5. Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath) NB: This may be available on MUBI in some territories, but I’m not sure.
6. The Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass (Quay Brothers) Still, sadly, awaiting UK distribution.
7. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood)
8. Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)
9. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
10. Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (Johan Grimonprez)
11. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (Raoul Peck)
12. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
13. Faruk (Asli Özge)
14. Mon Crime (The Crime Is Mine) (François Ozon)
15. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
16. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Elene Naveriani)
17. Anora (Sean Baker)
18. All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)
19. Rumours (Guy Maddin, Evan and Galen Johnson)
20. Eight Postcards from Utopia (Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz)
OLDER FILMS (5, roughly in order of preference)
Tih Minh (Louis Feuillade, 1928)
Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1916)
Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015)
The Village Detective (Bill Morrison, 2021)
Decision at Sundown (Budd Boetticher, 1957)
NEW DVDs/BLURAYS (4)
Love Me Tonight (Indicator)
The Village Detective, and other films (Second Run)
Louis Feuillade: The Complete Crime Serials (1913-1918) (Eureka MoC)
When Tomorrow Comes (Indicator)
SMALL SCREEN (in order seen)
NEW TV (3)
Slow Horses Series 4
Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story (Barnaby Thompson)
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (David Hinton)
OLD TV (6)
Monitor: Bartók (Ken Russell)
Inspector Morse (revisited complete; various)
Amongst Women (Tom Cairns)
Wives and Daughters (Nicholas Renton)
Arena: Nothing Like a Dame (Roger Michell)
Vanity Fair (Marc Munden)
‘CLASSICAL ‘ (3)
Britten – War Requiem (Romaniw, Clayton, Liverman, London Symphony Orchestra, Pappano), BBC Prom
Beethoven – Choral Symphony (Rangwanasha,Fontanals-Simmons, Gunnell, Purves, Aurora Orchestra, BBC Singers, National Youth Choir, Collon), BBC Prom
Britten – Curlew River (Bostridge, Farnsworth, Rock, White et al), Aldeburgh Festival/BBC
MUSIC
NEW RELEASES (roughly in order of release):
‘CLASSICAL’ (12)
Igor Levit: Mendelssohn, Alkan – Lieder Ohne Worte (Sony)
Cédric Tiberghien: Variations 2 – Beethoven, Bach, Cage, Feldman, Crumb (Harmonia Mundi)
Timothy Ridout, Frank Dupree, James Baillieu: A Lionel Tertis Celebration (Harmonia Mundi)
John Adams: Girls of the Golden West (Nonesuch)
Huw Watkins: Chamber Music and Works for Orchestra (Resonus)
Lisa Illean: arcing, stilling, bending, gathering (NMC)
George Benjamin: Picture a day like this (Nimbus)
Freya Waley-Cohen: Spellbook (NMC)
Anja Lechner: Bach/Abel/Hume (ECM)
James Ehnes, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Gardner: Sibelius Violin Concerto, etc (Chandos)
Tom Coult: Pieces That Disappear (NMC)
Brett Dean: London Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Brett Dean (LPO)
OTHER (6)
Mike Westbrook: Band of Bands (Westbrook Records)
Giovanni Guidi: A New Day (ECM)
Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli: Our Time (ECM)
Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land (Intakt)
Daniel Sommer, Arve Henriksen, Johannes Lundberg: Sounds and Sequences (April Records)
Thomas Strønen, Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland, Jorge Rossy: Relations (ECM)
CONCERTS (in chronological order*):
‘CLASSICAL’
Castalian Quartet: Janácek, M-A Turnage, Bartók, Wigmore, 16/1
Nina Guo, London Sinfonietta, Sheen: S Mackay, G Lewis, K Balch, M van der Aa, Purcell Room, 22/2
Jeremy Denk: Bach (Partitas), Wigmore, 24/2
Isabelle Faust, London Symphony Orchestra, Rattle: Brahms, Shostakovich, Barbican, 29/2
Steven Osborne: R Schumann, Debussy, M E Bauer, M Monk, Rzewski, Osborne, K Jarrett, Gershwin, Peterson, Wigmore, 12/3
Paul Lewis: Schubert, Wigmore, 22/3
Alexandre Tharaud: Couperin, Satie, Ravel, Contet, Wigmore, 22/4
Renaud Capuçon, Julia Hagen, Igor Levit: Brahms, Wigmore, 4/5
Belcea Quartet, Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras: Brahms, Wigmore, 7/5
JACK Quartet: A Wulliman, G Smith, Feldman, C Ergün, L Lim, Wigmore. 11/5
Anne-Sophie Mutter, London Symphony Orchestra, Adès: T Adès, Lutoslawski, Stravinsky, Barbican, 30/5
Nicolas Hodges: Messiaen (Vingt regards…) Wigmore, 31/5
Claire Booth, Charlotte Salustre-Bridoux, Alban Gerhardt, Joseph Havlat: Weir, Larcher, Chin, Schubert, Snape Maltings, 10/6
Angela Hewitt: Bach (Goldberg Variations), Wigmore, 13/6
Elias Quartet, Heath Quartet: Fx Mendelssohn, Wigmore, 18/6
Matthias Goerne, Anton Mejias: R Schumann, Brahms, Wigmore, 25/7
Iestyn Davies, Sergio Bucheli: Purcell, Kapsberger, Dowland, N Muhly, Handel, Wigmore, 16/9
Igor Levit: Bach, Brahms, Beethoven/Liszt, Beethoven, Royal Festival Hall, 27/9
Alina Ibragimova, Cédric Tiberghien: Janácek, Enescu, Barry, Beethoven, Wigmore, 28/9
Elisabeth Leonskaja: Schubert, Schoenberg, Wigmore, 29/9
Benjamin Grosvenor, Hyeyoon Park, Timothy Ridout, Kian Soltani: R Strauss, Brahms, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 18/10
Isabelle Faust, Anne Katarina Schreiber, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Christian Poltéra: Schubert, Wigmore, 27/10
Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Irène Duval, Blythe Teh Engstroem, Jeremy Denk, Connie Shih: Fauré et al, Wigmore, 2/11-5/11 (four concerts over four evenings)
Julien Prégardien, András Schiff: Schubert (Die schöne Müllerin), Wigmore, 8/11
Roderick Williams, Nash Ensemble: Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Elgar, Wigmore, 9/11
Leonkoro Quartet: Haydn, J Weir, Fx Mendelssohn, Puccini, Wigmore, 21/11
Tetzlaff Quartet: Beethoven, J Widmann, Brahms, Wigmore, 28/11
Elisabeth Brauss: Bach, Beethoven, R Schumann, Prokofiev, Wigmore, 2/12
Chiaroscuro Quartet: Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Wigmore, 3/12
Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber: R Schumann (incl Liederkreis & Lenau), Wigmore., 19/12
This list of my ‘best’ 30 concerts (up from 25 last year, since I attended even more than before) is clearly deeply inadequate in not including any appearances by Boris Giltburg, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Allan Clayton, Fleur Barron, the Takacs Quartet or Quatuor Danel (to mention just a few who repeatedly gave great performances). To keep numbers down a little, I have allowed most musicians just one entry – whereas Levit, Gerhaher, the Belcea Quartet and others could easily have featured more than once; in these instances, I limited myself to what I considered their most remarkable performance. I should also mention the dependably excellent themed concerts by the Nash Ensemble, whose highlights this year included a day-long tribute to the composers who were killed at Terezin and another to the late Harrison Birtwistle. And Steven Isserlis’s series of concerts devoted to Fauré et al, performed by the cellist and some very impressive musician friends, were consistently superb (so I count them as one entry above). Such were the musical riches on offer throughout the year in London.
*I compiled this list just before Christmas 2024, having only two more concerts to attend. So high is the standard of performance at Wigmore Hall that I was later left wondering whether I should drop a couple of concerts from the list above to make space for Jonathan Plowright’s exemplary programme on 27/12 (including a superb Brahms’ Variations on an Original Theme) and/or for the Carducci Quartet’s 28/12 performance, which followed marvellous Haydn and Ravel with a characteristically superb Shostakovich 2nd Quartet. Enormously exhilarating, both – but I felt it best to let my original list stay as was.
OPERA
Judith Weir: Blond Eckbert, English Touring Opera, Cornelius, Snape Maltings, 7/6
Britten: The Turn of the Screw, ENO, Ward, Coliseum, 23/10
OTHER
Avishai Cohen, Yonathan Avishai, Wigmore, 4/1
Amjad Ali Khan, Aman Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash, Zohaan Ali Bangash, Abeer Ali Bangash, Anubrata Chatterjee, Wigmore, 27/7
Giovanni Guidi, Gallery Rosenfeld, 18/9
Anouar Brahem, Bjorn Meyer, Klaus Gesing, Barbican, 17/11
Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje, King’s Place, 23/11
BOOKS (10, in order read)
Jane Austen: The Watsons
John McGahern: Amongst Women
Homer, trans Emily Wilson: The Iliad
Julian Barnes: The Man in the Red Coat
Katharine Rundell: The Golden Mole
Colm Tóibín: Long Island
Arnold Bennett: Leonora
Jeremy Mynott: Birdscapes
Michael Chabon: The Final Solution
Elizabeth Strout: Tell Me Everything
EXHIBITIONS (5, in order seen)
Impressionists on Paper (Royal Academy)
Sargent and Fashion (Tate Britain)
Gustave Caillebotte (Musée d’Orsay)
Surrealism (Centre Pompidou)
Pop Forever: Tom Wesselmann &… (Fondation Louis Vuitton)
notes and observations by Geoff Andrew 