These days, each and every year I get to thinking that the state of the world can’t get any worse, then something comes along to prove me wrong. I needn’t give examples here; suffice to say that, for me at least, the arts have become ever more important as a solace and distraction, above and beyond the not insignificant matter of their inherent worth. Indeed, this last year, instead of remaining a happily passive observer/consumer, I decided to take a small step to become, in a modest but marvellously rewarding way, an active participant – I joined a local choir. The move was in some respects quite transformative, and I heartily recommend it – alongside, of course, the joys of revelling in the creative achievements of others (which is what this blog is about), and the sustaining forces of love and friendship. I wish you all the very best for 2026, and hope that you too will be able to sample some of the pleasures afforded by the artists and works listed below.
FILMS (Roughly in order of preference)
NEW FILMS (25)
1. Young Mothers (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
2. Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
3. Kontinental ’25 (Radu Jude)
4. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)
5. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier – picture at top)
6. A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
7. Quand vient l’automne (When Autumn Falls) (François Ozon)
8. Orwell: 2+2=5 (Raoul Peck)
9. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
10. Presence (Steven Soderbergh)
11. Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)
12. Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
13. Dying (Matthias Glasner)
14. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
15. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
16. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
17. The Conclave (Edward Berger)
18. Motel Destino (Karim Aïnouz)
19. On Falling (Laura Carriera)
20. The Choral (Nicholas Hytner)
21. Holy Cow (Vingt dieux) (Louise Courvoisier)
22. Below the Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi)
23.. The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold)
24=. The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadžihalilović)
24=. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
(NB I have yet to catch The Secret Agent,and Marty Supreme. Far from a great year for cinema, in my opinion – by the time we’re halfway down the list above, we’re talking about some conspicuously flawed movies.)
OLDER FILMS SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME (5)
1. Variation – Or, Utopia Exists, Yes, I know! (Michael Haneke, 1983)
2. The Old Oak (Ken Loach)
3. Colonel Redl (István Szabó)
4. Wer War Edgar Allan? (Michael Haneke)
5. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
NEW BLURAY/DVD (5)
Michael Haneke: The Curzon Collection (Curzon)
Kiarostami at Kanoon: Shorts and Features (Criterion Eclipse)
István Szabó: Mephisto / Colonel Redl/ Hanussen (Second Run)
Bonjour Tristesse (Indicator)
The House of Mirth (BFI)
TV (Roughly in order of preference)
NEW TV
Slow Horses Series 5 (Saul Metzstein)
Mr Scorsese (Rebecca Miller)
Jacques Demy, le rose et le noir (Florence Platarets)
Adolescence (Philip Barantini)
OLD TV SERIES
Wolf Hall (Peter Kosminsky)
I, Claudius (Herbert Wise)
Eight Hours Are Not a Day (RW Fassbinder)
Succession (various, all four series)
(To be discussed: To what extent was Succession a successor to I, Claudius?)
MUSIC
NEW RELEASES (no particular order)
Classical (10)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Kurtág – Játékok (Pentatone)
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Ravel – Complete Works for Solo Piano (Chandos)
Timothy Ridout: Telemann, Bach, Britten, Shaw (Harmonia Mundi)
Belcea Quartet: Debussy & Szymanowski Quartets (Alpha)
Pavel Haas Quartet: Martinu – String Quartets 2-3-5-7 (Supraphon)
Nash Ensemble: Ravel (Onyx)
Various, BBC Concert Orchestra: Dobrinka Tabakova – Sun Triptych (ECM)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Adès: Thomas Adès – Orchestral Suites (LPO)
Vox Clamatis: Arvo Pärt – And I heard a voice (ECM)
Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon: Brahms – Ein Deutsches Requiem (Harmonia Mundi)
(Honourable mention: Nash Ensemble: Debussy (Hyperion) – as fine as their Ravel, really.)
Other (10)
François Couturier, Dominique Pifarély: Preludes and Songs (ECM)
Anouar Brahem: After the Last Sky (ECM)
Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra: Jorden vi ärvde (Thanatosis)
Erland Apneseth: Song over støv (Hubro)
Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen: After the Wildfire (Punkt)
Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin, Markku Ounaskari: Arcanum (ECM)
Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
Socrates Sinopoulos, Yann Keerim: Topos (ECM)
Linda May Han Oh, Ambrose Akinmusire, Tyshawn Sorey: Strange Heavens (Biophilia)
Lucian Ban, John Surman, Mat Maneri: Cantica Profana – The Béla Bartók Field Recordings (Sunnyside)
(Honourable mention: Benedicte Maurseth: Mirra (Hubro) – regrettably not in the ten, especially given the guest contributions by reindeer, curlew, golden plover, hen harrier and other fine vocalists. Plus a shout-out for Mike Westbrook: the piano and me – takes one to four (Bandcamp).)
LIVE MUSIC
Classical (20, in chronological order)
James Ehnes, Jonathan Vinocour, Raphael Bell, Inon Barnatan: Fauré, Brahms, Wigmore, 15/2
Steven Osborne: Bach, J MacMillan, J Weir, Schubert, Wigmore, 24/2
Leif Ove Andsnes, musicians from Mahler Chamber Orchestra: Stravinsky, Villa-Lobos, Poulenc, Vierne, Wigmore, 12/3
Takács Quartet, Adrian Brendel: Beethoven, Janácek, Schubert, Wigmore, 17/3
Alina Ibragimova, LPO, Hannu Lintu: Saariaho, Prokofiev, Nielsen, Royal Festival Hall, 26/3*
Igor Levit, Lukas Sternath: Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Wigmore, 4/4*
Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber: R Schumann, Wigmore, 24/4
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet: Ravel, Wigmore, 14/5*
Leif Ove Andsnes, Bertrand Chamayou: Schubert, Kurtág, Bach, Wigmore, 21/5
Alina Ibragimova, Cédric Tiberghien: Beethoven, Wigmore, 26/6
Ning Feng, Yeol Eum Son: Stravinsky, Schnittke, Szymanowski, Prokofiev, Kreisler, Wigmore, 17/7
Igor Levit: Schubert, R Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Wigmore. 22/9*
Mitsuko Uchida: Beethoven, Wigmore, 15/10*
Stéphane Degout, Simon Lepper: R Schumann, Debussy, Ropartz, Strohl, Ravel, Wigmore, 24/10
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, George Benjamin: Obouhow, Boulez, Benjamin, Ravel, Wigmore, 3/11
Leonkoro Quartet: Haydn, Schulhoff, Schubert, Wigmore, 5/11
Florian Boesch, Malcolm Martineau: Liszt, Zemlinsky, R Schumann, Wigmore, 17/11
Antoine Tamestit, Alexandra Preucil: Bach, Bartók, St Luke’s, 21/11
Nina Guo, London Sinfonietta, Jack Sheen: C Miller, R Saunders, J White, Grisey, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 28/11
Barbara Hannigan, Bertrand Chamayou: Messiaen, Skryabin, J Zorn, Wigmore, 6/12
(Honourable cornucopia: nigh-impossible to select just 20 concerts from more than seven times that number, a great many top-notch. The five listed with asterisks were the crème de la crème, but so many not included might have made it into the top 20. Some remarkable gigs not listed: Yunchan Lim and Vikingur Olafsson playing the Goldbergs within days of one another; the Quatuor Danel’s unmissably intense series pairing Shostakovich and Weinberg; triptychs devoted to Thomas Larcher and Bertrand Chamayou; massed anniversary celebrations of Ravel. If the likes of Argerich, Hewitt, Giltburg, Goerne, Bostridge, Tetzlaff, Frang, Isserlis and the Nash Ensemble didn’t make the final shortlist, that merely confirms the amazing standard of London’s musical life.)
Opera (5, roughly in order of preference)
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen, Covent Garden
Strauss: Salome (concert performance by LSO, Pappano et al), Barbican
Colin Matthews: A Visit to Friends, Snape Maltings
Oliver Leith: Last Days, Covent Garden
Jonathan Dove: Mansfield Park, Guildhall
Other (3, in chronological order)
Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Café Oto, 10/2
Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash, Anubrata Chatterjee, Wigmore, 12/7
Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Wigmore, 31/10
BOOKS (12, in no particular order)
Percival Everett: James
Patrick Hamilton: The Slaves of Solitude
Jonathan Coe: The Proof of My Innocence
Robin Lane Fox: Homer and His Iliad
Zadie Smith: The Fraud
Daniel Kehlmann: The Director
Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul
Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black
Alan Hollinghurst: Our Evenings
Alexander Baron: The Lowlife
PG Wodehouse: The Code of the Woosters
Henry Porter: The Enigma Girl
(Honourable mention: Robin Holloway’s Music’s Odyssey – even with a lot of skim reading, I’m still only halfway through its 1100 pages: frequently frustrating, often illuminating.
EXHIBITIONS (6)
Van Gogh – Poets and Lovers (National Gallery)
Goya to Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection (Courtauld)
Dormitorium – The Film Décors of The Quay Brothers (Swedenborg House)
Edward Burra (Tate Britain)
Kiefer / Van Gogh (Royal Academy)
Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals (Tate Britain)
(Honourable mention: Millet: Life on the Land (National Gallery) – small but quite stunning.)
SOME OTHER PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2025
notes and observations by Geoff Andrew 