A Year of Relevance

‘Fire Shut Up In My Bones’ Written by composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons, from a memoir by Charles M. Blow (an opinion columnist for The New York Times), this opera tells of a childhood shaped by cycles of violence, tough motherly love and the lasting wounds of sexual abuse. Blanchard, an acclaimed trumpeter and film composer, aptly described his vibrant, moody score as an “opera in jazz.” The story’s volatile hero was presented as both a vulnerable boy (Jeremy Denis, at the premiere) and an angry 20-year-old (the remarkable bass-baritone Davóne Tines, in a wrenching performance). The Metropolitan Opera has announced its intention to present the work in a coming season.

‘Blue’ The composer Jeanine Tesori, best known for her Tony Award-winning musical “Fun Home,” and librettist-director Tazewell Thompson tell the story of a striving black family in Harlem with a rebellious teenage son who’s incensed over police intimidation of young black men. In a twist, the devoted but flummoxed father is a police officer. Tesori’s strong yet subtle score is combined with Thompson’s grimly elegant and snappy words — one of the best librettos I’ve heard in a long while.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard The main event of “Caramoor Takes Wing,” a celebration of birdsong at the lively Caramoor festival in Katonah, New York, was this pianist’s brilliant performance of Messiaen’s complete “Catalogue d’Oiseaux” (“Catalog of Birds”). It’s a staggeringly difficult suite of 13 pieces lasting more than 2 1/2 hours, into which the composer incorporated his own transcriptions and transformations of bird calls. Aimard performed it in three installments over two days in open-air spaces. Naturally, actual birds in nearby trees sang along, which would have delighted Messiaen.

‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ Though it’s still early to tell what long-term artistic goals Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Metropolitan Opera’s new music director, has in store, this year he led consistently distinguished performances, especially a ravishingly and revelatory account of this Debussy work, with an appealing cast.

‘Erwartung” and ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ Jaap van Zweden arrived as music director of the New York Philharmonic with a reputation for bold performances of standard repertory. Yet he has been more impressive, so far, in 20th-century and contemporary works, especially his blazing, probing accounts of Schoenberg’s monodrama “Erwartung” and Bartok’s one-act shocker “Bluebeard’s Castle,” paired in an inventive semi-staged production.

Barbara Hannigan In two programs over three days, in elegantly intimate rooms at the Park Avenue Armory, this soprano, one of the most restlessly adventurous artists of our time, gave a pair of extraordinary performances. The first, devoted to works by John Zorn, featured the composer’s wild 25-minute song cycle “Jumalattaret.” Hannigan conquered its fierce challenges in a mesmerizing performance with the stalwart pianist Stephen Gosling. On the second program, joined by members of the Emerson String Quartet, she took an enraptured audience on a journey through landmark 20th-century vocal works by Cage, Berio, Nono and Schoenberg.

Beatrice Rana With her New York recital debut at Zankel Hall in March, this young Italian pianist, playing works by Chopin, Ravel and Stravinsky, demonstrated why she is increasingly seen as one of the most insightful and prodigiously gifted artists of the new generation. Three months later, she was back at Carnegie for a stupendous performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with Nézet-Séguin leading the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Kelli O’Hara and Leif Ove Andsnes Kelli O’Hara, a leading lady of Broadway, and Leif Ove Andsnes, a superb pianist, both surprised me during solo appearances with orchestras. On the New York Philharmonic’s opening night in September, O’Hara sang Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.” Her light, shimmering voice suited this wistful music beautifully. Yet it was her keen feeling for James Agee’s elegiac, homespun text that made the performance exceptionally moving.

If O’Hara’s singing was a delightful surprise, Andsnes’ Apollonian account of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, with the Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, was an unexpected one. He brings the affinity of a fellow Norwegian, plus long experience, to the piece. Yet this thrilling performance sounded rethought. Played by Andsnes with clarity, eloquent lyricism and fearless bravura, Grieg’s familiar music, often milked to Romantic excess, emerged as an intricate, even daring composition.

Geneva Camerata Founded in 2013 by the pianist and conductor David Greilsammer, this ensemble has been winning over audiences, and shaking up classical music, in Europe. For its American debut, the 40-member group, along with the dancer Martí Corbera, presented the program “Dance of the Sun,” pairing a suite from Lully’s “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” and Mozart’s Symphony in G Minor. The musicians not only played the works (from memory!) but also marched and danced. That all music is movement came through viscerally.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .