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What I call “curator mentality” - an urge to repackage the old, rather than championing the new - is a powerful factor in the classical music and opera worlds at any time. Next year it's likely to be overwhelming. What may tip the balance is the four big composer anniversaries that fall in 2009: of Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn.

There are plenty of good reason to celebrate them, of course - especially in Britain. Only Purcell was born here, but the others all achieved their greatest successes in this country. And although many of Handel's operas have entered the general repertoire, each of the four wrote an astonishing array of good music that hardly gets performed. Purcell's verse anthems, Handel's concerti grossi, Haydn's operas, Mendelssohn's songs - these are neglected gems that genuinely deserve resuscitation.

I just hope, however, that the anniversaries don't become an excuse for concert and opera life to retreat into antiquated retrospection. By far the most exciting sights I've seen in 2008 have been full houses (at least in London) for concerts of music by the likes of Stockhausen, Boulez, Messiaen and Elliott Carter that would have spelt box-office death even ten years ago. At last, it seems, a new, younger audience is coming into concert halls with an eager expectation - not a foreboding - that they are going to hear music that's fresh and challenging to their ears. With the economic outlook so dire for orchestras and opera houses, it's vital that this painstakingly re-established bridge between living composers and the public isn't destroyed again by play-safe programming.

In that spirit, my first “must hear” event of 2009 has to be a new work, or new to this country anyway. It's ENO's staging of John Adams's opera Doctor Atomic (Feb 25-Mar 18), which I saw in New York and found mesmerising. Not only does the story explore the tangled web of loyalties and moral dilemmas confronting the brilliant young scientists who created the atomic bomb in New Mexico in 1945; its music is the most gripping to have come from Adams's pen for years.

Little else in the opera calendar excites me like that. But at Covent Garden I'll be intrigued to see the first staged British performance of Erich Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt (Jan 27-Feb 17), which was a huge hit in 1920s Germany, then banned by the Nazis - an added recommendation. When Korngold moved to Hollywood he wrote brilliant film scores. Does his “serious” dramatic music cut the mustard? We'll find out.

Also at Covent Garden this spring is a new production of Wagner's Flying Dutchman (Feb 23-Mar 7). It's by the provocative Tim Albery, but all ears and eyes will be on Bryn Terfel in the title role, particularly as the mighty Welshman has shocked the opera world by announcing his imminent retirement, about 20 years too early. Let's just hope that he doesn't do what he did to Covent Garden's Ring cycle - pull out at the last moment because one of his children has hurt a finger.

At Glyndebourne, celebrating its 75th season (another damn anniversary!), I am mostly looking forward to a new production of Purcell's Fairy Queen (Jun 20-Aug 8) with the Baroque specialist William Christie conducting a delectable cast including Carolyn Sampson and Lucy Crowe. Nothing so far announced by the regional opera companies catches my eye. But Opera North and Welsh National have consistently delighted me in recent years with their sterling ensemble qualities, so I live in hope. The plight of Scottish Opera is a different matter, and I hesitate to imagine what the dire recent events in the Scottish financial sector mean for this beleaguered company's budget.

It's a much brighter story in the English orchestras, where a bunch of new brooms are sweeping the cobwebs from their respective podiums. Any concert presented by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with its brilliant new Ukrainian, Kirill Karabits (the next is on Feb 25), or by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under its young Latvian music director, Andris Nelsons (try his performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, May 27, 31), should be worth hearing. With Mark Elder still conducting superb performances with the Hallé in Manchester (including a hugely ambitious Götterdämmerung on May 9 and 10) and Vasily Petrenko galvanising the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to new heights, the regional music scene has rarely looked livelier.

In London a lot depends on relatively new brooms, too - particularly Vladimir Jurowski at the London Philharmonic and the suave Finnish maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Philharmonia. The latter's first big project is City of Dreams, a naff title for a far-ranging musical exploration of Vienna in the dangerous, crucible era of 1900 to 1935. It starts with Schoenberg's fabulous splurge Gurrelieder (Feb 28) and runs till October.

I'm also eager to see whether Kings Place, the handsome new chamber venue by King's Cross, can keep up the excellent momentum generated by its action-packed opening weeks in October. The pick of its programme in the coming months is a week of “Easter Reflections” by Harry Christophers's choir the Sixteen, drawing on sublime choral masterpieces of the 16th and 17th centuries (April 8-11).

If I had to pick a single week in 2009 when I wouldn’t be away from the concert hall, it would be April 14-18, when Gustavo Dudamel and his sensational Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela are in residence at the Festival Hall. Besides the concerts, which will be exhilarating if past experience is anything to go by, the Venezuelans will also be making music with British youngsters — and, it’s hoped, passing on some of their exuberance and enthusiasm. If that happens, the future of music in Britain is very bright indeed.

English National Opera: www.eno.org ; 0871 9110200

Royal Opera: www.roh.org.uk ; 020-7304 4000

Glyndebourne: www.glyndebourne.com ; 01273 813813

Hallé: www.halle.co.uk ; 0161-907 9000

CBSO: www.cbso.co.uk ; 0121-780 3333

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; www.bsolive.com ; 0844 4068666

Philharmonia: www.philharmonia.co.uk/vienna ; 0800 6526727

Kings Place: www.kingsplace.co.uk ; 020-7520 1490

Southbank Centre: www.southbankcentre.co.uk ; 0871 6632500

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