The Proms, July 18-Sept 13

The capital hosts four music festivals this summer, with the eclectic City of London Festival, the excellent Barbican-based Mostly Mozart, Spitalfields and, of course, the BBC Proms, which, under its new director, Roger Wright, offers stimulating themes and a rich array of star performers. Visiting orchestras include the Berlin Phil and Simon Rattle, the Chicago Symphony and Bernard Haitink, the New York Phil and Lorin Maazel, and, not least, Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. There is also the return of two great musicians, the outré Nigel Kennedy and the milder-man-nered Murray Perahia, after 22-year absences, and celebrations of key anniversaries: the 100th of Olivier Messiaen’s birth, the 50th of Vaughan Williams’s death and the 80th of Karlheinz Stock-hausen’s birth.

Glyndebourne Festival Opera May 18-August 31

Two operas stand out from the crowd at Britain’s best opera theatre this year: Emmanuelle Haïm conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Robert Carsen’s new production of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Monte-verdi’s masterpiece about love, power and corruption; and a Glyndebourne commission, Peter Eotvos’s Love and Other Demons, adapted from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novella, is given its world premiere run, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and directed by Silviu Purcarete. www.glyndebourne.com

Grange Park Opera June 4-July 9

Three works to look forward to this year at the Grange, a dilapidated early-19th-century stately home in Hampshire now graced by a purpose-built 530-seat theatre. Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, directed by Stephen Medcalf, Dvo-rak’s Rusalka, directed by Antony McDonald and Offenbach’s Blue Beard, directed by Stephen Langridge. Strong casts for all.
www.grangeparkopera.co.uk

Garsington Opera June 4-July 6

There is an intriguing trio of operas at Garsington Manor’s tented theatre in Oxfordshire. Vivaldi’s 1717 opera L’incoronazione di Dario will be conducted by Lau-rence Cummings and directed by David Freeman. Martin André conducts and Olivia Fuchs directs Stravinsky’s neo-baroque The Rake’s Progress, with Robert Murray as Tom Rakewell and Christopher Purves as Nick Shadow. And Steuart Bedford is in charge of a revival of John Cox’s 2004 staging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
www.garsingtonopera.org

Aldeburgh Festival June 13-29

Under the artistic direction of Thomas Adès, Aldeburgh’s programme is nothing if not wide-ranging. This year the list of performers includes: the Britten Sinfonia; the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group playing music by Adès and the featured composer, Gyorgy Kurtag; Exaudi vocal ensemble in music by Wolf-gang Rihm and Iannis Xenakis; Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano in Schubert’s Schwanengesang; the Arditti Quartet in Birtwistle’s new Tree of Strings; Imogen Cooper; Steven Isserlis . . . Oh, and a new opera, An Ocean of Rain, by the British-Cypriot composer Yannis Kyriakide.
www.aldeburgh.co.uk

East Neuk Festival July 2-6

East Neuk, the promontory between St Andrew’s Bay and the Firth of Forth, is the location of a young, condensed, award-winning festival. This year there are two resident quartets, the Eroica, playing Mendelssohn and Beethoven, and the Skampa, playing Czech music, as well as two resident vocal ensembles, the Orlando Consort and the group of extraordinary Mongolian throat-singers, Huun Huur Tu. The pianist Llyr Williams charts a path from Schubert to Debussy, while the Scottish Chamber Orchestra gives a programme on the theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
www.eastneukfestival.com

York Early Music Festival July 3-12

For those drawn to the preclassical repertoire, York is a veritable Mecca. This year, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays music by Johann Christoph Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel, while home-grown forces – the Yorkshire Bach Choir and Baroque Soloists – can be heard in Handel’s Israel in Egypt. There’s the Rose Consort of viols in music by Englishmen abroad and an enticing series of lectures.
www.ncem.co.uk

Cheltenham Festival July 4-19

Now under Meurig Bowen’s artistic direction, this year serene Cheltenham marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, while Messiaen’s centenary is celebrated with performances of his complete organ works in a day and night marathon by half a dozen local organists. Peter Maxwell Davies will hear his Eight Songs for a Mad King and a new Piano Quartet.
www.cheltenhamfestivals.com

Buxton Festival July 9-27

Buxton’s lovely opera theatre is graced with an astonishing variety of work. Harry Christophers will conduct the Orchestra of the Sixteen in a staging of Handel’s Samson, with Tom Randle in the title role. There is an intriguing triple bill of English one-acters: Holst’s Savitri and The Wandering Scholar, and Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Kurt Weill’s Street Scene also feature.
www.buxtonfestival.co.uk

Three Choirs Festival August 2-9

This year it’s Worcester’s turn to play host to the venerable Three Choirs Festival, now under the artistic direction of Adrian Parting-ton, organist at Gloucester Cathedral. Besides the usual plethora of organ recitals and choral evensongs, there will be a chance to see a double bill of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. There’s also, of course, grand oratorio in the cathedral in the form of Elgar’s The Apostles, with the resident Philhar-monia Orchestra, plus much more.
www.3choirs.org

Edinburgh International Festival August 8-31

Musically, Edinburgh continues to be bustling, glitzy and disparate. Valery Gergiev is a dominating presence, conducting concert performances of Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Mariinsky Opera’s staging of Szymanowski’s intoxicating Krol Roger, as well as all seven Prokofiev symphonies. Due tribute to Messiaen is paid by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with a performance of his sublime late masterpiece Eclairs sur l’au-dela. Visiting orchestras include the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Recitalists include pianists Ivan Moravec and Alfred Brendel and

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