City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Jarvi

Not being Latin American the Birmingham players put in huge effort but gave a performance that suggested that they were sitting an exam

Three stars for Julian Casablancas

A dash more presentational bling might have enhanced an inevitably slender batch of songs

Camille O’Sullivan

The half-Irish, half-French singer’s act is so wildly over the top that it really requires an interval every 15 minutes

Depeche Mode

Closing in on their 30th anniversary these teetotal dads, who have survived excess and feuds, can still draw huge crowds

Concertgebouw/Jansons

This great Dutch orchestra produced the sort of heart-stopping playing to make stone walls weep

Philharmonia/Makerras

Wagner is not a calling card of the protean Mackerras, but the same qualities that he brings to so much opera were all displayed here

Silversun Pickups

Natural heirs to Smashing Pumpkins, the Los Angeles quartet drenched the room in a tidal wave of guitar noise

LSO/Masekela

Hugh Masekela does not allow politics of South Africa to overshadow the urge to celebrate the universal human spirit

SCO/Ticciati

This concert said as much about the inexperience as the potential of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s new conductor

BBCSO/Spano

Bartók and Kodály: this concert ranged from “U certificate” to “18” music - and you could almost taste the lust

Four stars for Little Boots

The pièce de résistance came when an arc of laser beams played different notes when intercepted by Victoria Hesketh’s hands

How I became a fan of George Crumb

Seeing him on film, in concert and in conversation, you can come to like the visionary, octogenarian American composer

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Elder

The OAE’s Hayden anniversary festivities ended with the beginning of the world — a pleasing but inconsistent performance

Claire Martin/Ian Shaw

The Early Christmas Stocking is once again a practised-yet-spontaneous, bare-bones performance to thrill jazz fans

Wainwright/McGarrigle Family Christmas Show

Kate and Anna McGarrigle, the folk singers, were joined onstage by talented relatives including Rufus and Martha Wainwright

Transition Projects

Live video for classical concerts is an under-considered genre, but Transition Projects show how it is done with elan

Christine Brewer/Roger Vignoles

An exhalation of audience contentment wafted through the hall as Brewer unleashed a flood-tide of Strauss’s love songs

Athlete

Ballads were occasionally affecting, but lacked drama. Where Coldplay would have swaggered, Athlete too often swooned

Pink at the O2 arena

The star has the dynamics of playing big gigs sorted, and this show enabled her to give full rein to her theatrical impulses

Three stars for Alison Moyet at the Festival Hall

A jazzy Windmills of Your Mind was so bold that you felt she had been robbed of the chance to record a Bond theme