2025 in music – Arcana’s 12 albums of Christmas!

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by Ben Hogwood

In my humble opinion, 2025 has been a brilliant year for new music. Over the course of the year I have listened to more than a hundred new albums and have been fortunate enough to review a good many of them for musicOMH (Suede, Kae Tempest, Gruff Rhys and Cate Le Bon being just four examples) and here as editor of Arcana.

Rather than restrict our thoughts to numbers or ratings, I wanted simply to present albums that Richard Whitehouse and I have reviewed here and have been returning to frequently. You’ll see the musical variety on show is as broad as this site would like it to be! So, in chronological order…

…try listening to C Duncan’s It’s Only A Love Song without being drawn into his weather-beaten world of romantic expression. This is another beautiful and personal album, Duncan’s voice and musical command only improving with time. Tunng’s return is a cause for celebration, and the band’s lates album Love You All Over Again is a typically winsome mix of quirky musical thoughts and unexpectedly concentrated emotions, all expressed through catchy melody.

At the start of last year, California was in the grip of terrible fire. The musical response was nothing short of extraordinary, not least from Leaving Records, whose massive compilation Staying not only kept a high musical bar of ambience – in spite of the terrors – but raised money for the area’s troubled residents.

Gavin Higgins continues to prove himself to be one of the most interesting voices in classical contemporary music these days. If you wanted a good place to start, think no further than his 2025 album The Fairie Bride, a Lyrita release including the Horn Concerto.

Meanwhile, the Italian-US composer Vittorio Rieti proved himself fully deserving of a recall towards the classical front line. This Naxos release of a good deal of the composer’s music for piano and orchestra revealed a distinctive voice influenced by Stravinsky but finding its own original identity.

Moving sideways into the worlds of shoegaze and electronica, we have a series of rather wonderful releases that graced the headphones in 2025. Guitarist Andy Bell – prior to reclaiming his position in Oasis – released the excellent pinball wanderer album, a record that proved to be “equal parts Krautrock and Manchester”, while over at Castles In Space, Andrea Cichecki found “an inner serenity and brightness” on her album Drawn Into The Edge Effect, bringing positive energy to her ambient music. Speaking of ambience, Pye Corner Audio also found the sweet spot that blends relaxation and invigoration, with the heavenly Lake Deep Memory album.

Bureau B continued their streak of excellence with one of the year’s best compilations. Silberland Vol.3 celebrates the ambient side of Kosmische Musik with music of great colour and charm. Darker worlds were explored by the electronica of the remarkable Cosey Fanny Tutti, whose new chapter 2t2 proved a compelling and occasionally foreboding piece of work. Similarly well-established are the Matmos duo, and like Cosey their spirit for exploration goes undimmed. Metallic Human Nature only allows metallic objects in its discourse, but the imagination of the pair comes through in their use of creaking doors, pots and pans to make a surprisingly moving whole.

Our last visit to classical waters is made by cellist Parry Karp, whose new accounts of music by Ernest Bloch on Signum Classics get to the nub of what makes this composer uniquely expressive:

Baxter Dury has a sort of charm, though you wouldn’t want to get on his wrong side! Allbarone is his finest solo achievement to date, channelling his family influence but raging against city slickers and the like in a series of wickedly funny and extremely catchy songs, ably assisted by JGrrey.

More music of a rhythmic bent comes from Ten City, with their joyous celebration The Next Generation. There are several spiritual highs to be enjoyed within their house music, thanks to a set that frequently hits the highs.

With these albums suitably praised, who should take the album of the year? Well I’m going to give it to the record I’ve revisited most often…which is Andy Bell’s pinball wanderer. Listen to it a few times and you’ll see what I mean!

Published post no.2,754 – Saturday 20 December 2025

In concert – Chaos String Quartet @ University of Birmingham: Haydn, Wallen & Bartók

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Chaos String Quartet [Susanne Schäffer & Eszter Kruchió (violins), Sara Marzadori (viola), Bas Jongen (cello)]

Haydn String Quartet in E flat major Op.20/1 (1772)
Wallen Remembering 2012 (2025) [BBC commission: World premiere]
Bartók String Quartet no.3 BB93 (1927)

Elgar Concert Hall @ Bramall Music Building, University of Birmingham
Friday 12 December 2025 (1pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Birmingham University’s regular series of lunchtime recitals came to its close for 2025 with one postponed from earlier this year – the Chaos String Quartet (based in Vienna) being heard in a programme that played to the strengths of this most enterprising among younger ensembles.

Its warmly received debut release having featured the fifth of Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets, it was good to hear this group as persuasive in the first work from that groundbreaking set. Certainly its initial Allegro moderato found the right balance between an underlying elegance with that inquiring spirit such as informs all six of these pieces, and was duly abetted by the deceptive playfulness of its ensuing Minuet. The slow movement was as ‘sustained and affectionate’ as its marking indicates it should be, with the final Presto propelled along on its buoyant course.

There have been numerous commissions in BBC Radio 3’s ’25 for 25’ series, with this latest being by Errollyn Wallen (currently Master of the King’s Music). Howsoever its title might be interpreted, Remembering 2012 packs considerable emotion into its five-minute duration – such that the composer might consider extending it or adding further movements. It hardly needs adding that the year in question, coming mid-way between the world financial crash and Brexit, now seems harbinger of a more positive era which manifestly failed to happen.

The recital ended with a performance of Bartók’s Third Quartet which hopefully commended to those present what is the most difficult to grasp of this cycle – not least given the ingenuity of its formal design, along with its innovative if always constructive use of extended playing techniques. Having pursued a suspenseful course across its ‘Prima parte’, the Chaos ensured a visceral impact to its ‘Second parte’ before securing palpable eloquence from the former’s ‘Recapitulazione’, prior to a ‘Coda’ as carried all before it in an outburst of unbridled energy.

A memorable conclusion to an impressive recital, the Chaos returning with the Minuet from the fourth of Haydn’s Op. 20 quartets as teasing encore. Its sophomore recording scheduled early next year, hopefully this most questing ensemble will be back in the UK before long.

Published post no.2,753 – Friday 19 December 2025

For more on the Barber Lunchtime Concerts, head to the Barber Institute website, and click on the links to read more about the Chaos String Quartet and composer Errollyn Wallen

On this day – the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ in 1892

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by Ben Hogwood. Image by Charles Reutlinger, used courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day in 1892, the first performance took place of Tchaikovsky’s popular seasonal ballet The Nutcracker Op.71, a musical and staged interpretation of Alexandre Dumas’s French version of the E.T.A. Hoffmann fairy-tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King.

The premiere was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, conducted by Riccardo Drigo, and found favour with the Czar, but not so much the public, who preferred the shorter Nutcracker Suite Tchaikovsky fashioned from the ballet.

Here is the full ballet, with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin:

Published post no.2,752 – Thursday 18 December 2025

On Record – Rick Wakeman: Melancholia (Madfish)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

In the last ten years, we have had much more of an insight into Rick Wakeman’s world as a solo musician. These glimpses are afforded us through the albums Piano Portraits and Piano Odyssey, the start of a trilogy now completed by Melancholia.

Yet there is a greater personal edge to this particular set, started by Wakeman’s wife Rachel who was struck by hearing Rick playing privately and encouraged him to share his musical thoughts. The music she heard would become the track Garo, while the other eleven tracks on the album follow a similar, semi-improvised tread.

The music follows Wakeman’s train of thought, a clear thread running through each piece.

What’s the music like?

Melancholia is easy listening – which is of course both a blessing and a curse. If you listen closely, it is possible to tap into Rick’s mostly reflective moods, and admire the way he develops the source material. Clearly this is a master musician at work, the feeling being that we are eavesdropping on an advanced practice session where Wakeman takes us through his intimate thoughts and feelings.

Yet this does also work as a disadvantage, for the music falls effortlessly into the ‘peaceful piano’ section of any digital playlist. This is great for passive listening of course, but it means some of the deeper meanings within the music can be lost, especially given the similarity between the colours on each track.

Wakeman plays with elegance and attention to detail, with some lovely little ornamentations that have become second nature to him, rather like bringing a Bach invention to the table. Pathos is nicely turned, while Alone is led by an attractive melody. Watching Life has a satisfying balance of light and shade, while the title track fades into the distance, leaving room for thought at the end.

Does it all work?

Yes, providing the caveats above are taken into account.

Is it recommended?

It is – though anyone expecting the physical energy Wakeman brings to most of his keyboard playing will find it channelled for inward thoughts only here. Melancholia does, though, reinforce Rick Wakeman’s status as one of the most versatile British keyboard and piano players around.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,751 – Wednesday 16 December 2025

In concert – St. John’s College Choir Cambridge / Christopher Gray – Christmas Carols @ Wigmore Hall

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Choir of St. John’s College Cambridge / Christopher Gray

Beamish In the stillness (2007)
Rutter There is a flower (1986)
Parsons Ave Maria (c1560)
Hassler Verbum caro factum est (1591)
Britten A Hymn to the Virgin (1930, rev. 1934)
Walton All this time (1970)
Trad/German arr. Pearsall In dulci jubilo
Hieronymus Praetorius Magnificat quinti toni (pub. 1622)
Daley Love came down at Christmas (2004)
Poston Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (1967)
Kirbye Vox in Rama (c.1620)
Anon Coventry Carol
Dove The Three Kings (2000)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 15 December 2025

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What a lovely idea to bring a concert of Christmas Carols to the last of the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts held in the Wigmore Hall in 2025. The Choir of St. John’s College Cambridge, suitably attired, were led in a stirring yet thought-provoking programme by their conductor Christopher Gray, who have just released O Holy Night, an album of Christmas carols, on Signum Classics.

Yet much of the selection here went beyond the album’s component parts, exploring responses old and new to specific parts of the Christmas story. In a curious twist, the oldest music heard proved to be the most adventurous and emotive.

The concert began with an account of Sally Beamish’s In the stillness which was notable for its crystal clear intonation and enunciation, features the choir would display throughout the concert. John Rutter’s There is a flower fared equally well, the anthem he wrote for the choir leading with a touching treble solo, before the complexities of Robert Parsons’ masterful Ave maria were aligned in commendable phrasing. Similar qualities befell the lively exchanges of counterpoint in Hans Leo Hassler’s Verbum caro factum est, before the remarkable invention of the teenage Britten was found in A Hymn to the Virgin, music that looks simultaneously forward and backward.

The choir performed these carols in carefully arranged sequences, ideally programmed for tonality and emotive impact. Walton’s exuberant All this time began the second sequence, the choir enjoying the push-pull rhythms, after which In dulci jubilo switched on its ever-beautiful light in the darkness, casting a spell in spite of a slightly ragged second verse. The clever text setting of Hieronymus Praetorius – not the normally performed Michael! – was especially enjoyable in his Magnificat setting, before the clarity of carols from Canadian composer Eleanor Daley and Brit Elizabeth Poston was beautifully achieved. The latter’s Jesus Christ The Apple Tree was particularly moving in the simplicity with which its paragraphs end.

The mood darkened appreciably for George Kirbye’s lament Vox in Rama, the inconsolable Rachel weeping for the loss of her children in the massacre ordered by King Herod, while the Coventry Carol too sounded sombre in this company. All the more reason to end with a characterful account of Jonathan Dove’s The Three Kings, brilliantly characterised by the trebles especially.

Two encores followed – a breathless and exciting arrangement of Adam lay ybounden by Laura Sheils, then a close-harmony version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, channelling Cole Porter to show-stopping effect. It was the musical equivalent of a mince pie with extra brandy, the ideal way to send the Wigmore Hall audience humming into the afternoon!

You can listen to the concert on BBC Sounds here, and explore the choir’s recent discography at the Signum Classics website.

Published post no.2,750 – Tuesday 16 December 2025