(already subscribe? log in).

Highlights of 2011 in classical music

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

December 25, 2011

JEREMY EICHLER’S PICKS

■BEST BSO PERFORMANCES Works by Ades, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, led by Thomas Ades; Harbison’s Fifth Symphony under Jiri Belohlavek; Beethoven’s “Eroica’’ Symphony under Christoph von Dohnanyi at Tanglewood

■BEST SOLO RECITAL Jeremy Denk performing Ligeti and Bach, presented by Gardner Museum

■BEST OPERAS Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “The Emperor of Atlantis’’; Opera Boston’s production of “Cardillac.’’

■BEST LOCAL VOCAL PERFORMANCE Philippe Jaroussky with Apollo’s Fire under Jeannette Sorrell, presented by Boston Early Music Festival.

■BEST PERIOD BAROQUE PERFORMANCES Handel and Haydn Society’s “Israel in Egypt’’ under Harry Christophers; Boston Baroque’s “Les Indes Galantes’’ under Martin Pearlman; BEMF’s Charpentier double bill

■BEST ORCHESTRAL PERFORMANCES OUTSIDE OF SYMPHONY HALL Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony with Boston Philharmonic under Benjamin Zander; Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony with Discovery Ensemble under Courtney Lewis.

■BEST NEW SCORE “It Happens like this’’ by Charles Wuorinen, Tanglewood Music Center’s Festival of Contemporary Music

■BEST NEW MUSIC PERFORMANCE Clarinetists Evan Ziporyn, Rane Moore, Eran Egozy, and Alicia Lee, in Ziporyn’s “Hive,’’ presented by Rockport Music.

■MOST CREATIVE PROGRAMMING (CHAMBER MUSIC) The Brentano Quartet “Fragments’’ project, presented by Rockport Music

■MOST CREATIVE PROGRAMMING (EARLY MUSIC) Solamente Naturali, presented by BEMF