It was the year of the big three. Wagner, Britten and Verdi, in that order, enjoyed anniversary adulation. Wagner would no doubt have bullied his way to the top but he hardly needed to, given the duration of his major operas, all of which were performed at the BBC Proms. Britten came in close behind, with every opera house, concert hall, music club, choral society and record label – supported by intelligent programming on Radio 3 – jostling to contribute to Britten 100. Opera North staged a strong Britten season. Albert Herring was everywhere and Peter Grimes ended up on a windy beach. That staging caught the public's imagination, is already on DVD, and showed that brave singers will risk the elements for their art. Britten also outstripped any composer in history by being featured on a British 50 pence coin.

Contemporary music enjoyed cult status, especially in the opera house: George Benjamin's Written on Skin had its UK premiere at the Royal Opera House, where Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur was given a sell-out revival. Michel van der Aa's hi-tech The Sunken Garden was premiered by ENO, who also mounted Philip Glass's The Perfect American about Walt Disney: not a perfect opera but full of interest. Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest (2010) was given its first UK and Irish stagings.

Excellent smaller companies and ensembles – Music Theatre Wales, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, Aurora Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Scottish Ensemble and the London Sinfonietta – kept music-making novel and fertile. The Southbank Centre's year-long The Rest Is Noise hit a high with Stockhausen, Boulez, Kurtág. Frank Zappa's 200 Motels had a belated premiere staging. Huddersfield contemporary music festival and the debutante London contemporary music festival in a Peckham car park turned heads and took risks.

Operatic rarities were all the rage: Donizetti's "Tudor" operas at Welsh National Opera, Verdi's Les Vêpres siciliennes at the Royal Opera, Cavalli's Jason by English Touring Opera, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie and Charpentier's Medea at ENO. Big symphonic highlights included Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil and Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus at the Barbican. Wigmore Hall welcomed the Rosenblatt recitals, and less formal venues nationwide, from pubs to barns, flourished.

There were sad departures: Colin Davis, John Tavener, Richard Rodney Bennett, Steve Martland, Richard Angas among them. There were arrivals too: a shiny new auditorium, Milton Court, part of Guildhall and the Barbican, and a new hall in Saffron Walden. Valery Gergiev got too deep into politics. Vasily Petrenko embarrassed himself with silly remarks about female conductors. Marin Alsop was the first woman at the helm of the Last Night of the Proms. She won't be the last. Prediction for 2014: that subject won't lie down.