This was the fourteenth year of Music We'd Like To Hear, the summer series of concerts organised by composers John Lely and Tim Parkinson. The atmosphere at these Friday evening concerts is informal and convivial – the audience is routinely invited to join the musicians down at the pub on the corner afterwards – but the underlying purpose is entirely serious about music. As always, each programme focuses on new music and significant works that have been rarely, or never, played in this country. The concerts wouldn't look out of place at Huddersfield, but the rationale here is less academic than personal.

If this review contained a single sentence on every piece that was performed – let alone every lecture, discussion or open forum – from 14 to 28 July in Darmstadt, it would easily be book-length. Like, big book – maybe not Taruskin big, but definitely Rutherford-Johnson big. I have, for the most part, written about the bits that particularly struck me and tried to make sense of them both in themselves and in the context of the courses. This was especially difficult to do this year, because there really was no singular takeaway being presented, advocated or otherwise offered, which is quite remarkable, but makes narrowing down review material even more fraught. None of the pieces discussed below get the full description and analysis that they deserve – this is just a first attempt to make sense of things that happened.

The First Night of this year's BBC Proms (BBC SO/Sakari Oramo plus youth ensembles, 13 July) offered, as it happened, an immediate comparison with one of the first Proms I can recall reviewing, back in 1973. Both concerts included Holst's The Planets, and that 1973 concert had preceded this with a beautiful composition by Elisabeth Lutyens. Forty-five years ago, she was one of four women composers whose works were featured at the Proms; without, as far as I recall, much comment on gender-related issues.

Speak Percussion, soprano Jessica Aszodi, and a crowd of 25, gave an intense performance, and world premiere, of Liza Lim's hour-long Atlas of the Sky. Lim's work was inspired by three poems: ‘The Stars’ by Eliot Weinberger, and ‘Whetting’ and ‘The Answer’ by contemporary Chinese poet Bei Dao. Imagery on stage was derived from the poetry, and the work touched on themes of community, ritual, and crowds.