This is the twenty-second year that MusicWeb International has asked its reviewing team to nominate their recordings of the year. Reviewers are not restricted to discs they had reviewed, but the choices must have been reviewed on MWI in the last 12 months (December 2023-November 2024), and should be releases from the last year or so.
The 122 selections have come from 27 members of the team and 70 different labels. The choices reflect, as usual, the great diversity of music and sources.
Of the selections, one has received six nominations:
• Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner 7 from Pittsburgh on Reference Recordings
One has received three nominations:
• Sir Mark Elder’s Delius Mass of Life on LAWO Classics
And four have received two nominations:
• Yunchan Lim’s Chopin Études on Decca
• the Asasello Quartet’s Shostakovich quartets on Genuin
• Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux Étoiles on Seattle Symphony Media
• Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade on Château de Versailles
Of the labels, Chandos headed the field with seven nominations, closely followed by Alpha Classics and Reference Recordings with six.
MWI Recording of the Year
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
Even without checking the archive of the previous 21 years, it is fairly safe to say that it is a first for these awards that a single recording has been nominated by six reviewers. Therefore, the choice of this year’s MWI Recording of the Year was made rather simple. Quoting our three reviewers (all of whom made it a Recommended recording), Honeck’s Bruckner (and Bates) was described as “truly unmissable”, “as successful on the technical side as it is on the musical side”, “persuasively interpreted and marvellously played” and the “prime recommendation”.
Reviews: Ralph Moore ~ John Quinn ~ Kelvin Chan
For the individual reviewer selections, click on the cover image to read the original review.
| Len Mullenger (Founder) |
Benjamin Britten Violin Concerto, Double Concerto – Baiba Skride (violin), Ivan Vukčević (viola), ORF Vienna RSO/ Marin Alsop rec. 2021/22 Orfeo C220021
I first encountered Baiba Skride through her recording of the Shostakovich 1st violin concerto (Sony). I was impressed with how she could spin a story through a single phrase or even through single notes. This is now also true of the Britten Violin Concerto. She has a way of hanging on to each note, empowering it. She never appears rushed but has the time to say what she wants. Her playing is totally clean with no pattering on the fingerboard. Britten has written some horribly high filigrees of twittering notes on the violin, at one point only accompanied by very low notes on the tuba! Her nimbleness allows these spiky notes to have real clarity with a depth of tone often absent from other players that must surely be fiendishly difficult to execute. Her pizzicato notes have power. In the final passacaglia there is ethereal beauty but also introspection and anguish. Not only do I admire her performance but she has made the Concerto itself a much more important work – and she has the full support of Marin Alsop in this. This is a beautiful recording – and my Recording of the Year.
Gustav Mahler Symphonies, 2, 4, 7 & 9, Das Lied von der Erde – Philharmonia O, New PO/Otto Klemperer rec. 1961-1967 Warner Classics 5419780459
It has been a bumper year for amazing reissues (a new golden age perhaps). Pristine have been doing this all year but then Decca did a bit of cooking and came up with the most amazing transfers of The Britten War Requiem and Solti’s Ring now issued on SACD. They could well have been my reissues of the year but I am afraid the prices Decca decided to sell them at were a rip-off, but if they are ever issued at a normal price I urge you to buy them. However, my reissue of the year goes to a very reasonably priced 7CD box of Klemperer’s Mahler. The restorations are by Art et Son, whom I have encountered before in the Warner complete Barbirolli, and in both sets the sound is unbelievably good. There is a wide acoustic with solid instrument or singer images, a huge dynamic range (remember these recordings hail from the 1960s) and a total lack of hiss. The 1960s were vintage years for recording and there is no need to make any excuses for the fact they were analogue – you would never know.
| Stephen Barber |
Pristine Classic’s remastering of the 1956 Bayreuth Ring is a remarkable reissue, with a starry cast, fine playing and conducting and, I can truthfully say, really good sound. I am not allowing myself two Messiaen nominations so I am mentioning here excellent performances of two of his song cycles with Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou (Alpha). This was the year I discovered Philip Glass’s piano etudes and, to my surprise, I have been captivated by them. Feico Deutekom offers an intelligent selection on one disc (Orange Mountain), while Máire Carroll provides the whole set on two (Delphian).
Victor Nicoara (piano) Polyphonic Dreams rec. 2023 Hänssler Classic HC23046
The highlight of this recital is Nicoara’s revised version of Busoni’s great Fantasia Contrappuntistica, in which he incorporates the improvements which the composer made in his later versions but never got round to putting back into the solo piano version. This should become the standard version. The performance is excellent, and the recital also includes the Polyphonic Studies as well as other smaller pieces.
Olivier Messiaen Des Canyons aux Étoiles – Steven Osborne (piano) Jeffrey Fair (horn), Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot rec. 2022 Seattle Symphony Media SSM1028
Messiaen’s grand celebration of the natural world has had two excellent recordings this year. Thierry Fischer’s is very impressive but is just pipped to the post by Ludovic Morlot, who has Steven Osborne as his pianist. Perhaps the fact that it was recorded live is what makes the difference.
Karol Szymanowski Concert Overture, Songs of a Fairy Princess, Symphony 3 – Iwona Sobotka (soprano), NFM Choir, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic/Giancarlo Guerrero rec. 2021/22 CD Accord ACD315
In recent years Szymanowski has been well recorded but this new version has two attractions on top of already excellent performances. One is that we get not the normal three, but all six of the Songs of a Fairy Tale Princess, with the remaining three given orchestral dress at last. The other is that the symphony is performed with the composer’s permitted alternative of a soprano instead of the normal tenor solo, and is, if possible, even more beguiling in this form. Only the overture, a piece of pastiche Richard Strauss, is comparatively uninteresting.
George Benjamin Picture a day like this – Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano), Anna Prohaska (soprano), Mahler CO/George Benjamin rec. 2023 Nimbus Records NI8116
George Benjamin’s latest opera is a one act chamber work. An unnamed Woman is told that her dead child can live again if she can take a button from someone who is truly happy. She has several unsatisfactory encounters before meeting the mysterious Zabelle, and her quest is fulfilled. The work has already had several productions and the jewel-like score is beautifully realized here, with the composer conducting.
John Stainer The Crucifixion – Ch St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh/ Duncan Ferguson rec. 2023 Delphian DCD34275
The famous old Victorian warhorse rather fell out of favour but it is a good work, although not a great one, and it deserves a good recording. It is much shorter and easier than the Bach Passions, on which it is loosely modelled, and so is within the range of church choirs and choral societies. This performance is enjoyable in itself and can also serve as a model for those considering performing it themselves.
Igor Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Scherzo à la Russe, Suites, Apollon Musagète – James Ehnes (violin), BBC Philharmonic/Sir Andrew Davis rec. 2023 Chandos CHSA5340 SACD
Andrew Davis was always a good Stravinsky conductor and here is what is probably his last recording. James Ehnes handles the solo line the violin concerto with aplomb, and the orchestra answers with appropriate piquancy and wit. The playing in Apollon Musagète, for strings only, is lustrous and beautiful, and there are some smaller works to round out the picture. This is a peach of a disc.
| David Barker |
Rita Strohl Chamber Music rec. 2023 La Boîte à Pépites BAP07-09
I’d not heard of Rita Strohl before a MWI colleague reviewed Volume 3 of this series. Having listened to this collection of most of her chamber music, I now find it hard to believe that her music has lain unplayed and unrecorded for so long. At least three of the works, in particular the piano quartet, deserve a place in the standard repertoire.
Antonio Vivaldi Le Quattro Stagione, Sovvente il sole, Sonata ‘La follia’ – Paul-Antoine Bènos-Djian (countertenor), Le Concert de la Loge/Julien Chauvin (violin) rec. 2023 Alpha Classics 1005
I didn’t think I would ever find a performance of The Four Seasons to rival either version by Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante, but I was wrong. Julien Chauvin and Le Concert de la Loge are vivid, vibrant and full-blooded, but also reveal details that I’d not heard before. To quote my review “I have not heard the opening to Summer better portray the slow laziness of a hot Italian summer, nor the dissonant chords in the slow movement of Autumn be so disturbing”.
| Nick Barnard |
Another year of diverse and interesting discs to review. Perhaps most notable in my list is the absence of any of the larger labels. Honourable mentions though to a predictably fine Volume 4 of Coates’s orchestral music from John Wilson on Chandos and a remarkable collection Hungarian music for string trio on BIS. Albion continue to find music of real interest and value by Vaughan Williams although none quite squeezed into my top six. The following discs are in the order I reviewed them through the last twelve months. As ever my choices must be fascinating repertoire, superbly performed and well recorded.
Frederick Delius A Mass of Life – Roderick Williams (baritone), Bergen PO & Ch/ Sir Mark Elder rec. 2022 LAWO Classics LWC1265
Delius remains a composer whose music continues to divide sharply both performers and listeners. This is one of his most ambitious works and here it receives an interpretation to match that ambition. Tender or exultant this music receives what is quite possibly its finest ever all-round performance. Three reviews on MWI garnered three “recommended” awards.
Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartets 7-13 – Asasello-Quartett rec. 2022/23 Genuin GEN23826
Note to reviewer – never jump to conclusions in advance. I nearly passed over this pair of discs on the assumption that the music was already well-served elsewhere by better-known ensembles. This turned out to be some of the finest, most intense and compellingly searching quartet playing I have heard. Factor in the masterpieces that are these works and the result is breath-taking. I love the fact that the plying here feels like a combination of the meticulously prepared and the spontaneous. The remaining quartets are promised in a later release – discs I will snap up at the earliest opportunity.
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 3 Richard Strauss Tod und Verklärung – Norma Proctor (contralto), Ambrosian Singers, London SO/Jascha Horenstein rec. 1970 High Definition Tape Transfers HDTT15476
Normally re-releases are not allowed as part of the Records of the Year survey. But this is a remarkable “new” recording of a classic performance. Highly unusually the original company Unicorn allowed an independent American sound engineer to record the same 1970 sessions in parallel. The engineer Jerry Bruck was a disciple of minimalist microphone arrays and the result here is sensational. For me a great performance and recording has become even better. The addition of a powerful Strauss Tod und Verklärung recorded at the same sessions an excellent bonus.
State Fair and the 20th Century-Fox Songbook BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra/David Charles Abell rec. 2021 Dutton Epoch 2CDLX7408 SACD
As I wrote in my original review, historically informed practice or ‘authenticity’ is often perceived as the preserve of groups and composers from many years ago. But here we are given a remarkable collection of film musicals and songs presented with just such authentic rigour but also flair, insight, real technical accomplishment but most of all love. This is clearly something of a passion project by all involved and it succeeds triumphantly. The most feel-good set of the year.
Traum und Trauma Violin Sonatas by Antheil, Debussy, Janáček & Schulhoff – Friederike Starkloff (violin), Endri Nini (piano) rec. 2022 Genuin GEN24870 [65]
A perfect example of how to craft a fascinating and rewarding programme that creates unexpected linkages and parallels from essentially familiar music. Add two performers of great technical and musical skill completely in tune with each other and the scores they play and the result is absorbing listening from first bar to last.
Erin Morley (soprano) Rose in Bloom – Gerald Martin Moore (piano), Ransom Wilson (flute) rec. 2022 Orchid Classics ORC100294
Such is the artistry of soprano Erin Morley and the sheer beauty of her voice that you imagine she could make singing her weekly supermarket shopping list an absorbing listening experience. But in addition to her remarkable voice, this disc is a model of skilled programming featuring such contrasted composers as Saint-Säens to Berg, Milhaud to Zemlinsky, Rachmaninov to Sullivan – all capped off by Ivor Novello. Quite aside from the technical and musical skill displayed by both Morley and her accompanist Gerald Martin Moore, the triumph of this disc is the diverse programme forged into a compelling whole.
| Rob Barnett (Founding Editor) |
Words from the hymn by Francis Pott (1832-1909): “Craftsman’s art and music’s measure” cry out from the music and visual arts of that polymath Thomas Pitfield (1903-1999). His life and legacy are increasingly yielding discs and a superb book. The music of Paolo Ugoletti (Brilliant) and Barry Mills (Claudio) must also not pass without mention. High praise too for Alan Poulton’s book “Musical Companion for Malcolm Arnold”. Even so, these are edged out of the final count by these discs.
Dorothy Howell Orchestral Works – BBC Concert O/Rebecca Miller rec. 2022 Signum Classics SIGCD763
Over the years the name and potential of this Birmingham-born composer has caught my attention. Her works were performed in the 1910s-20s at the Proms and Bournemouth. This has been topped off in recent years by the intricately woven book by Leah Broad and by quite a few recordings. This is the first all-Howell orchestral CD and everything here is pleasing. The tone poem Lamia is there in a completely beguiling starring role. I hope that Signum can do the same for Susan Spain-Dunk and Freda Swain; a clamant need will then be met.
Peter Warlock A Peter Warlock Merry-Go-Down – Ian Partridge (tenor), Neilson Taylor (baritone), Peter Gray (speaker), Jennifer Partridge (soprano, piano), Fred Tomlinson (piano) rec. 1971 Convivium Records CR098
My earliest days of pleasurable entanglement in music were driven by Martinů, Tchaikovsky and Bax. They also took in Warlock’s eloquent songs. I was captivated. Try this “Merry-Go-Down” disc originally issued on a 1970s Unicorn LP. The songs are ineffably registered by Ian Partridge (tenor). Real humour is mixed in among these healthy-sounding recordings, including “Beethoven’s Binge”. It is a triumph that we can now hear this nicely calibrated gallimaufry thanks to Convivium but founded on the dedication of the still-lamented John Bishop and The Warlock Society.
Gerard Schurmann Man in the Sky, Piano Concerto, Romancing the Strings, Gaudiana – Xiayin Wang (piano), BBC Philharmonic/Ben Gurdon rec. 2023 Chandos CHAN20341
Schurmann figured amongst my earliest reviews for the site. Now he is receiving some of his need of attention; including a whole series from Toccata. Works such as the grand Three Choirs commission, Piers Plowman, merit a recording. Here however is a great cross-section of Schurmann: the filmic, the ferocious and the brilliant.
Franz Schmidt Symphony 4, The Book with Seven Seals – Munich PO/Anton Lippe, Vienna SO/Rudolf Moralt rec. 154/62 SOMM Recordings Ariadne5026-2
Schmidt had a gift for the monumental. Here are two master-strokes from the 1950s enshrining two of his orchestral/choral works. These readings – OK; in less than modern 1950s and early 1960s sound – are utterly compelling. “Awesome” is a word much devalued these days but these statements of faith and the vivid imagery of the Book of Revelations do leave the listener in awe. The audio-engineer Lani Spahr has once again wrought well in these painstaking revivals. It is time for a well-wisher to revise his inadequate Wiki entry.
Frederick Delius A Mass of Life – Roderick Williams (baritone), Bergen PO & Ch/ Sir Mark Elder rec. 2022 LAWO Classics LWC1265
For years many of my generation (70+) knew this from Groves’ Liverpudlian EMI (now Warner) stereo edition. Beecham’s mono version on CBS Sony was good, as you would expect. However, the reading that still excites me is the eruptive and poetic BBC 1960s broadcast version (once on Intaglio) by Norman del Mar – another great Delian. This Lawo version with Mark Elder, using musicians from Delius’s beloved Norway, is in wonderfully detailed sound and must not be missed.
| Marc Bridle |
With so many composer anniversaries in 2024 there were bound to be disappointments. Puccini, Faure and Schoenberg offered some highlights in concert and on disc – but Bruckner fell short for me on both. So this year, I have turned elsewhere for much of my listening I recommend three recordings: a piano recital disc, a South Korean masterpiece as relevant today as it was when composed more than forty years ago, and a juggernaut performance of one of the greatest twentieth century symphonies.
Frédéric Chopin Études – Yunchan Lim (piano) rec. 2023 Decca 4870122
Yunchan Lim is clearly a phenomenal pianist, although I have found the revelations in his playing to be in the recital hall rather the concert hall. Perhaps for this reason his first studio CD was the Chopin Études for Decca. It has considerable integrity, much thought and detail and individuality – an expressiveness and artistry that had an awareness of historical Chopin but was entirely something he made his own. It remains a special disc, perhaps even something of a classic. Bach is quite possibly next.
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto 5 Isang Yun Exemplum in memoriam Kwangju Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings – Yunchan Lim (piano), Gwangju SO/Seokwon Hong rec. 2022 Deutsche Grammophon 4858327
Yunchan Lim also appears on my second choice (in the ‘Emperor’ Concerto), but it’s Isang Yun’s Exemplum in memorium Kwangju composed in 1981 that is the overwhelming reason to hear this disc. An astonishing work of graphic intensity, the live performance here is seismic, the massacre told in colossal detail. This is aural cinema, with a magnificent recording that fully exploits the work’s terror, rage and explosive sound – and the percussion playing is superlative. A powerful – even brutally raw – Barber Adagio is also on this disc; this is an unusual performance to say the least – a fabulous CD.
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony 10 – NHK SO/Michiyoshi Inoue rec. 2024 Exton OVCL-00839 SACD
Shostakovich – to whom we will turn in 2025 – came early for me. Michiyoshi Inoue’s ongoing cycle for Exton has reached the Tenth Symphony. This recording may divide opinion; it is absolutely trenchant, the sonorities are massive and the playing of the NHK Symphony Orchestra has such weight it slightly reverses our conventional understanding of this symphony – and we get less a portrait of Stalin, more Stalinism itself. Nevertheless, it slots in with the approach he is taking with his cycle so far, which has no parallel in recent Shostakovich. This is about power, but perhaps also the defiance of this conductor. It blows you away – as it will your speakers, too.
| Kelvin Chan |
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
This is an exceptional recording, made all the more impressive by the fact that there have been numerous other Bruckner releases in 2024, especially of this particular symphony, due to the bicentennial of the composer’s birth. Honeck and the PSO have a grandiose and extremely well-thought-out vision of the 7th, which the maestro has gone to great lengths to explain in detail in the booklet notes. The orchestral playing is sumptuous, refined and committed, and extremely well-captured by Sound/mirror, the team that recorded for Reference Recordings here. There is remarkable presence and detail in every second of every track.
Gustav Mahler Symphonies 1-10 – Minnesota O/Osmo Vänskä rec. 2016-23 BIS BIS-2696 SACD
This Mahler cycle is a stunning achievement in interpretative vision, orchestral execution and recording engineering. From Vänskä’s attention to timbral and textural clarity in these mammoth scores, to the MO’s truly surpassing performance, to BIS Records’ prodigious mastery of the recorded sound (62 microphones used in the Mahler 3rd by tonmeister Marion Schwebel!), all ten symphonies here are well-worth hearing. Vänskä’s approach combines that of the very best of Mahlerians as esteemed but disparate as Bernstein and Boulez. At once passionate, well-rounded and coherent, it represents an expressive temperament that is especially well-suited to Mahler’s oeuvre.
| Michael Cookson |
This has been a satisfying year for new releases. There have been far more albums of both complete opera and aria collections than I expected. Two new recordings of Meyerbeer operas have been released; I never saw that coming. Favourite recordings that just missed out of my top six were François-Xavier Roth conducting Bruckner Symphony No. 4 on Myrios Classics; Donizetti’s L’esule di Roma on Opera Rara and Mark Elder conducting the Delius Mass of Life on Lawo Classics.
Sonya Yoncheva (soprano) The Courtesan – L’Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova/Marco Armiliato rec. 2021 SY11 Productions
Bulgarian dramatic soprano, Sonya Yoncheva has excelled on several recordings. Now on her own record label SY11 Events her latest album is ‘The Courtesan’, one I was able to review only quite late after its release. The title concerns Yoncheva’s curiosity with the ‘mysterious world of the courtesans’, some of whom have become well-known names in opera, such as Violetta Valéry (La traviata) based on Parisian society, courtesan Marie Duplessis and Ciò-Ciò-San (Madama Butterfly), the epitome of the Japanese geisha. Here, Yoncheva brings together leading courtesan roles, many of which she has sung on stage. A soprano now in her prime, she gives outstanding performances.
Giacomo Meyerbeer Le prophète – John Osborn (tenor), Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo), London SO/Sir Mark Elder rec. 2023 LSO Live LSO0894 SACD
It has been rare to encounter new recordings of French Grand Opera and this top-drawer release of Meyerbeer’s Le prophète is certainly cause for celebration. This live recording of a concert staging was given at the 2023 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Festival. John Osborn (Jean), Elizabeth DeShong (Fidès) and Mané Galoyan (Berthe) are in splendid form in the leading roles. The visiting LSO was augmented and the Lyon Opera Chorus enlarged, too. A proven master of large forces, Sir Mark Elder brings everything tautly together, conducting with verve, skill and precision.
Giacomo Meyerbeer L’Africaine (Vasco da Gama) – Michael Spyres, Claudia Mahnke, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester & Ch/Antonello Manacorda
rec. 2018 Naxos 8.660558-60
In addition to the new Le prophète on LSO Live, a further release of a Meyerbeer opera is just what the doctor ordered. In this impressive 2018 live performance of L’Africaine by Oper Frankfurt conducted by Antonello Manacorda, stars Michael Spyres as Vasco da Gama and Claudia Mahnke as Sélika lead a strong cast.
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
Seeing the CD on the table, my friend exclaimed, ‘Not another Bruckner 7!’ My response was, ‘There is always room for a special recording’. Certainly, there are numerous recordings of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 the best of which this new account, conducted by Manfred Honeck, can match or better. Also on the album is Mason Bates’ Resurrexit, an orchestral work written to mark Honeck’s sixtieth birthday that fell in 2018. Honeck and his Pittsburgh orchestra have come up trumps with this live 2022 Bruckner account.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mezzo Mozart – Marina Viotti (mezzo-soprano), Gli Angeli Genève/Stephan MacLeod rec. 2023 Aparté AP350
Marina Viotti’s latest album ‘Mezzo Mozart’ is a collection of Mozart arias taken from six of his operas, and a concert aria all in Italian, plus excerpts from a couple of sacred Latin works. Swiss-born and brought up in France, mezzo-soprano Viotti explains how today the voice of a female singer of her type can accommodate a wealth of possibilities in Mozartian repertoire, including those roles designed for castrati or soprano. I find Viotti’s outstanding singing such great Mozart arias quite irresistible.
Aleksandra Kurzak (soprano) Falcon – Morphing CO/Bassem Akiki rec. 2023 Aparté AP353
Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak with her album ‘Falcon’ is celebrates the art of legendary Parisian dramatic soprano Marie-Cornélie Falcon (1814-1897) whose remarkable voice gave name to a ‘Falcon’ soprano, a voice type renowned for its lavish, strong, dark-coloured lower register with the ability to soar to notable peaks. Falcon created several leading roles, notably Rachel in Halévy’s La Juive and Valentine in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. Having commenced her opera career with lyric and coloratura roles, Kurzak’s voice has over time become larger and stronger. This thrilling programme of ‘Falcon’ arias presents a significant challenge which she meets head on.
| Lee Denham |
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
For the third year running, one of my records of the year features the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck. In my opinion, this release has undoubtedly the finest sonics Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony has ever received and it is also, along with Bernard Haitink’s valedictory live recording of the piece with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra from Salzburg in 2019, one of the best performances the work has received for decades.
Gustav Mahler Symphony Nos 5, 7 & 8 – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult Pristine Audio PASC709
These live radio broadcast recordings from an ambitious Mahler cycle mounted by the BBC in 1947 and 1948 are not only of huge historical significance, being amongst the earliest captured performances of these works by Mahler that we have, but also, in my opinion, raise the benchmark to the highest level with the increasing trend of issuing live historical performances commercially. Make no mistake, these are not live performances of works by a conductor who may have also recorded the same pieces in the studio during their careers, usually in better sound and, often, in finer or identical performances; rather, these are major works, not previously associated with a major conductor, issued in lovingly restored sound – just compare the sonics achieved by Pristine with this release with those by Testament, themselves no slouches, with their own issues of the First and Third Symphonies from the same cycle. I cannot think of a more important historical issue to have been released for many a year.
Roberto Alagna Roberto Alagna 60 Aparté AP351
I often think Roberto Alagna has rather been taken for granted during a career that is now in its fourth decade and has been conducted in all the world’s major opera houses, as well as including such heavyweight roles such as Lohengrin and Otello along the way. This release, issued to commemorate the tenor’s sixtieth birthday and recorded in the same year, shows his voice to be as fine and supple as it has always been, in repertoire that spans from Pergolesi to Wagner, with rarities from operas such as Rimsky Korsakov’s Sadko and Stanislaw Moniuszko’s Halka in between. Such endeavour and enthusiasm would have been remarkable for a young tenor full of ambition and enthusiasm at the outset of his career, with arias sung in Italian, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, as well as English, let alone one approaching his seventh decade who is also self-taught, Of course, none of that would be of any note if the recital was not of the highest standard, but to trot out an old cliché, there really is something for everyone in this remarkable and hugely enjoyable recital.
| Göran Forsling |
I have reviewed fewer discs during 2024 than I normally do, but still there have been so many attractive issues that I have had problems to pick the allowed half-dozen. As usual, I have mainly focused on vocal music, and there were still enough good singers around when we reached the semifinals to cause me a headache. It grieved me to omit the excellent Orfeo et Euridice with the phenomenal Orlinski, but perhaps Daniel Floyd has chosen it for his sextet after his glowing review. Charles Castronovo’s disc with Puccini’s songs was also eliminated just before the finishing line, in good company with Benjamin Appl’s wonderful Christmas disc, but both will be close at hand in my listening room. Below, however, are the selected winners.
Michael Spyres (tenor) In The Shadows – Le Jeune Chœur de Paris, Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset rec. 2022 Erato 5419787982
“In the Shadows” may indicate that the repertoire in this recital is unknown and obscure, but that is only partly true. Several of the operas are still played, and all of them were once important – even trendsetting – not least for the young Richard Wagner, who learnt something from all of them. But the most important thing for the general listener is the wonderful singing of Michael Spyres. His voice is still in mint condition, and it is a pleasure listen to him and maybe also discover some ”new” music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart, You Drive me Crazy! – Golda Schultz (soprano), Kammerakademie Potsdam/Antonello Manacorda rec. 2023 Alpha Classics 1026
There is no “new” music on Golda Schultz’s Mozart recital, but instead we are vouchsafed a freshness of approach and depth of insight that makes us listen to this standard repertoire with new ears. Moreover, it is not just a string of solo arias but there are also several ensembles. This is one of the most engaging Mozart recitals I have come across.
Jules Massenet Werther – Tassis Christoyannis (baritone), Véronique Gens (soprano), Hungarian National PO/György Vashegyi rec. 2023 Bru Zane BZ1056
Werther is nowadays the most popular of Massenet’s operas, and there is no lack of recommendable recordings, but there was a crying need for an up-to-date issue of the revised version for baritone soloist, made by Massenet himself with Mattia Battistini in mind. Bru Zane’s recording fills this need beautifully with veterans Tassis Christoyannis and Véronique Gens superb in their roles as Werther and Charlotte.
Urlicht – Songs of Death and Resurrection – Samuel Hasselhorn (baritone), Poznań PO/Łukasz Borowicz rec. 2023 Harmonia Mundi HMM902384
Samuel Hasselhorn was one of my ROTYs a year ago for a marvellous recording of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. This year, his deeply felt Urlicht – Songs of Death and Resurrection wins a new palm. The theme is a mentally heavy one, and I don’t recommend listeners to savour it in one sitting, but it is a disc to return to repeatedly, and the singing , playing and presentation are unsurpassable.
Huw Montague Rendall (baritone) Contemplation – Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen/Ben Glassberg rec. 2023 Erato 2173 236378
Huw Montague Rendall is certainly the newcomer of the year. A lyric baritone with musical genes from his singer-parents, beauty of tone, lightness of delivery and involvement, he seems cut out for a great career. His choice of programme, often far from the run-of-the mill, which points to an inquisitive mind, is a further asset. Contemplation is the title of the disc, but the programme covers many various moods, and should appeal to listeners of many tastes.
Close Harmony The King’s Singers rec. 2019-24 Signum Classics SIGCD912
The King’s Singers, who a few years ago celebrated their 50th anniversary, have been one of my favourite vocal groups since I heard their 1986 album The Beatles Connection. I have admired their perfect intonation, their virtuosity and their inventive arrangements. Now their latest lineup of singers has produced this retrospective twofer, and their artistry is fully up to the capacity of their predecessors. This is crossover in the best sense of the word.
| Stephen Greenbank |
Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations – Víkingur Ólafsson (piano) rec. 2023 Deutsche Grammophon 4864553
Although reviews have been mixed regarding Víkingur Ólafsson’s Goldbergs, I felt he brought freshness, new life, vitality and a wealth of new insights to this oft-recorded work. In short, I found it a deeply satisfying performance in remarkably good sound quality.
Wilhelm Kempff (piano) Live Concert Edition rec. 1955-69 Meloclassic MC1076
As a devotee of the German pianist Wilhelm Kempff, I was thrilled when this set came along for review. These live inscriptions feature composers central to the pianist’s repertoire, and make a valuable supplement to his discography. All the qualities which draw me to his playing are enshrined here: a formidable musical intellect, rhythmic inventiveness, lyrical intensity and shaping and, above all, freshness and spontaneity; music recreated on the wing.
Frédéric Chopin Études – Yunchan Lim (piano) rec. 2023 Decca 4870122
Here’s Yunchan Lim’s debut recording for Decca Classics, made shortly after he won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, aged only 18. His playing balances a wondrous technique, formidable musicianship, sophistication and style.
Julius Asal (piano) Scriabin & Scarlatti rec. 2023 Deutsche Grammophon 4865283
This is Julius Asal’s debut recording with Deutsche Grammophon. He has chosen two composers which, at first glance, appear unlikely bedfellows – Scarlatti and Scriabin. The pairing works very well indeed and the result is well-curated programme. Two different Steinways were chosen for the recording, one for the sumptuous dark sonorities, the other for music requiring a clear, crisp sound. Asal’s colourful and imaginative playing is informed by sensitive and outstanding musicianship.
George Enescu Symphonies 1-3, Romanian Rhapsodies 1 & 2 – France Ntl O/Cristian Măcelaru rec. 2022/23 Deutsche Grammophon 4865505
I didn’t know the Enescu symphonies that well until this set came along, and these colourful and captivating scores have much to offer. Măcelaru and the Orchestre National de France perform them with true authentic spirit.
Shura Cherkassky (piano) The Ambassador Auditorium Recital rec. 1981-89 First Hand Records FHR99
This wonderful 5 CD set has just been released by First Hand Records. It captures the magic of Shura Cherkassky over four recitals he gave in California in the 1980s. He’s a pianist I greatly admire. It’s a must-have collection for pianophiles.
| Michael Greenhalgh |
Franz Schubert Moments musicaux, Two Scherzi, Drei Klavierstücke – John Damgaard (piano) rec. 2024 Danacord DACOCD980
The comparisons between this and Sergei Kvitko’s previous live recording for Reference Recordings is fascinating. In Scherzo 2 in D flat, Kvitko brings us a heavy, bullying male countered by a light, dancing female, but in the second strain, his lady is more fetching in her greater flexibility. The central, easy-going Trio is freer in movement, Kvitko adding judicious ornamentation in the repeats. His second strain extends the melody and nuance. Damgaard’s couple are more equable: his man is of aristocratic nobility, his lady less poised but more sparkling. His second strain more magically attends to dynamic contrasts and achieves a heavenly softness. Thus, Damgaard excites less but satisfies more.
Franz Schubert Symphonies 5 & 8, Rondo – Scottish CO/Maxim Emelyanychev rec. 2023 Linn CKD748
To compare young conductors’ approaches, in 2018, a live 1971 recording of Symphony 8 by Claudio Abbado conducting the Vienna Philharmonic was rediscovered and released (Deutsche Grammophon 4835620, download only available in the UK). Abbado was then 38, whereas in 2023 Emelyanychev was 35. Perhaps this is unfair because the most striking difference is in recording detail. Thus, Emelyanychev’s first movement second theme is more insistently earnest than Abbado’s more matter-of-fact presentation. Emelyanychev’s combined horizontal and vertical clarity makes for less blustery tuttis and lighter, fresher woodwind. His strings are tenser, more protesting than Abbado’s. However, in the development, a gathering mass of sorrow, Abbado’s sense of architecture is more impressive.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concertos 1-4, Overtures – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Manchester Camerata/Gábor Takács-Nagy rec. 2023 Chandos CHAN20323
If you wanted a more crafted, elegant chamber orchestra account of Piano Concertos 1-4 there’s only one other contender in recent years, that by Gerrit Zitterbart with the Schlierbacher Kammerorchester conducted by Thomas Fey (Hanssler 98192). But my preference is for Bavouzet/Takács-Nagy’s flamboyance and determination to have fun and the greater pinpoint clarity of the Chandos recording.
| Richard Hanlon |
After enduring another musical year compromised by unwanted interruptions of various kinds I’m limiting my nominations to just three discs to which I have returned repeatedly over recent months.
End of My Days Ruby Hughes (soprano), Manchester Collective rec. 2022 BIS BIS-2628 SACD
End of My Days (BIS) is soprano Ruby Hughes’ adventurous and brilliantly curated collaboration with her chums from the Manchester Collective. The seeds of its creation were sown during the pandemic; the reaper is never far away but Hughes’ eclectic concept which marries her haunting voice with the Collective’s often contrastingly vivacious sound ensures anything but a gloomfest. The extraordinary clarity of this singer’s delivery is something else. End of My Days is Hughes’ latest winner in what has proved to a splendid sequence of recital discs for BIS . It’s superbly executed and ideally recorded.
Roberto Gerhard Alegrías, Pedrelliana, Don Quixote – BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena rec. 2023 Chandos CHAN20268
After a hiatus of a mere quarter of a century, Chandos have revived their Roberto Gerhard edition with a stellar account of his colourful yet intermittently brooding ballet Don Quixote from Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic. I have long considered this lovely work worthy of repertoire status – yet the full ballet has only appeared on disc once previously – 32 years ago with Víctor Pablo Pérez and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra on the old Auvidis label. Whilst that old warhorse has kept me going for more than half my lifetime, it has been a delight to get to know the work all over again in Mena’s gloriously fresh reading in top-notch Chandos sound. Both couplings (Pedrelliana – a delicious homage to Gerhard’s first composition teacher and the equally tangy short ballet Alegrias) amount to far more than makeweights. More Gerhard from these forces, please!
Linda Catlin Smith Dark Flower – Thin Edge New Music Collective rec. 2023 Redshift TK543
My choice of disc of the year is ultimately a reflection of my profound admiration for a composer who cheerfully ploughs her own furrow to consistently satisfying effect. It is Dark Flower, a completely absorbing recital of chamber works by Linda Catlin Smith. I love this CD. Catlin Smith’s atmospheric music is impossible to pin down but gets under one’s skin and stays there. The half dozen pieces included here (plus three others accessible by download) provide a compelling overview of her style. The highlight is the striking half-hour piano quartet which lends the disc its title. The directness of her sound world frequently conceals an emotional depth which provides both space for contemplation and balm for troubled times. Yet this is far from ‘New Simplicity’; she blends fragility and robustness with uncommon skill. Not a note nor a pause is wasted in any of these addictive pieces. The members of Thin Edge New Music Collective hail from Canada (the composer was born in New York but has long been based in Toronto) and prove to be dedicated advocates, whilst Redshift’s sonics are outstanding.
| Philip Harrison |
Maurice Ravel Daphnis et Chloé – Sinfonia of London/John Wilson rec. 2022 Chandos CHSA5327 SACD
John Wilson has reworked the score for Daphnis, tidying up inconsistencies and mistakes, but the best reason for acquiring this disc is to experience the perfectly judged blend of rhythm, colour and atmosphere his Sinfonia of London bring to this piece. The sound captured in St. Augustine’s, Kilburn, is worthy of the care and attention the whole project had lavished on it.
Gustav Mahler Symphony 6 – Bavarian RSO/Sir Simon Rattle rec. 2023 BR Klassik 900217
Since this live recording was made in the Gasteig, the BRSO and Rattle have taken this symphony on tour around the world. Many here in the UK experienced it at the Proms last Summer. Rattle has lived with this piece for forty years and this account is masterly. It’s Andante-Scherzo, by the way, but whichever way you swing, you have to love this.
Frederick Delius A Mass of Life – Roderick Williams (baritone), Bergen PO & Ch/ Sir Mark Elder rec. 2022 LAWO Classics LWC1265
It is over fifty years since Charles Groves (not yet knighted) went with the LPO into the old Kingsway Hall to record this beautiful and inspired Delius work. There have been a few other records of A Mass of Life since then, it is true, but this new one eclipses them. Elder and Roderick Williams had recorded Sea Drift and Cynara before and this Delius reunion is very special. Sir Thomas Beecham, who championed the piece all his life, would, I think, have been well pleased with the obvious care and study that went into the preparation of this performance.
Leoš Janáček Káťa Kabanová – Amanda Majeski (soprano), Katarina Dalayman (mezzo-soprano), Simon O’Neill (tenor), London SO & Ch/Sir Simon Rattle rec. 2023 LSO Live LSO0889
This account of Káťa Kabanová is not without some flaws but I am including it as it captures forever on disc the magnificent portrayal of the title role that Amanda Majeski gave us so memorably a few years before at Covent Garden under Edward Gardner. Also, it is with this record that the LSO Live recording team and engineers have put to bed once and for all the notion that you can’t have great sound in the Barbican. The sonics are wonderful and it looks as if the series is going to be a keeper. Next up is Jenůfa and by all accounts that will be a stunner, too.
Bedřich Smetana Má Vlast – Czech PO/Semyon Bychkov rec. 2021 Pentatone PTC5187203
Let’s be honest; we’re not short of recordings of Má Vlast. If we want the Czech PO involved, too, we still have plenty to choose from, many recorded on “Smetana Day” itself, May 12, at the Prague Spring Festival. This latest version is in my pick for its beautiful sound and the fresh, natural, unmannered reading Bychkov and his players give us.
Domenico Cimarosa L’Olimpiade – Josh Lovell (tenor), Rocío Pérez (soprano), Marie Lys (soprano), Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset
rec. 2023 Château de Versailles CVS143
I could have picked any of three recent CdV opera releases as my final choice but I have gone for L’Olimpiade for the sheer delight of its discovery and as a tribute too unworthy to Rousset and his band, who have given us so much happiness on record for so long. The CdV label too are doing sterling service for us music lovers. We are truly living in a golden age of record collecting.
| David McDade |
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn’t manage to review as many recordings as I would have liked this year, but it is a measure of the defiant rude health of the classical recording industry that I still found it difficult to limit myself to just six recordings. Honourable mention (and apologies to those involved that they missed the cut) must go to Thomas Ang’s splendidly evolving Medtner cycle, Chen Xueyan’s immaculate Haydn Sonatas, Recharged by Nature, a terrific disc of contemporary Nordic music by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and not forgetting the paint-stripping ferocity of Rachel Barton Pine in concertos by Shostakovich and Manein! On another day I would choose any or all of these.
Rita Strohl Orchestral Music – Marie Perbost (soprano), Lucile Richardot (mezzo)
Orchestre de l’Île-de-France/Case Scaglione rec. 2023 La Boîte à Pépites BAP10
Where most of the recently rediscovered composers have left me lukewarm, the sensual, mystical world of Rita Strohl’s music bowled me over. Let’s hope we get to hear some of her operas soon.
Béla Bartók Viola Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra – Amihai Grosz (viola) Orchestre National de Lille/Alexandre Bloch rec. 2022 Alpha Classics 1013
Wonderfully atmospheric performances transport us to the Hungarian countryside even though both works were written in exile. The star turn is Grosz whose sensational playing transformed my appreciation of the Viola Concerto.
Antonin Dvořák The Complete Piano Trios – Boris Giltburg (piano), Veronika Jarůšková (violin), Peter Jarůšek (cello) rec. 2022/23 Supraphon SU4319-2
Everything good chamber music making should be – dynamic, empathic, and passionate.
Ludwig van Beethoven The Complete Piano Trios – Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio rec. 2019 Bridge Records 9505A/C
Of all the records I’ve had the good fortune to review this year, this is the one I have come back to most often. No performance can ever be definitive in music such as this, but Weiss, Kaplan and Stumpf have a happy knack of making me think, “Yes; that’s hit the nail fair and square on the head” time after time. I was hooked from the opening track with its perfect blend of classy elegance and irrepressible zest for life.
Cascade Cordelia Williams (piano) rec. 2023 SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0675
Good though Williams’ Prokofiev and Schumann are – and they are very good – it was her performance of the Op126 Bagatelles that had me panting for more late Beethoven from her.
Olivier Messiaen Des Canyons aux Étoiles – Steven Osborne (piano) Jeffrey Fair (horn), Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot rec. 2022 Seattle Symphony Media SSM1028
A work that can often seem dry and uninviting glitters and seduces in luxuriant sound with a star soloist to boot. Awe inspiring from start to finish.
| Terry McSweeney |
Having only recently started reviewing, in compiling my nominations I have relied on my colleagues’ reviews of these CDs, all of which I have either acquired or listened to on YouTube. Some, which I enjoyed immensely, remained on my short-list and didn’t make the cut. Amongst these, I should make special mention of the Shostakovich Quartets from the Carducci Quartet (Signum); Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto with Lawrence Power and Nicholas Collon and his Finnish RSO (Ondine); Bruckner’s Symphony No 7 by Manfred Honeck from Pittsburgh (Reference Recordings); Igor Levit on his Fantasia disc playing Bach, Liszt, Berg and Busoni (Sony); the Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio playing the complete Beethoven Piano Trios (Bridge); Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphony No 12 with the BBC PO and John Storgårds (Chandos); and the venerable and loved 1963 Decca Britten War Requiem in remastered SACD sound. However, here are my six nominations:
Witold Lutosławski – Concerto for Orchestra, Partita, Novelette – Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Finnish Radio SO/Nicholas Collon rec. 2022 Ondine ODE1444-2
This disc so happens to include three of my favourite works by a composer I regard as one of the master orchestral composers of the 20th century. Nicholas Collon was a co-founder of the Aurora Orchestra, they of the prodigious feats of memory, and is now chief conductor of the Finnish Radio SO. I was most impressed by his performances at this year’s Proms with the BBC PO of Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony and Anna Clyne’s The Sweet Nothings, so the combination of Lutosławski and Collon quickly caught my attention. The performances and sound are all first class and match those of my favourites by Esa-Pekka Salonen from Los Angeles on Sony.
Our Gilded Veins Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Rory Macdonald rec. 2022/24 Linn CKD713
I cannot resist a new recording of James MacMillan works, so this took my fancy immediately. The works on the CD share the themes of loss, love and life. The Maxwell Davies and both MacMillan pieces are short and have been recorded before, as has Anna Clyne’s moving piece for strings, Within Her Arms. Jay Capperauld and Martin Suckling are two young Scottish composers who have produced substantial and impressive, confident new pieces of very high quality. The Scottish orchestra and Rory Macdonald clearly believe in this music and play beautifully. The sound is of Linn’s normal demonstration standard, as expected.
Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations – Hannu Alasaarela (piano) rec. 2021 Alba ABCD520
Among my favourite recordings of the Goldberg Variations are Murray Perahia’s (Sony 2000), Glenn Gould’s (both Sony 1955 and 1981), Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s (Avie 2010) and more recently, Igor Levit’s (Sony 2016) and Beatrice Rana’s (Warner 2016). Hannu Alasaarela on Alba came in under the radar and, on further exploration, I found it to be a revelatory interpretation. Alasaarela’s performance is measured, serene and there are no superfluous pyrotechnics. I find in it an overriding sense of repose. A truly beautiful performance in intimate sound which goes to near the top of my list of preferred recordings.
Jean Sibelius Symphony No 4, The Wood Nymph – Gothenburg SO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali rec. 2021-23 Alpha Classics 1008
Sibelius’ Symphony No 4 has a reputation for being difficult. I grew up with the Karajan (DG), Paavo Berglund (EMI) and Colin Davis (Philips) recordings of the symphonies and Karajan’s 1965 Berlin PO (DG) recording finally opened my eyes to the mystery and beauty of this austere work. This symphony has been recorded often by a modern generation of conductors, only a few successfully, in my opinion, and many have been shamelessly over-hyped. However, I find that Rouvali really understands this work and the Gothenburgers impress here more than they did with Neeme Järvi in earlier years. A great performance, this, in spectacular sound.
Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartets Nos 7-13 – Asasello-Quartett rec. 2022/23 Genuin GEN23826
With the Beethoven Late Quartets and the 6 Bartok Quartets, I regard the 15 Shostakovich Quartets as one of the apices of the musical canon. Each of the several full sets I own shows a still unique fascination with, and something original to say about, each of the quartets. My treasured performances are the Borodin Quartet (Melodiya 1964) and the Fitzwilliam String Quartet (Decca 1975-78). The Asasello’s recording arrived like a bolt out of the blue. Their vehemence, spontaneity, anger and sheer musicality are quite overwhelming and thrilling. My new favourite! I cannot wait for them to complete the set.
Benjamin Britten The Prince of the Pagodas – Hallé/Kahchun Wong rec. 2023 Hallé CDHLD7565
Britten’s involvement with the ballet was not always propitious, but the music for The Prince of the Pagodas is colourful, involving and exciting. I first grew to love this work from a not-great 1980s Unicorn-Kanchana LP with David Measham and the Adelaide SO. Britten’s own 1957 recording with the ROHCG duly came out on Decca CD, to be joined later by Slatkin/BBC SO (Chandos), and Knussen/London Sinfonietta (EMI). They are all good recordings, but this Hallé release is a welcome surprise and sets a new benchmark for this work. Kahchun Wong and the Hallé play glitteringly and the sound is spectacular.
| Rob Maynard |
Three of my choices this year earn their places because they feature music that has hardly ever – or even never – been recorded before. Meanwhile, a fourth offers recordings of repertoire that, while more familiar, is led by a conductor who remains significantly under-represented on disc. The opportunity to acquaint oneself with unfamiliar but highly rewarding music or previously overlooked performances makes those four discs sufficiently important to warrant inclusion here. No such special pleading is required, however, on behalf of my final two selections, both of which are filmed performances from the Royal Ballet that are, in virtually every respect, superb achievements.
Paul Lacombe Orchestral Works – Victor Sangiorgio (piano), Peter Francomb (French horn), BBC Concert O/Martin Yates rec. 2021/22 Dutton Epoch CDLX7413
Although the Dutton label has been something of a propagandist for the compositions of Paul Lacombe, this disc marks is its first exploration of his orchestral output. As such, it is highly successful. All the works presented are tuneful and well-constructed, with an immediate appeal to anyone who enjoys music from the Late Romantic era. Martin Yates and the BBC Concert Orchestra add to their fine record of unearthing forgotten but worthwhile works with this enjoyable new release.
Gaetano Donizetti Alfredo il Grande – Antonino Siragusa (tenor), Gilda Fiumi (soprano), Donizetti Opera O/Corrado Rovaris rec. 2023 Dynamic 58031 Blu-ray
It is easy to see why this early Donizetti opera was a commercial failure when first staged and its recent on-stage revival might have been thought to have little but curiosity value. As it turns out, however, Alfredo il Grande has quite a bit going for it when presented, as it is here, with intelligence, insight, imagination and an occasional touch of tongue-in-cheek humour. While this is certainly no lost masterpiece, it offers an enjoyable theatrical experience and usefully expands our knowledge of the composer’s early output.
Albert Dietrich Overture, Violin concerto, Symphony – Klaidi Sahatçi (violin), Solistes Européens, Luxembourg/Christoph König rec. 2019/21 Naxos 8.574507
Albert Dietrich’s name will, I suspect, be unknown to many readers – as it was, indeed, to me before I encountered this disc. Brahms – and sometimes Mendelssohn – will come to mind as you listen to his music but he is no mere imitator and has a distinctive and attractive voice of his own. Committed performances and the fine, transparent Naxos recording make the strongest case for a composer whose music will, I suspect, enjoy wide appeal.
Arvīds Jansons (conductor) Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev – Leningrad PO, USSR SO rec. 1971-83 ICA Classics ICAC5177
Overshadowed as he has been by both his Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra contemporary Yevgeny Mravinsky and by own son Mariss, Arvids Janson’s work as a conductor remains largely underappreciated. The live recordings included on this valuable release demonstrate, however, not just how often his concerts were broadcast but also how accomplished an artist he was. The long-overdue release of any more recordings that were made and subsequently archived would, one hopes, begin to give him long-overdue recognition.
Sergei Prokofiev Cinderella – Marianela Nuñez, Vadim Muntagirov, Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House O/Koen Kessels rec. 2023 Opus Arte OA1378D DVD
Frederick Ashton’s version of Cinderella has some serious flaws that make it difficult to pull off successfully and the latest Royal Ballet production cannot disguise the ballet’s inherent structural and dramatic issues. Nevertheless, lavish production values and strong casting ensure that this is a highly enjoyable treat. Two of the world’s finest dancers – Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov – take the leading roles and are very well supported by the rest of the Covent Garden company in an expertly filmed recording.
Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon Natalia Osipova, Reece Clarke, Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House O/Koen Kessels rec. 2024 Opus Arte OA1390D DVD
While other companies rarely do so nowadays, the Royal Ballet continues to film and to market its finest productions, even duplicating existing repertoire in order to showcase and memorialise a new cast. Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon is one of the jewels in the company’s crown and this new release offers us the opportunity to watch superstar Natalia Osipova’s intense interpretation as she takes on the complex and multi-faceted title role. She is very well supported by her partner Reece Clarke and a mixture of experienced and up-and-coming company members. This immediately becomes the top Manon recommendation.
| Ralph Moore (Contributing Editor) |
As usual, it has been a fairly lean year for opera and voice-lovers in general, remastered re-issues of classic recordings often being the most remarkable events, and few voices of real distinction have emerged – but we have been able to welcome recitals from singers such as Jonathan Tetelman and Aigul Akhmetshina and I include the debut album of the latter in my top six selections, plus a welcome reconstruction of a lost Donizetti opera.
It has, however, been a bumper year of Bruckner recordings for obvious reasons and I could easily have included more recordings by such as Hindoyan, and some great stuff from the Far East – but nothing from Poschner’s patchy cycle; I have rather chosen another superb account of the Fourth Symphony from Gerd Schaller’s consistently successful series and another Bruckner release from Honeck and his Pittsburgh orchestra which has attracted widespread high praise. I should also mention yet another impressive release in Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s ongoing cycle of Sibelius symphonies and tone poems on Alpha Classics, which I have not included in my selection but was the first recording to enable me to make a real connection with that challenging work.
The six recordings which have most impressed me are as follows:
Sir Edward Elgar Cockaigne Overture, Symphony 1 – Nationaltheater-O Mannheim/Alexander Soddy rec. 2023 Oehms Classics OC1730
This provides a “modern”, quite driven account which nonetheless still plumbs emotional depths, beautifully played by the Mannheim orchestra which sounds entirely at home in this quintessentially English music. The Cockaigne overture is a welcome, rumbustious bonus.
Anton Bruckner Symphony 4 – Philharmonie Festiva/Gerd Schaller rec. 2023 Profil PH23086
Yet another magnificent recording of a Bruckner symphony by a conductor who has made a speciality of delivering as many versions of Bruckner’s glorious symphonies as public appetite demands, impeccably played here by a first-class orchestra recorded in excellent sound.
Gaetano Donizetti Dalinda – Lidia Fridman (soprano), Luciano Ganci (tenor), Ch & O Berliner Operngruppe/Felix Krieger rec. 2023 Oehms Classics OC989
A welcome bright spot in a fairly lacklustre crop of operatic recordings over this last year, reviving a work thought lost and featuring some superb singing from one of the best sopranos on the circuit today.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Adagio & Fugue, Sinfonia Concertante, Symphony 27 – Alessandro Milani (violin); Luca Ranieri (viola), Nuova O Ferruccio Busoni/Massimo Belli rec. 2022 Dynamic CDS8012
The extraordinary immediacy of the recorded sound and the vibrancy of the playing make this an aural treat for Mozarteans, featuring two rightly celebrated works and another which deserves to be better known, in performances which outshine even established reference versions both artistically and in terms of sound engineering.
Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo-soprano) Aigul – Royal P)/Daniele Rustioni rec. 2023/24 Decca 4870262
An arresting debut recital from one of the most exciting and versatile voices to emerge for a good while, singing a programme of favourites arias with remarkable confidence and accomplishment.
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
Once again, I choose a release from Manfred Honeck lauded by three MusicWeb reviewers which combines blistering live performances of an established, standard work from the repertoire with a more recherché modern work.
| Mike Parr |
2024 was quite good to me in that I had the opportunity to review a number of very fine products on the classical CD and Blu-ray market.
Engelbert Humperdinck Königskinder – Daniel Behle, Olga Kulchynska, Netherlands PO/Marc Albrecht rec. 2022 Naxos NBD0171V Blu-ray
The first to come my way was a stunningly well-thought-out production from Amsterdam of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Königskinder released by Naxos on Blu-ray and DVD.
Giuseppe Verdi I Lombardi alla prima crociata – Nino Machaidze (soprano), Pierro Pretti (tenor), Münchner RO/Ivan Repušić rec. 2023 BR Klassik 900351
Quite soon after that, I found much to savour in a really fine CD issue of Verdi’s early opera I Lombardi. Excitement abounds in Ivan Repušić’s energetic leadership of a cast of singers who are more than equal to the challenges of this music.
Jean-Philippe Rameau Platée – Lawrence Brownlee (tenor), Julie Fuchs (soprano), Reinoud van Mechelen (tenor), Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble/Mark Minkowski rec. 2022 BelAir BAC524 Blu-ray
One of the happiest surprises of this past year was the Blu-ray release of Rameau’s Platée on Bel Air Classiques. The production by Laurent Pelly has shown up on Blu-ray before but tenor Lawrence Brownlee gives the performance of his career in the title role. An interpretation of intense physicality combined with gorgeous singing.
Mademoiselle Duval Les Génies – Marie Perbost (soprano), Florie Valliquette (soprano), Ensemble Il Caravaggio/Camille Delaforge rec. 2023 Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS121
Sticking with France’s Ancien Régime, this is an incredible rarity which here received its first performance and recording in modern times. Les Génies, an opera by a virtually unknown female composer from that era, is much more than a historical curiosity and thoroughly worth investigating.
Gioachino Rossini Ermione – Serena Farnocchia (soprano), Aurora Faggioli (mezzo), Kraków PO & Ch/Antonio Fogliani rec. 2022 Naxos 8.660556-57
Rossini’s finest tragedy received a new recording from Naxos. While the singing isn’t without some flaws, the whole enterprise gave me enormous pleasure. It is also the CD set that has visited my sound system more often than any other during this past year.
Domenico Cimarosa L’olimpiade – Josh Lovell (tenor), Rocío Pérez (soprano), Marie Lys (soprano), Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset
rec. 2023 Château de Versailles CVS143
However, my top choice for a Recording of the Year must be the premiere recording of Cimarosa’s opera L’Olimpiade from the Château de Versailles label. This recording has everything going for it, with its flawless cast of young singers and superb sonics. The crowning touch on this recording is the vigorously impassioned leadership of Les Talens Lyriques by Christophe Rousset. The release was cleverly timed to coincide with the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic games. Its gold medal status is unquestionable.
| Glyn Pursglove |
During the last year my illness (and, more seriously, that of my wife) has reduced my listening opportunities. Most of my choices are, as a result, discs I reviewed. My attention has mostly been drawn by the relatively unfamiliar, amongst which the following proved very rewarding.
Giuseppe Tartini Lieto ti prendo e poi – Lavinia Soncini (violin) rec. 2023 Da Vinci Classics C00884
Lavinia Sancini’s performances of solo violin sonatas by Tartini, all written in response to the poetry of Torquato Tasso (one of the great poets of the Ferrarese Renaissance) are things of beauty. We know that Tartini was in the habit of reading the works of Italian writers such as Petrarch, Ariosto and Tasso before beginning to compose. Here we have his responses to/interpretations of poems and passages from Tasso’s work. It is evident that Sancini has prepared Tartini’s scores very thoroughly, but her playing also has a winning and joyous spontaneity of feeling.
Sirventès Katherine Bormann, Alicia Koelz (violins), Eliesha Nelson (viola), Brian Thornton, Amahl Arulanandam (cello), Nathan Pepitas (percussion), Callisto Quartet rec. 2021/22 New Focus FCR367
This is an album of powerful chamber music by contemporary Iranian female composers. Especially when heard in the light of the super cover image, it makes a resounding and moving statement about the current treatment of women in Iran.
Cristal Bello Alicia Amo (soprano), La Guirlande/Luis Martinez (transverse flute) rec. 2020 Vanitas VA-16
This entertains as much as it teaches. To say that it is concerned to illustrate the influence of Italian baroque music in Spain and its colonies in the Eighteenth Century, while true, is an excessively dry description of music which is always full of energy and often very beautiful. The works by Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella and José de Nebra are particularly striking.
Giovanni Maria Da Crema Lute Music – Domenico Cerasani (lute) rec. 2023 Brilliant Classics 96419
Beautiful, meditative lute music by a relatively little-known composer who clearly deserves to find a wider audience. Much of the time, one has the sense of ‘overhearing’ this very subtle music, rather than feeling that it is being performed so as to attract the attention of listeners.
Paris, La Belle Époque Robert Langevin (flute), Margaret Kampmeier (piano) rec. 2012 Bridge 9555
A joy from beginning to end, this disc is graced by the exemplary playing of flautist Robert Langevin and pianist Margaret Kampmeier, everywhere both technically assured and poetic in effect. Their choice of music, whether by famous figures such as Fauré and Debussy, or by less familiar composers (such as Jules Mouqeut) illustrates perfectly the remarkable revival of Parisian music after the horrors of the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune.
| John Quinn (Editor-in-Chief) |
I’ve reviewed many very fine discs in 2024; my shortlist for this exercise ran to an unprecedented sixteen releases. Among distinguished recordings that didn’t quite make the cut was Das Rheingold, the final instalment in Decca’s revelatory remastering of the Solti ‘Ring’ and Carolyn Sampson’s 100th recording, ‘but I like to sing’ (BIS). Two Rachmaninov releases were put aside with regret: Kirill Petrenko’s collection of orchestral works on the Berlin Philharmonic’s own label and the superb version of the All-Night Vigil by the PaTram Institute (Chandos). Sir Andrew Davis’s final recording was of Tippett’s A Child of our Time (Chandos). I couldn’t quite find space for that, nor for Black Dyke Band’s marvellous disc of music by Bliss (Chandos). I also had to say a regretful au revoir to London Choral Sinfonia’s ‘The French Album’ (Orchid Classics). The following six releases stood out clearly from a highly competitive field.
Benjamin Britten War Requiem – Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano); Peter Pears (tenor); Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), London SSO & Ch/Benjamin Britten rec. 1963 Decca 4853765 SACD
As they did with the Solti ‘Ring’, Decca have gone back to the original tapes of this landmark recording of War Requiem, remastered them and made the results available in a de-luxe SACD edition. The SACD sound is absolutely superb and represents a significant advance on previous iterations of this recording. You can now hear this deeply-felt masterpiece – and the magnificent performance – as you’ll never have heard it before.
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
There have been several notable releases to mark the Bruckner bicentenary but this one sweeps the board. Manfred Honeck takes nothing for granted; he has clearly considered every bar of the score. Persuasively interpreted by Honeck and marvellously played by his Pittsburgh orchestra, this is a very distinguished account of the Seventh symphony. Two other important factors come into play: the disc also contains a most interesting contemporary piece by Mason Bates; and both works have been recorded in sumptuous sound.
Sir Edward Elgar The Dream of Gerontius – Anna Stéphany (mezzo-soprano); Nicky Spence (tenor); Andrew Foster-Williams (bass-baritone), Gabrieli Consort & Players/Paul McCreesh rec. 2023 Signum Classics SIGCD785
This is the first recording of Elgar’s great oratorio on period instruments; the instruments make a significant impression. So too does the singing of a choir mainly comprising young singers from the UK and Poland; what an experience this project must have been for them. Nicky Spence gives one of the finest performances of the title role on disc. Paul McCreesh conducts very well indeed. This recording is a considerable achievement.
Felix Mendelssohn Elijah – Gerald Finley (bass), Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor), London SO & Ch/Sir Antonio Pappano rec. 2024 LSO Live LSO0898 SACD
This is a tremendous live performance of Elijah, one of the best I’ve heard on disc. The choir and orchestra are on superb form and a stellar team of soloists is led by Gerald Finley in the title role. He embraces every facet of Elijah’s character and sings marvellously throughout. Pappano brings all his operatic experience to bear, pacing the score expertly and bringing out all the drama in a vivid and very satisfying account of Mendelssohn’s great oratorio.
Richard Rodgers Carousel – Nathaniel Hackmann (tenor); Mikaela Bennett (soprano), Sinfonia of London/John Wilson rec. 2023 Chandos CHSA5342 SACD
The first complete recording of this great show is a terrific listening experience. The cast is uniformly strong; the characters come across really convincingly. The chorus and orchestra are punchy and John Wilson’s conducting is stylish and full of vitality. Everyone involved in this project does full justice to this Broadway masterpiece. Great entertainment.
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford Te Deum, Elegiac Ode – BBC National Ch & O Wales/Adrian Partington rec. 2023 Lyrita SRCD435
In the centenary year of Stanford’s death, Lyrita offer first recordings of two neglected but substantial choral/orchestral works. The Te Deum (1898) is especially impressive. I think it’s a terrific piece and a genuine discovery. Adrian Partington conducts with evident belief in both scores and inspires his excellent soloists, choir and orchestra to put Stanford’s pieces across with total conviction. On this evidence, the neglect of the Te Deum is particularly hard to understand. This was the most significant recorded contribution to the Stanford anniversary.
| Stefan Schwarz |
It has been an excellent year for new additions to my music collection, with several recordings that will undoubtedly warrant repeated listening. Beyond my two nominations, particular mention must be made of Klaus Mäkelä’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 4-6, especially notable for its exceptional interpretation of the Sixth Symphony. I was similarly impressed by Huw Montague Rendall’s thoughtfully curated and expertly performed Contemplation album.
Anton Bruckner Symphony 7 Mason Bates Resurrexit – Pittsburgh SO/Manfred Honeck rec. 2022 Reference Recordings FR-757SACD
Honeck continues the golden age of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with an unbroken series of outstanding recordings. The conductor, at the zenith of his powers and one of the finest Bruckner interpreters since Skrowaczewski, shapes the symphony with consummate mastery and perfect balance. This achievement is all the more remarkable given the mediocre quality of many Bruckner releases in the composer’s anniversary year. The orchestra seamlessly blends the warmth of European strings with the brilliance of American brass sections. Mason Bates’ Resurrexit makes for an interesting coupling, and the phenomenal work of Reference Recordings’ sound engineers never fails to impress.
Richard Wagner Parsifal – Andreas Schager (tenor), Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano), Bayreuth Festival Ch & O/Pablo Heras-Casado rec. 2023 Deutsche Grammophon 4865877
Wagner recordings that leave virtually nothing to be desired are exceedingly rare, but this is one such exceptional case. Making his Bayreuth debut, Heras-Casado proves himself a natural Wagnerian, with a masterful sense of musical dramaturgy, pacing, and balance that puts many self-proclaimed specialists to shame. It is thanks to him that this performance never loses momentum but also doesn’t feel rushed. Dramatically and vocally, the cast is remarkably consistent, with strong performances across the board. Georg Zeppenfeld stands out with crystal-clear diction and a nuanced portrayal of Gurnemanz that captures the character’s depth and complexity.
| Ken Talbot |
Sir Malcolm Arnold Music For Brass Band – Foden’s Band/Michael Fowles rec. 2024 Beckus MAF003
The CD features Foden’s Band, ranked No. 1 brass band in the world, playing some familiar and some brand new works by Malcolm Arnold. It features four CD premieres including Song of Freedom involving a choir from Chetham’s School of Music which is based on poems written by children on the theme of freedom. New variations on Sweeney Todd the ballet suite and the film score Roots of Heaven as well as the enigmatic Peterloo Overture are also included. The Foden’s virtuosic skills are clear and the recording quality is first class.
The Memory Garden: Guitar Music from England Jack Hancher (guitar) rec. 2024 Deux-Elles DXL1206
This is the premiere recording by very talented young guitarist Jack Hancher – a wonderful selection of music from English composers spanning 400 years from Dowland to Arnold, Britten and two contemporary composers, Laura Snowden and Dani Howard. It is a very well chosen programme, but the main reason that I keep returning to it is Hancher’s beautiful, sensitive playing. It’s a real gem.
Holst at 150. A Brass Celebration Tredegar Town Band/Ian Porthouse & Martyn Brabbins rec. 2024 World of Brass DOYCD435CD
Holst only wrote one piece directly for brass band but he inspired many other composers to write for this genre. Most of the pieces on this CD have been expertly arranged for brass band by either Paul Hindmarsh or Philip Littlemore and there are also two by Imogen Holst. It’s a real mix of styles from classic marches to jazzy pieces and music inspired by English folk song and is all expertly played by the Tredegar Town Band, who successfully recorded the Vaughan Williams on Brass CD in 2022. This is Holst at his most communicative and accessible – a very pleasing CD.
| Simon Thompson |
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9 – Mahler Academy O/Philipp von Steinaecker rec. 2022 Alpha Classics 1057
A disc to change the way you hear Mahler, this performance of his Ninth Symphony on instruments of the composer’s time is gut-wrenching, emotionally draining and ultimately unforgettable. My disc of the year, by quite some margin.
Sir Michael Tippett A Child of Our Time – Pumeza Matshikiza (soprano); Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano); Joshua Stewart (tenor); Ashley Riches (bass-baritone) BBC SO & Ch/Sir Andrew Davis rec. 2023 Chandos CHSA5341 SACD
A fitting tribute to the late, much missed Sir Andrew Davis, his final recording is so powerful an argument for Tippett’s oratorio that it won over even a sceptic like me.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concertos 7 & 10 for Two Pianos, Concerto Movement for Piano & Violin – Robert Levin & Ya-Fei Chuang (fortepianos), Bojan Čičić (violin), Academy of Ancient Music/Laurence Cummings rec. 2022 Academy of Ancient Music AAM043
I’ve long been a sucker for these unusual early concertos by Mozart, so this disc had me at hello. It helps hugely, though, that the playing is so graceful and, even more, that it marks the near completion of the Academy of Ancient Music’s cycle of Mozart concertos.
| Johan van Veen |
The selection of six records of the year is not an easy task. I cannot remember any year when I did not review at least ten discs which were serious candidates for this label and that goes for this year, too. In my selection, I not only consider the performances, but also the repertoire; if a disc adds something substantial to the discography, that is definitely a plus – so here is my choice for 2024.
Philippus de Monte Madrigali spirituali – Cappella Mariana/Vojtěch Semerád rec. 2023 Passacaille PAS1143
Philippus de Monte was prolific, but does not today receive the attention he deserves. That makes this recording something special, the superb performances of this excellent Czech vocal ensemble presenting the best possible case for the composer.
Ymaginacions – Mass upon John Dunstable’s square La Quintana/Jérémie Couleau rec. 2022 Paraty 1123291
Nicholas Ludford’s music is still something of a ‘hidden treasure’ of the English Renaissance. It has been given quite some attention in recent years, but this recording is something special because of the way the monophonic passages are sung: the singers improvise additional voices, based on the study of historical performance practices. The results are highly impressive.
Emilio de’ Cavalieri Lamentations – Profeti della Quinta rec. 2023 Pan Classics PC10451
The Lamentations of Jeremiah have been set by many composers of the renaissance and baroque eras. Cavalieri’s settings are not that well-known, but are important, as they are the first sacred monodies in history, written in a declamatory style for one or several solo voices with an accompaniment of basso continuo. They are also very expressive, and that element comes off impressively in the performances by Profeti della Quinta.
In Sara Levy’s Salon – Chamber Music for Viola Francesca Venturi Ferriolo (viola), Salon Violet rec. 2022/23 Christophorus CHR77472
The viola seldom makes the headlines, certainly not in music before the classical era. The music on this CD was written in the period between the Baroque and the Classical period, and the viola plays a central role in it. The pieces are either originally scored for the viola or adapted for it in the late 18th century, reflecting the growing importance of the instrument. This disc includes rare repertoire and receives outstanding performances.; it is a pure delight.
In terra aliena Música Temprana/Adrián Rodríguez Van der Spoel rec. 2024 Cobra Records COBRA0095
Música Temprana is one of my favourite ensembles. The repertoire is always interesting, and the performances are based on thorough research, exploring the entire emotional depth of the music selected. This is music from the Spanish-speaking world that is different from what we often hear: no rousing rhythms, fast tempi or percussion. The music and the superb performances are melancholic, thoughtful and highly expressive and this disc makes a lasting impression.
Aldebrando Subissati Sonate per violino solo e basso continuo – Joanna Morska-Osińska (violin), Paweł Zalewski (viola da gamba), Filip Michał Zieliński – theorbo, Marek Toporowski (harpsichord), Michał Sawicki (organ) rec. 2021/23 DUX 1959/60
Subissati is one of those composers who have been the victim of the wealth of superior music for the violin written by 17th-century Italian composers. He has not left much to play, only the twelve sonatas on this two-disc set, but we should be happy that they are now available, and in such excellent performances. These sonatas are very fine specimens of the stylus phantasticus and sometimes remind me of Biber. This is music which makes one regret that the composer did not leave more.
| Jonathan Woolf |
Isolde Menges (violin) rec. 1922-30 Biddulph 85047-2
Isolde Menges has always been sold short but she was one of Leopold Auer’s best students. This twofer, which includes her superb Beethoven Concerto, in its first ever recording, shows her musicianship in the best possible light.
George Frideric Handel Theodora – Louise Alder (soprano), Tim Mead (counter-tenor), Arcangelo/Jonathan Cohen rec. 2023 Alpha Classics 1025
Tired of preening performances of Baroque works – gauche ornamentation, inappropriate voice types, ruinous harpsichord balances, silly continuo choices – I turn instead to this recording which deals justly with Handel’s dark, great work.
Boris Papandopulo The Complete String Quartets – Sebastian String Quartet, Davorin Brozić (clarinet), Krešimir Bedek (guitar) rec. 2017-22 cpo 555 469-2
Boris Papandopulo’s complete string quartets offer a near-60-year survey of his colourful art, one that was always, no matter how advanced the idiom, rooted in good old-fashioned folklore. Buckle up for the kolo and Bartókian zest.
Maria Herz Piano Concerto, Four Short Orchestral Pieces, Cello Concerto, Orchestral Suite – Oliver Treindl (piano), Konstanze von Gutzeit (cello), Berlin RSO/Christiane Silber rec. 2022/23 Capriccio C5510
Maria Herz’s orchestral works are heard here in world premiere recordings. Her life was difficult and her training sporadic, but the two concertos offer contrasting qualities that intrigued me, the Piano Concerto especially – a splendidly conceived and brilliantly played piece.
Jan Novák Concertos – Dora Novak-Wilmington (piano), Karel Košárek (piano), Clara Nováková (flute), Prague RSO/Tomáš Netopil rec. 2022 Supraphon SU4331-2
Jan Novák’s daughters perform his works in Supraphon’s timely release, honouring the 40th year of his death. Intensely communicative and open to healthy influences, his music is still one of the Czech Republic’s better-kept secrets.
Moondog (Louis Hardin) Songs and Symphoniques – Ghost Train Orchestra, Kronos Quartet Cantaloupe CA21192
Elite singers and instrumentalists celebrate Moondog, the iconoclastic Louis Hardin, in arrangements of potent memorability, and none more potent than those sung by Joan Wasser.
| Leslie Wright |
I have limited my selections this year to three primarily because I did not review as many discs as sometimes in the past. Two of my choices were reviewed by me and the third one by other reviewers. Of estimable discs that did not quite make the cut are Piotr Anderszewski’s piano disc of Janáček, Bartók, and Szymanowski (Warner); Joann Falletta’s Buffalo Philharmonic recording of Kodály’s Symphony. (Naxos); John Adams City Noir and other works with Marin Alsop on Naxos; and the C major DVD of Yuja Wang’s Vienna Recital.
Franz Schubert String Quartets 8 & 15 – Takács Quartet rec. 2023 Hyperion CDA68423
This is the Takács Quartet’s second recording of Schubert’s late, great String Quartet No. 15. It supersedes their earlier account, which has long been my favorite, by a broader dynamic range and more dramatic character without sacrificing warmth. Their instrumental balance is impeccable and they couple this masterpiece with a much earlier quartet, No. 8 in B flat, in an equally beguiling performance. A disc to savour.
Sofia Gubaidulina Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Bayan, Sonata for Violin and Cello – Baiba Skride (violin), Harriet Krijgh (cello), Elsbeth Moser (bayan), NDR Radiophilharmonie/Andrew Manze rec. 2018/22, Orfeo C230121
Gubaidulina fans have had to wait until now to experience on disc her Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Bayan. This amazing work is as much a symphonic piece with Gubaidulina’s signature scoring for low brass and percussion as it is a concerto featuring virtuoso parts for the soloists. The German premiere recording here is outstanding with nary a trace of an audience present. The disc is coupled with Gubaidulina’s better known Rejoice! for violin and cello in an equally authoritative account.
Czech Songs Magdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano), Czech Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle rec. 2022/23 Pentatone PTC5187077
Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená excels in her native Czech songs accompanied idiomatically by the Czech Philharmonic under Simon Rattle. While all the selections are attractive, including some with new orchestral accompaniments from the piano originals, I was particularly drawn to Martinů’s early Nipponari, a wistful, Japanese-inspired cycle sensitively performed here. A greater contrast cannot be imagined than Hans Krása’s brief Four Orchestral Songs of 1920 with their nonsense settings in German, both ironic and terse, that find Kožená and Rattle equally adept at interpreting them.
