Your Records of the Year 2014

[teamsaint]

The CD is certainly worth a plug I'm interested to read what you found especially good there jlw.
I just went to look at when I bought that CD because I couldn't believe it was 2014 - seemed so long ago but I only got it in April. I don't buy many CD's, most of my pennies go on live concerts of mostly contemporary music.

Is there a best concert (or CD) 2014 thread? For me that has to be musikfabrik's performance of Partch's Delusion of the Fury.

very wise decision to catch that , Hedgey.

Wish I had seen it.......perhaps it will get performed at the Proms one day....

[hedgehog]

Wish I had seen it.......perhaps it will get performed at the Proms one day....

I think it would do well at the Proms ts. The total professionalism plus joy fullness of the performance gave Partch's music the most wonderful performance, in addition to the theatre and theatricality of the instruments themselves. Everything was subtly amplified to create a better stage presence and the musicians swapped between characters and performers in an exuberant flow that sublimated the rather naff libretto Full marks to Heiner Goebells in transforming it to the 21stC ( well no, not exactly - he managed to 'place it' in a received idea of a past era - a received nostalgia )

[teamsaint]

I think it would do well at the Proms ts. The total professionalism plus joy fullness of the performance gave Partch's music the most wonderful performance, in addition to the theatre and theatricality of the instruments themselves. Everything was subtly amplified to create a better stage presence and the musicians swapped between characters and performers in an exuberant flow that sublimated the rather naff libretto Full marks to Heiner Goebells in transforming it to the 21stC

THanks for that Hedgey, but you're just making it worse !!

perhaps a DVD will appear or something.

perhaps we should start a " Partch at the Proms" campaign....!!

"Perhaps , perhaps, perhaps,".....

[Richard Barrett]

As so often, a major contemporary music event takes place in various other major cities but not London. Unfortunately I haven't been in any of the right places at the right times for it (yet).

Back to CDs. On the road as I am at the moment I can't put my finger on which new CDs I've bought this year. (I have appeared on three, which should obviously be near the top of anyone's choices ) I will say this though: JLW's Rameau and Mozart choices have enriched my life considerably, especially the Harnoncourt Mozart, which goes straight to my first choice of recording of all three symphonies and especially no.39 which I immediately felt I'd paid insufficient attention to in the past. What we need from Harnoncourt and his ensemble now is the last 12 Haydn symphonies. I found the Rameau quite beautifully done (the inclusion of something a bit less familiar might have been a good idea), though a bit too attention-seekingly overdone in places. I agree about 24-bit recording as well. Although personally I can't tell the difference between 44.1 and 88.2 kHz (and as a composer of electronic music and occasional recording producer I've tried and tested every format going), the different between 16 and 24 bits is quite audible in the inner details of the sound.

[MickyD]

Agreed about Harnoncourt and the London symphonies, Richard...his set of the Paris ones was great, in my book. I think the only other set of the Londons on period instruments was from Kuijken and La Petite Bande some years ago.

[Richard Barrett]

Agreed about Harnoncourt and the London symphonies, Richard...his set of the Paris ones was great, in my book. I think the only other set of the Londons on period instruments was from Kuijken and La Petite Bande some years ago.

There was Brüggen as well, which I like a lot, but Harnoncourt's "Paris" Symphonies are absolutely my favourite Haydn orchestral recordings of all. I very much hope he gets around to the later ones.

[jayne lee wilson]

Agreed about Harnoncourt and the London symphonies, Richard...his set of the Paris ones was great, in my book. I think the only other set of the Londons on period instruments was from Kuijken and La Petite Bande some years ago.

Marc Minkowski's Naive set of the London Symphonies with Musiciens du Louvre came out in 2010 (see Gramophone, 9/2010) and reviewed very well everywhere. I've only heard excerpts but they sound more than promising. Orchestra of about 50. I didn't buy it because I'd just got Norrington's stunning SWR/Hanssler set, which isn't on period instruments but sounds like it is! One of Norrington's best, and wonderfully well recorded (as usual from SWR). Gramophone 3/2010.

It's a shame Bruggen didn't record the Londons in London, with the OAE and the same production team that got such wonderful results from the Sturm und Drang set (selections from 26-65), now only available 2ndhand or in the boxed collection of all Bruggen's Haydn. Utrecht's reverberant Vredenburg wasn't always well handled by Philips in the 1980s, though things improved later, with the Beethoven Violin Concerto and the marvellous Glossa Rameau Suites.

[HighlandDougie]

Agreed about Harnoncourt and the London symphonies, Richard...his set of the Paris ones was great, in my book. I think the only other set of the Londons on period instruments was from Kuijken and La Petite Bande some years ago.

There is also Minkowski's live set, recorded in the Musikverein in Vienna - idiosyncratic at times but most enjoyable. The Kuijken, though, is life-enhancingly wonderful - guaranteed to cheer one up irrespective of how crap life might seem. Whoever on this MB recommended the Japanese remastered set deserves a medal. Well worth seeking out (and it isn't very expensive). But I'd be there in the queue waiting to snap them up if Harnoncourt decided to record them with the Concentus Musicus - to echo everyone else, his Paris symphonies are a delight.

On topic - but not on Haydn - Peter Hill's recent recital built round pieces by Messiaen ("La Fauvette Passerinette") is one of my discs of the year, alongside much of what has been suggested in earlier posts. Jos van Immerseel's "Carmina Burana" is masterfully sung, played and recorded and makes as good a case for the work as you are ever likely to hear but .......

[MickyD]

Wasn't there some strange sort of "surprise" in the Suprise symphony of Minkowski's which discouraged people from investing in the set? I can't remember now. I didn't realise that Bruggen did all the Londons...

Jayne, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the Bruggen Rameau on Glossa...I've just got hold of both of those discs, fantastic!

Now, I must try and see if I can find those Kuijken discs...surely DHM will bring them back out in Europe sometime soon?

[pastoralguy]

I know that there are still six weeks to go of 2014 but I wondered what forumites records of the year have been .

For me those that have given me most pleasure are

1 The Lucerne live Abbado recordings of Schubert's Unfinished , Beethoven 2 and Siegfried Idyll - an extraordinary CD of such remarkable performances - each of which has now become my favourite of each piece . Magical .

This has just arrived so am about to sample. Sounds pretty good, 2 mins in...

[DracoM]

Courts of Heaven / CCCO / Darlington.

[martin_opera]

The ones that seem to have not left my player are:

Benjamin Grosvenor Dances
Teodor Currentzis Le Nozze Di Figaro (not so sure about the Cosi)
Dunedin Consort Mozart Requiem

[Rosie55]

Definitely the Naxos release of Jonathan Dove song cycles featuring Patricia Bardon

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8573080

[Barbirollians]

Added to my list is the first release of the Barbirolli/Czech PO live Mahler 1 on the Barbirolli society label .

[pastoralguy]

Definitely the Naxos release of Jonathan Dove song cycles featuring Patricia Bardon
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8573080

And the very lovely Claire Booth...