Your Records of the Year 2014

[Barbirollians]

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 .

2 Chopin Piano Concertos - Ingrid Fliter - these are performances on the highest level . The performance of No 2 could win over the greatest sceptic .

3 Strauss - An Alpine Symphony - Sao Paulo Symphony / Frank Shipway - this is a thrilling performance and as EA said sounds like the recording Barbirolli might have made - with added poignancy after Frank Shipway's death from injuries sustained in a car crash

The other three discs that have stood out - Dances by Benjamin Grosvenor . I was a bit of sceptic before about all the hype but this is a fascinating recital - the Argerich/Abbado Mozart disc and Stenhammar's Serenade with the RFPO and Lindberg .

[Flay]

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 .

I would add his Bruckner 9 from that festival - the last work he conducted. There could be no better way to finish a distinguiished career.

[Petrushka]

Not surprisingly, the first three titles that came into my head were the Abbado releases already mentioned, the Schubert, Wagner, Beethoven CD, the Bruckner 9 and the Mozart Piano Concertos with Argerich. One great success story in the current climate is the LPO label which seems to go from strength to strength with mouth-watering issues and the very model of how an orchestra owned label should be run.

Top of the years issues on the LPO label for me are live concerts at which I happened to be present: a 1982 Solti Missa Solemnis and a 1986 Haitink Ein Heldenleben. A new Shostakovich coupling of Symphonies 6 & 14 under Jurowski has garnered high praise but I've yet to hear it.

This apart it's been a thin year for new recordings. Most of my purchases have been bumper boxed sets celebrating birthday boys Kubelik and Giulini plus a fine overview of Karl Böhm's recordings on DG. My major boxed set purchase has been the Karajan 1980s set which, along with the 1960s and '70s boxes is giving much pleasure. Not played much as yet but the classic Clemens Krauss set of Richard Strauss orchestral works is handy in its own box and one to plunder as the mood takes me.

An expensive year, then, and one that's seen the shelves groan ever louder and floor space diminish even further.

[Bryn]

Without a doubt, Morton Feldman's "For Philip Guston" (Tilbury, Rees and Allen) on the Atopos label.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Without a doubt, Morton Feldman's "For Philip Guston" (Tilbury, Rees and Allen) on the Atopos label.

Which I intend buying next weekend, along with several other purchases, so I won't make a final list just now.

But the Ferneyhough String Quartets & Trios (Ardittis on Aeon) will be on it - and the disc of Plainchant that's the first in the Harmonia Mundi "Sacred Music" box.

[Richard Tarleton]

Not surprisingly

...My Favourite Dowland, by Paul O'Dette (lute), and Mister Dowland's Midnight, by Christoph Denoth (guitar). Both recent acquisitions, plucker heaven.

And another for guitar lovers - Ian Watt's album of MacLeod, Britten, Walton, Wilson and, er, Dowland, on Nimbus. I heard Watt at the 2014 Aldeburgh Festival, playing the Britten Nocturnal in the Jubilee Hall 50 years after it was premiered on the same stage by Bream.

[Black Swan]

I am struggling because everything on my list has already been named.

The Abbado CD's, Feldman and O'dette. I will have to have another ponder.

[pastoralguy]

My absolute favourite cd of 2014 is the recording of the Dvorak 'cello concerto played by Alicia Weilerstein with the Czech Philharmonic under Jiri Belohlavek. IMHO, the finest recording of one of my favourite pieces.

Second favourite is the new cd of the Brahms violin sonatas with Augustin Dumay and Louis Lorte. Sublime music making.

There are one or two others which I'll add once I've had a chance to think.

[Richard Tarleton]

My absolute favourite cd of 2014 is the recording of the Dvorak 'cello concerto played by Alicia Weilerstein with the Czech Philharmonic under Jiri Belohlavek. IMHO, the finest recording of one of my favourite pieces.

A fabulous recording.

[cloughie]

A fabulous recording.

The Belohlavek Dvorak Symphonies and Concertos box is my best New CDs of the year. Of the many big boxes the Sony Maazel box and the Giulini London box rate highly. For a fun box the Phase 4 must be near the top and for a 1p plus p&p the prize must go to LSO/Mata - Enigma & Dvorak 7 - ALWAYS GOOD TO GET A BARGAIN BUT EVEN BETTER ONE YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED!

[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 .

Duly ordered. Thanks.

[cloughie]

Duly ordered. Thanks.

It is excellent - you won't regret it.

[AjAjAjH]

Shostakovich Symphony No.7 (Leningrad) Halle/Mark Elder. Live recording - at which I was present - on the Halle's own label.

[richardfinegold]

i don't keep track of what year my purchases were released in, but one disc that I enjoyed that I know was just released is the Scherazade featuring the Istanbul Orchestra and that was so highly praised by IGI.

[EdgeleyRob]

Bax orchestral music/Andrew Davis.
RVW Symphonies/Rozhdestvensky.
Weinberg complete string quartets,Quatuor Danel.
Milford and Stanford violin concertos/EM Records.