Please name just one new or re-release as your No.1, then as many other highlights as you like; and optionally your recorded music discovery of 2016 - the music or label or recordings that meant the most to you…
My album of the year really did pick itself -
Mendelssohn Symphonies 1 and 4.
LSO/John Eliot Gardiner. LSO Live. (24/192 download, Qobuz).
I’d kept away from LSO Barbican recordings for some time, disenchanted with the rather dark confined soundstage and colourless timbres. But trialling Qobuz HiFi’s lossless streaming (via Audirvana+) it was worth a revisit and as a 16/44.1 FLAC stream, I found this Mendelssohn pairing fresh, vital, precise and expressive. I felt compelled to buy the hi-res version and - well! The tangibility, warmth, presence and individuality of the orchestral character and the solos were exceptional, as fine an orchestral sound (and a Mendelssohn interpretation) as I’ve heard in many years. The Barbican acoustic was much more present than before, in fact an enjoyably atmospheric “backing” to the music itself.
I just spun the files through JRiver’s shuffle play again and up came the con fuoco from No.1 - I stayed to the end, entranced yet again.
Musically and sonically compelling in all respects! A great achievement.
Other highlights for me (all purchased as downloads from Qobuz, eclassical or Da Capo) were: Beethoven Symphonies 4&5, Missa Solemnis, CMW/Harnoncourt (Sony 24/96, his last recordings); Ravel Orchestral Works from the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra/Lionel Bringuier (as good as any earlier legends, DG 24/96); Per Norgard Symphonies 4&5, 2&6 from Oslo PO/John Storgards (ahead of the Chandos/Segerstam/Dausgaard cycle on points, but lovely to have both; 24/88.2 Da Capo).
Sibelius Symphonies 3,6,7 from the Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vanska (24/96 Bis), Colin Matthews Orchestral Works (including the spectacular Cortège, various, 24/44.1 NMC); more Haydn Symphonies, 4, 42, 64, from Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini (24/96, Alpha) and Mozart Piano Concertos 11-13 from the Freiburg Barockester and Kristian Bezuidenhout (24/96 HM).
Last, latest treats were MTT's Debussy anthology , Images, Jeux etc., with the SFSO (24/192. SFSO) and the Ligeti Concertos set from Baldur Brönniman and the Bit20 Ensemble, stunningly recorded in 24/96 by Bis, a wonderfully fresh musical presentation.
***
2016 was the year Martinu became one of the deepest objects of my affection. I went beyond the familiar names to hear symphony cycles from Vladimir Valek and Arthur Fagen, and came to love them even more; but entirely new to me were the Piano Concertos (Koukl, Kolinsky, Firkusny, Leichner) and the String Quartets (Panocha, Kocian/Zemlinsky). So Martinu joins those other mid-20th Century symphonists - Roussel, Honegger, Dutilleux, Gerhard, Enescu, Skalkottas…) in whose worlds I spend so much of my musical time.
My album of the year really did pick itself -
Mendelssohn Symphonies 1 and 4.
LSO/John Eliot Gardiner. LSO Live. (24/192 download, Qobuz).
I’d kept away from LSO Barbican recordings for some time, disenchanted with the rather dark confined soundstage and colourless timbres. But trialling Qobuz HiFi’s lossless streaming (via Audirvana+) it was worth a revisit and as a 16/44.1 FLAC stream, I found this Mendelssohn pairing fresh, vital, precise and expressive. I felt compelled to buy the hi-res version and - well! The tangibility, warmth, presence and individuality of the orchestral character and the solos were exceptional, as fine an orchestral sound (and a Mendelssohn interpretation) as I’ve heard in many years. The Barbican acoustic was much more present than before, in fact an enjoyably atmospheric “backing” to the music itself.
I just spun the files through JRiver’s shuffle play again and up came the con fuoco from No.1 - I stayed to the end, entranced yet again.
Musically and sonically compelling in all respects! A great achievement.
Other highlights for me (all purchased as downloads from Qobuz, eclassical or Da Capo) were: Beethoven Symphonies 4&5, Missa Solemnis, CMW/Harnoncourt (Sony 24/96, his last recordings); Ravel Orchestral Works from the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra/Lionel Bringuier (as good as any earlier legends, DG 24/96); Per Norgard Symphonies 4&5, 2&6 from Oslo PO/John Storgards (ahead of the Chandos/Segerstam/Dausgaard cycle on points, but lovely to have both; 24/88.2 Da Capo).
Sibelius Symphonies 3,6,7 from the Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vanska (24/96 Bis), Colin Matthews Orchestral Works (including the spectacular Cortège, various, 24/44.1 NMC); more Haydn Symphonies, 4, 42, 64, from Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini (24/96, Alpha) and Mozart Piano Concertos 11-13 from the Freiburg Barockester and Kristian Bezuidenhout (24/96 HM).
Last, latest treats were MTT's Debussy anthology , Images, Jeux etc., with the SFSO (24/192. SFSO) and the Ligeti Concertos set from Baldur Brönniman and the Bit20 Ensemble, stunningly recorded in 24/96 by Bis, a wonderfully fresh musical presentation.
***
2016 was the year Martinu became one of the deepest objects of my affection. I went beyond the familiar names to hear symphony cycles from Vladimir Valek and Arthur Fagen, and came to love them even more; but entirely new to me were the Piano Concertos (Koukl, Kolinsky, Firkusny, Leichner) and the String Quartets (Panocha, Kocian/Zemlinsky). So Martinu joins those other mid-20th Century symphonists - Roussel, Honegger, Dutilleux, Gerhard, Enescu, Skalkottas…) in whose worlds I spend so much of my musical time.
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