Classical album of the year 2016

[Bryn]

... Stones' "Blue & Lonesome" ...

I know their ginger wine but Blue and Lonesome is a new one on me. Does it mix will with cheap blended whisky?

[CallMePaul]

Machaut's Messe de Nostree Dame by Graindelavoix, dir Bjorn Schmelzer on the glossa label. This group is setting new standards for the performance of medieval music and it is a pity that its release came too late for inclusion in the BAL on Machaut's music.

I have also enjoyed Mahan Esfahani's Goldberg Variations, the New London Quartet's recording of Haydn's op 50 quartets and Mozart trios played by the Rautio Piano Trio.

[pastoralguy]

I tend not to buy CDs in the same year that they come out - the prices drop ridiculously when they've been available for some time - unless it's something absolutely unmissable. ..

I'm starting to adopt that approach too, ferny. I'm keen to acquire the Levit late Beethoven sonatas which are available for circa six and a half pounds at Amazon just now so I may take the plunge on pay day.

In fact, more and more, I find myself going to the public library and taking out the new releases of which there is a slow but steady trickle. It's a great way of trying before you buy.

[pastoralguy]

I've been very taken with Lisa Batiashvili's new recording of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with Barenboim. An extremely fine interpretation, imho.

[Lat-Literal]

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.

Well, Jayne........I am not confident about 2016 recordings but I took your post on the WM boards as an invitation to contribute to the best of my ability. My main selection is R Nathaniel Dett's "The Ordering of Moses" (May Festival Chorus; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Conductor - James Conlon; soloists Latonia Moore and Rodrick Dixon) on Bridge. This is a new live recording of a remarkable often overlooked work premiered in the late 1930s and it is critically acclaimed. Some forum members may have spotted a link to that work from me earlier this year - Mobile Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Levi Dawson with the Talladega College Choir in 1968 - which is still accessible on YouTube.

http://bridgerecords.com/products/9462

Other CDs that look appealing are Dashon Burton and Nathaniel Gumbs's "Songs of Struggle and Redemption - We Shall Overcome" on Acis, John Wilson and BBC Philharmonic's "Copland - Orchestral Works 2, Symphonies" (Chandos), Mompou/Clélia Iruzun - "Piano Works Vol. 2" (Somm) and Satie/Barbara Hannigan - "Socrate" (Winter & Winter). Given the positive reviews I would be willing to give the Abrahamsen "Let Me Tell You" a go (Winter & Winter) and I will also want to hear Errollyn Wallen's "Photography" (NMC). I am slightly wary of Manze/RLPO's "Symphony No 2" by RVW as I have my favourite recordings but see it has had many good reviews. Sadly, Michael Berkeley's "Tango!" is still unrecorded.

[Stanfordian]

My 'Classical Album of the Year' 2016

Bruckner
Symphony No. 3 ‘Wagner’ (original version of 1873)
Staatskapelle Dresden/Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Recorded live September 2008 Semperoper, Dresden
Edition Staatskapelle Dresden - Volume 39
Profil


2 Runners up:

Thuille, Poulenc, Françaix - Sextets
Thuille
Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn, op. 6
Poulenc
Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, FP 100
Françaix
L’heure du Berger for piano and string quintet
Margarita Höhenrieder (piano)
Kammerharmonie der Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden
Released 2016 - Klosterbibliothek Polling
Solo Musica

Schumann
Concerto in A minor for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 129
Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61
Jan Vogler (cello)
Dresden Festival Orchestra/Ivor Bolton
Recorded 2016 Lukaskirche, Dresden
Sony

The Dresden connection is purely co-incidental.

[HighlandDougie]

My main selection is R Nathaniel Dett's "The Ordering of Moses" (May Festival Chorus; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Conductor - James Conlon; soloists Latonia Moore and Rodrick Dixon) on Bridge. This is a new live recording of a remarkable often overlooked work premiered in the late 1930s and it is critically acclaimed. Some forum members may have spotted a link to that work from me earlier this year - Mobile Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Levi Dawson with the Talladega College Choir in 1968 - which is still accessible on YouTube.

http://bridgerecords.com/products/9462

To my shame, I've never heard of R Nathaniel Dett so, thank you L-L for a discovery. CD duly ordered (and, according to Amazon, now despatched).

[Jonathan]

A tough question! There are several discs which have been spun many times this year and I have obtained a lot of discs as well.

Piano wise, I would have to say this one:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/wagner-verdi-love-and-death-operas-abdiel-vazquez-piano-classics.html

I've also thoroughly enjoyed Mark Viner's phenomenal Liszt transcriptions disc.

Concerto-wise, Moszkowski's early Op.3 Piano Concerto (Hyperion) was superb and purely orchestrally...I'll have a think!

[Lat-Literal]

To my shame, I've never heard of R Nathaniel Dett so, thank you L-L for a discovery. CD duly ordered (and, according to Amazon, now despatched).

Best Classical Recordings of 2016 - Zachary Woolfe, NY Times: "When NBC cut away three-quarters through its live radio broadcast of this gorgeous oratorio’s premiere in 1937, it claimed previous commitments. But it may have been responding to callers objecting to perhaps the first network broadcast of a major work by a black composer. The Cincinnati May Festival was responsible for that premiere, and its forces brought the work — since then largely forgotten — to Carnegie Hall in 2014, under the auspices of the late, lamented Spring for Music festival. In this live recording, the orchestra plays with driving energy under Mr. Conlon and the chorus, warmly hovering, is glorious. The soloists are excellent".

[makropulos]

1. Boult, Baker, Pears and Shirley-Quirk in Gerontius - fantastic to have this available at last, and in amazingly good sound and vision too.
2. For weird and fascinating repertoire, the disc of Czech Masses on Arco Diva by Foerster, Fibich and Suk - a rare chance to hear Foerster's Glagolitic Mass (1923)

And now I want to hear the Nathaniel Dett disc too - going to order that now.

[Beef Oven!]

I tend not to buy CDs in the same year that they come out - the prices drop ridiculously when they've been available for some time - unless it's something absolutely unmissable. So, for me:

Barrett: life-form, nacht und traume, Blattwerke; Arne Deforce/the Composer/Yutaka Oya

... still explodes from the speakers these many months after getting; a reminder if how good Blattwerke is (fourteen years after I'd last heard it); confirming how good nacht und traume is after a less-than-representative performance ten years ago; and just marvellous to hear life-form.

Bliss it is to be alive when such Music-making is occurring - to be middle-aged is a bit annoying ....

Yes, that’s my CD of the year as well - head and shoulders above anything else this year, too! So much so that I think I need to think about a couple of runners-up!

[AmpH]

HAYDN Symphonies 78 - 81
Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone ( DECCA )

Having previously enjoyed these forces ( with Viktoria Mullova ) in an excellent disc of Bach concertos on ONYX, I looked forward to hearing them in Haydn. I was pleased to find that in a generally disappointing year for new Haydn symphony releases, this one particularly stood out with a series of powerful yet sensitive and well balanced performances in good recorded sound. Easily my record of the year.

Three other new releases which also stood out for me this year were all from the HYPERION stable :-

BARTOK Mikrokosmos Book 5 and other piano works
Cedric Tiberghien ( piano )
Second release in a deservedly well received series to date and I look forward future releases.

C P E BACH Cello Concertos
Nicolas Altstaedt ( Cello ) / Archangelo / Jonathan Cohen

FAURE Apres un reve : A Faure Recital
Louis Lortie ( piano )
First in a projected series of recordings from a much admired pianist

I don't often buy large box sets, but this year I indulged in two which have given me great pleasure.

CARL NIELSEN Vintage and other Historical Recordings ( 30 CD ) ( DANACORD )
In particular, the Symphonies conducted by Thomas Jensen are a triumph - full of life and energy which few modern recordings seem able to match. I also enjoyed the recordings of Nielsen's piano music which was unknown to me, as well as many of his songs.

J S BACH Complete Sacred Cantatas
Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki et al
Having been brought up on the Harnoncourt recordings and not previously felt the need to look elsewhere, I finally took the plunge with Suzuki this year having been able to sample a few recordings courtesy of musical friends. Whilst in marked contrast to Harnoncourt's recordings, I have been struck by the sheer consistency and beauty of performance, singing and sound in the recordings I have listened to to date - about three quarters of the set. Glad to now own both sets and much assistance has also come from my trusty and very well thumbed copy of translations by Richard Stokes.

[Daniel]

Yes, that’s my CD of the year as well - head and shoulders above anything else this year, too! So much so that I think I need to think about a couple of runners-up!

That is indeed a marvellous disc, the music so fresh and replete with ideas. The level of inspiration seems consistently high throughout, but a couple of items stick in the mind - Abyss from life form seemed not too dissimilar from being picked up and stowed in the hold of an alien spacecraft, a revelatory and stimulating experience in this instance I should stress ('humming' electronic sounds can feel leaden and uncomfortable to me at times, Eliane Radigue comes to mind .., but not so at all here). And nacht und traume is a highly beautiful work, seemingly spun from silken threads and a few copper wires, with the distant appearance of the Schubert in the closing bars as a great emotional masterstroke. But yes, as I say, the whole disc an excellent, refreshing journey into the unknown.

I latched onto the above seeing it here, but also occurring as I write are the Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues with Alexander Melnikov and the Vivaldi Four Seasons with Giuliano Carmignola, both ear opening and giving immense pleasure, a revitalising one in the case of the second.

[Lat-Literal]

That is indeed a marvellous disc, the music so fresh and replete with ideas. The level of inspiration seems consistently high throughout, but a couple of items stick in the mind - Abyss from life form seemed not too dissimilar from being picked up and stowed in the hold of an alien spacecraft, a revelatory and stimulating experience in this instance I should stress ('humming' electronic sounds can feel leaden and uncomfortable to me at times, Eliane Radigue comes to mind .., but not so at all here). And nacht und traume is a highly beautiful work, seemingly spun from silken threads and a few copper wires, with the distant appearance of the Schubert in the closing bars as a great emotional masterstroke. But yes, as I say, the whole disc an excellent, refreshing journey into the unknown.

I latched onto the above seeing it here, but also occurring as I write are the Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues with Alexander Melnikov and the Vivaldi Four Seasons with Giuliano Carmignola, both ear opening and giving immense pleasure, a revitalising one in the case of the second.

Sorry - I have to ask because I am intrigued.

Is the composer of this parish?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sorry - I have to ask because I am intrigued.
Is the composer of this parish?

Oh, yes.