Your CLASSICAL albums of the year.

[pastoralguy]

My top three would be...

Bach. Goldberg Variations played by the wonderful Beatrice Rana. A disc that has provided much solace in an often stressful year.

Two recordings of the Brahms String Sextets.

A group involving the fantastic Capuçon brothers. The recording I've always dreamed of. Followed up by the Mandelring Quartet. Not inferior in any way - just slightly different.

My turkey of the year would be a cd Mrs. PG gave me for my birthday back in February. The Brahms String Sextets played by the Cypress Quartet. Sour intonation and lumpy phrasing with a horrible recording to boot.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Michael Parsons: "Patterns of Connection", Apartment House - the retrospective double album on Huddersfield Contemporary Records, HCR15CD

John Cage: Concert for Piano & Orchestra, Christian Wolff: Resistance; Philip Thomas/Apartment House - recorded in the presence of the latter composer at a concert I attended last July. HCR16CD

Linda Catlin Smith: "Drifter" - a double CD of a composer new to me this year, but whose Music created an instant and lasting "rapport" with me. Apartment House and Philip Thomas again, with the Bozzini String Quartet on Another Timbre at105x2. (I could have included all five Another Timbre "Canadian Composer Series" released this year - or indeed the entire 2017 AT catalogue - but thought that that might be a little extravagent.

I don't think that I've bought any "mainstream" repertoire CD new releases this year.

[jayne lee wilson]

Mozart Posthorn Serenade k320 etc. Kölner Akademie/Willens. BIS 24/96.

Brahms Symphony No.4 etc. Orchestre des Champs-Elysèes/Herreweghe. Phi 24/48.

Beethoven Piano Concertos 1&2. Sudbin/Tapiola Sinfonietta/Vanska. BIS 24/96.

Dutilleux Symphony No.2 etc. O.National de Lille/Ang. Naxos 24/96.

Schubert “The Finished “Unfinished””. Symphony No.8 reconstr. Mario Venzago. Basle CO/Venzago. Sony 24/96.

Mendelssohn Symphony No.5/Violin Cto. Faust/Heras-Casado/Freiburg Baroque. HM 24/96.

Haydn Symphonies 6-8; 35,46,51. Heidelberger Sinfoniker/Fey/Spillner. Hänssler CDs.

Schubert Symphonies 2&5. Antwerp SO/Herreweghe. Phi 24/96.

(downloads from Qobuz or eclassical)

***

CD Boxsets:

Mendelssohn Symphonies 1-5. COE/Nézet-Séguin. DGCDs.

Bruckner Symphonies 2-9. SWR Baden-Baden/Rosbaud. SWR Mono CDs.

RECORD OF THE YEAR:
MARTINU Symphonies 1-6. ORF Vienna Radio SO/Cornelius Meister. Capriccio CDs.

[doversoul1]

La storia di Orfeo
Emöke Baráth (soprano), Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), I Barocchisti/Fasolis
(Erato) *

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/26/la-storia-di-orfeo-philippe-jaroussky-review-monteverdi-sartorio-rossi

*should be in this order.

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks for that comprehensive contribution, Jayne.

And ferney and doversoul.

[DoctorT]

Bach: Goldberg Variations, Beatrice Rana
Beethoven: Late Quartets, Quator Mosaiques
Mozart: Violin Concertos, Isabelle Faust

[EdgeleyRob]

Mendelssohn - Complete Symphonies,COE,Nezet-Seguin,DG
Lyapunov - Etudes de Execution Transcendente,Maltempo,Piano Classics
Dyson - Choral Symphony,St Paul's Voyage to Melisa,BSO,Hill et al,Naxos
George Lloyd - Symphonies 6 & 7,BBCNSO,Downes,Lyrita
Vaughan Williams - Beyond my Dream (music for Greek plays) Albion Records
David Matthews - Piano Trios,Leonore Trio,Toccata Classics

[Rolmill]

Monteverdi - Madrigals vol.3 (Venezia), Les Arts Florissant, Agnew
Mozart - Violin Concertos, Faust
Lipatti 100th Anniversary Edition - 12 CD box from Profil (not sure if this counts, as it is obviously mainly reissues, but it seems to include some previously unreleased material - and the playing is wonderful)

[Pianoman]

Haydn: The Seasons McCreesh
Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonatas 1-6 Baryshyevski
Simon Holt: A Table of Noises

[Bryn]

Morton Feldman: "For Christian Wolff" (Carla Rees and John Tilbury)

Beethoven: Late Quartets (Mosaiques)

I will have to think a bit about a third.

[Nick Armstrong]

Useful thread, this, pastoralguy - thanks. Tempted to investigate the better two of your Brahms sextet CDs (hope Mrs PG kept the receipt for the other one )

The 2017 albums which stand out for me are these:

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 - Khatia Buniatishvili (piano), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Järvi

Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé - Les Siècles & Ensemble Aedes, François-Xavier Roth

Tye: Complete Consort Music - Phantasm


Edit: taking the cue from mahlerei, I should say that these were HQ downloads (the first two from Prestoclassical, the third from Linn)

[mahlerei]

My top ten, in no particular order:

Nielsen: Organ Works – Bine Bryndorf (Dacapo) [Sweeps the board]
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 – BFO/Fischer (Channel) [The very best of a rather uneven cycle]
Los Angeles Percussion Quartet: Beyond (Sono Luminus) [Virtuoso performances, stunning sonics]
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Vols. 1 & 2 – Descharmes, Malmö SO/Soustrot (Naxos) [Gives the otherwise splendid Hough a run for his money]
Ferio Sax Quartet: Flux (Chandos) [What a calling card!]
Offenbach: Overtures – Orchestre National de Lille/Ang (Naxos) [A conductor to watch]
Karayev: Ballet Music – Bournemouth SO/Karabits (Chandos) [Rare rep played with real commitment and a sure sense of style]
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker – transcribed and played by Stewart Goodyear (Sono Luminus for Steinway) [A prodigious talent, top-notch recording]
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 – BRSO/Haitink (BR Klassik) [Astonishing vigour, fine playing]
And, based on a preliminary listen, I’ll slide this one under the wire:
Strauss: Salome – Soloists, Frankfurt Radio SO/Orozco-Estrada (Pentatone) [Emily Magee deliciously depraved in the name part; O-E another conductor to watch]

All downloads, 24/96 from eClassical, Qobuz and Chandos.net; DSD and DXD from NativeDSD

[richardfinegold]

I’ll refrain, because I am ever quite sure a recording is released. I’ve just been listening to Michael Korstick wonderful SACD of the last 3 Beethoven Piano Sonatas so it’s New to me but the actual release date was ? And does the 1948 Horowitz/Toscanini Brahms PC2 on Pristine qualify as New?
Jlw mentioned the Sudbin/Vanska Beethoven PC 1&2. I would have to leave off the otherwise recommendable disc due to the bizzaro cadenzas Sudbin plays in #1

[kea]

Haydn Op. 54/55 - London Haydn Quartet
Haydn Op. 20/4-6 - Chiaroscuro Quartet
Holliger - Machaut-Transkriptionen
Telemann Fantasias - Paolo Pandolfo
Beethoven String Quartets - Hungarian Quartet [mono reissue]
Beethoven Piano Trios - Oliver Schnyder Trio
Szlavnics - During a Lifetime
Weeks - Mala Punica
Richard Craig - Vale
Perugia - Tetraktys

At least I think all of these were 2017 releases. I didn't listen to nearly enough contemporary music this year :/

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Weeks - Mala Punica

I read this within minutes of reading Tim Rutherford-Johnson's heading his own "best of '17" list with this release:

https://johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/2017-sounds-of-the-year/

... he also includes "my" Cage/Wolff recommendation (although rather more ambiguously enthusiastic than I am) - and I'm kicking myself for not adding

Aaron Cassidy: The Wreck of Former Boundaries / Liza Lim: How Forests Think, performed by ELISION, conducted by Carl Rosman on Huddersfield Contemporary Records, HCR14CD

... recorded at a concert I attended at the 2016 Huddersfield Festival (which is why I forgot to add it, he said, improvising an instant excuse) but released this year - I bought my copy at the Cage/Wolff concert in Leeds.