Your CLASSICAL albums of the year.

[Barbirollians]

Most of my buying has also been of reissues . Newly released favourites this year have been

Kathleen Ferrier remembered -Somm
Homages - Vilde Frang
Chopin - works for piano and orchestra Jan Lisiecki .

[Barbirollians]

Surprise of the year - streaming Menuhin's mono mid 1950s performances of the Mozart 4 and 5 with the vintage Philharmonia and Pritchard - stunningly beautiful.

[kea]

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

That is on my increasingly long list of albums to get once I have a real job and am no longer using every spare bit of cash to pay rent & dependent on what I can find on streaming services or buy for less than NZ$10 >.>

The Weeks is great, although probably not as great as his crunchier earlier pieces which don't seem to have made it onto any commercially available recording. I'm not sold on Cage/Wolff, but plan to eventually get the Smith, I've heard some of her music in concert and it's good

[soileduk]

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.

If it matters the serial number is HCR13CD.

[Ferretfancy]

I spent a large part of 2017 listening to the very big box Mozart 225. This huge cube has 200 CDS and claims to be the complete edition. So far I have listened to all the orchestral music, chamber works and instrumental, so that gets me to the halfway point. Next up will be all the vocal works.

This is an astonishing set with performers like Uchida, Schiff, Bilson etc.etc. Supplements include classic performances from the early days of stereo. I'm not sure how the mastering was co-ordinated, but sound quality is superb throughout. Interestingly, although I already have lots of Mozart, there are very few annoying duplications, probably because the choice is so wide,

So, on into 2018! Due to hear some scraps and incomplete items by about September after the Proms finish.

[Pianorak]

Among reissued faourites this year:
Murray Perahia: Schumann Piano Sonata No. 1 Op 11, and Carnival Jest from Vienna, Op. 26
Elisabeth Leonskaja: Late Schubert Sonatas
Andreas Staier: Late Haydn Sonatas

[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.

O.k., a bit of a cheat for a third, Herbert Von Karajan, Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca.

[pastoralguy]

O.k., a bit of a cheat for a third, Herbert Von Karajan, Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca.

All contributions gratefully received! Just whatever discs or downloads has had you re-listening.

[MickyD]

I've taken great pleasure in the 10 CD box 'Le Parnasse Français', featuring all the discs of French baroque music made over the years for Archiv by Musica Antiqua Koln. A wonderful bargain.

[Serial_Apologist]

Fortunately I was able to pick up a number of CDs at Harold Moore's, before he shut down, including:

Havergal Brian: Orchestral Music Vol 1, Early & Late Works:
Burlesque Variations on an Original Theme
English Suite No 5 - Rustic Scenes
Elegy
Legend: Ave atque vale
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Cond Garry Walker - Toccata Classics

Peter Pears: A Treasury of English Song:
Pears + Britten, Viola Tunnard or Alan Bush - Decca Eloquence
I got this especially for the Bush cantata "Voices of the Prophets"

Schoenberg:
Pierrot Lunaire
Serenade
Die eiserne Brigade
London Sinfonietta Cond David Atherton - Decca

Eisler: Musique de Chambre
Nonett No 1
Nonett No 2
Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu Beschriben - Variationen Op 70
Sonata for Violin and Piano
Duo for Violin abd Cello, Op 7
14 musicians under Cond Christoph Keller
Accord

Hanns Eisler: Integrale de la musique de chambre en deux volumes - Vol II
Suite fur Septett No 1 Op 92a
Septett No 2 ("Circus")
Streichquartett
Praeludium und Fuge uber B-A-C-H fur Streichtrio Op 46
Sonate fur Flote, oboe und Harfe Op 49
Moment Musical pour clarinette colo
Scherzo fur Streichtrio
Divertimento fur Blaserquintett Op 4
Kammerensemble de Zurich Dir Christoph Keller
Accord

Bartok New Series
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Divertimento
Hungarian Sketches
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra Cond Zoltan Kocsis
Hungaroton Classic
I got this for the Divertimento, and the cover has the composer looking very in rimless specs and wearing a summer trilby

They were always helpful there albeit grumpy, and, as with the many other retailers one could spend useless hours perusing, I shall miss the place.

[Lat-Literal]

1. Louis Durey - Durey Rediscovered - Jocelyn Dueck (piano), Jesse Blumberg, William Burden, Sidney Outlaw, and Adriana Zabala, New Focus
2. Samuel Barber - The Lovers with Randall Thompson - Frostiana - Martin Häßler (baritone), Landesjugendchor Sachsen, Jugendsinfonieorchester Leipzig, Ron-Dirk, Rondeau
3. William Bolcom - Piano Rags - Spencer Myer, Steinway and Sons
4. Delia Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield - Circle of Light, Trunk, Official Month of Release - December 2016
5. Grace Williams - My Last Duchess : The Songs of Grace Williams - Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone), Paula Fan (piano and harpsichord) and Rachel Kay Green (harp), Lontano

Also:

Kelly Moran - Bloodroot

(compositions for prepared piano, on Telegraph Harp Records)

Limonium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7J72eGze6Q

I trust that this list is sufficiently unexpected.

[silvestrione]

1. Louis Durey - Durey Rediscovered - Jocelyn Dueck (piano), Jesse Blumberg, William Burden, Sidney Outlaw, and Adriana Zabala, New Focus
2. Samuel Barber - The Lovers with Randall Thompson - Frostiana - Martin Häßler (baritone), Landesjugendchor Sachsen, Jugendsinfonieorchester Leipzig, Ron-Dirk, Rondeau
3. William Bolcom - Piano Rags - Spencer Myer, Steinway and Sons
4. Delia Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield - Circle of Light, Trunk, Official Month of Release - December 2016
5. Grace Williams - My Last Duchess : The Songs of Grace Williams - Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone), Paula Fan (piano and harpsichord) and Rachel Kay Green (harp), Lontano

Also:

Kelly Moran - Bloodroot

(compositions for prepared piano, on Telegraph Harp Records)

Limonium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7J72eGze6Q

I trust that this list is sufficiently unexpected.

Lateral indeed

[Stanfordian]

Here are my top 5 albums for 2017:

a) 'Being Earnest' - Ernst von Dohnányi - Piano Quintet No. 2, Sextet - Ensemble Raro, rec. 2016 Solo Musica

b) 'A Tribute to Gilbert Duprez' - Arias by Verdi, Donizetti, Berlioz & Rossini - John Osborn (tenor) Kaunas City SO & State Ch/Constantine Orbelian rec. 2016 Delos

c) 'Eternamente - The Verismo Album - Angela Gheorghiu' - Arias by Mascagni, Donaudy, Puccini, Boito, Mascheroni, Refice, Ponchielli, Giordano, Leoncavallo -
PKF – Prague Philharmonia Choir and Orchestra/Emmanuel Villaume rec. 2016, Smetana Hall, Municipal House, Prague & 2017, Temple Studios, Malta. Warner Classics

d) 'Meyerbeer - Grand Opera - Diana Damrau' - Orchestre et Choeur de l'Opéra National de Lyon/Emmanuel Villaume rec. 2015, Opéra National de Lyon, France - Erato

e) Bruckner Symphony No. 3 - Staatskapelle Dresden/Yannick Nézet-Séguin, rec. live 2008 Semperoper, Dresden - Profil

[Barbirollians]

Ah well if we can have reissues or albums one has picked up cheaply second hand

Cho Liang Lin's recordings for Sony - revisiting his Mozart and Prokofiev concerto recordings have given me much pleasure picked up cheaply secondhand .

Discovering Howard Shelley's strangely incomplete cycle of the Mozart piano concertos with the LMP on Chandos and Horenstein's Mahler

[pastoralguy]

Absolutely, Barbie. Just whatever has caused your boat to be buoyant in 2017.