2018. Your top classical albums from this year.

[jayne lee wilson]

{from fhg #27:
"What Currentzis does is reproduce these differences - not simply as a mark of awe for the Composer (this is Currentzis, after all), but to reveal what the Music is giving at these points - and the detail that is heard is compelling: I don't remember hearing the many semiquaver driving rhythms (usually drowned out by prominent brass playing) so clearly as in this recording. It's propulsive, and demonstrates Mahler's debt to Bach; one that had never struck me at all before (and the string players of MusicAeterna are phenomenal in these passages - there's none of that muddy approximation that many recordings and performances make do with; in fact, the orchestral playing throughout is staggeringly good)."}

Did you not know about these...?

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Arran/OT-Mahler.htm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well, yes - but they don't really show Mahler's "debt" to Bach in the way that being able to hear the precise notes of the driving rhythms so clearly in the Sixth Symphony does. Mahler's arrangement of Drei Pintos doesn't reveal a "debt to Weber", and Elgar's arrangement of the Chopin Funeral March doesn't show a "debt to Chopin" (other than the obvious one that they couldn't've made the arrangement without the original) - these are homages, if anything. But to hear these details in Mahler's "own" Music ... that is a very different matter, one I hadn't noticed before, and one that Currentzis' recording brought to my attention. (Similarly, Webern's own "debt" to Bach is heard in the String Trio, the Symphony, the Concerto, etc etc etc ... much more clearly than in his arrangement of the Ricercar a 6.)

[jayne lee wilson]

I think the first time an audible Bach-Mahler stylistic echo struck me was an early experience of the 9th Symphony, specifically the Rondo Burleske, some of the intense contrapuntal development before the sublime, visionary "trio" section. I was a inexperienced listener of course, but I simply thought "Bach" immediately...
(If try hard enough I could probably find (or force ) an echo in a Bach Concerto somewhere (you know me...!).. Those minor key Violin Concertos, perhaps.....)

Or just imagine the movement played more slowly, with a bouncier, major key feel... you might be somewhere among the Brandenburg Concertos...

On a rather loftier level (!), here's a remarkable essay about these considerations.... (particularly the sections Polyphony and Death, Palindrome, et seq...

https://www.gustav-mahler.eu/index.php/werken/106-zoneless/1346-mahler-and-bach

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That's a very informative article, thank you - and, by mentioning his ownership of the Bach Collected Edition, answers an immediate question I had in mind about how much of Bach's output Mahler knew (specifically, BWV 1). Yes, Mahler's symphonies demonstrate a mastery of Bachian contrapuntal techniques - as you say, the Rondo Burleske, but also the Eighth Symphony, and the Finale of the Fifth (that quadruple fugue culminating in a Chorale using the theme of BWV 1 - Wie schön leuchtet die Morgenstern ). I have previously generalised this influence - regarding it as something he absorbed via Bruckner and the late Beethoven S4tets and Piano Sonatas. But the specifics are there, too - and now that I've noticed the driving rhythm "accompaniments" in the Sixth, I've started to hear them elsewhere, too - the Finale of the Fifth, again - it's so obvious!

It must help that I've spent much of this year with Bach's keyboard Music - but I don't think the final link would have been made without experiencing the Currentzis recording. In this first "flush" of experience and enthusiasm, it feels like my favourite of all that I know. No doubt this will settle down - performances "speak" to each other in the memory, and I've no doubt that I'll return to the others and hear them anew, details that were always there, but which my Currentzis experience bring to my attention.

Yeah - Ferneyhough and Mahler/Currentzis: if I had to name just two from this year ....

[DublinJimbo]

Mahler: Symphony No. 4 • Symphony No. 5
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker / Adam Fischer

Brahms: String Sextets
Capuçon Brothers, Gérard Caussé etc (live recording, 2016 Easter Festival in Aix en Provence)

Shostakovich: Symphonies 4 & 11
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Andris Nelsons

Igor Levit: 'Life' (music by Busoni, Bach, Rzewski, Liszt etc.)

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (1877 world premiere version)
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov” / Vladimir Jurowski

Debussy: Préludes Book II • La Mer (Composer's transcription for piano duet)*
Alexander Melnikov, Olga Pashchenko*

Bartók: Violin Concertos 1 & 2
Christian Tetzlaff, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6
MusicAeterna / Teodor Currentzis

[vinteuil]

.

'Enfers', Pichon/Pygmalion

http://amzn.eu/d/5Mwn6WB

.
Debussy : First Performers

http://amzn.eu/d/4Xi4opE

.
Rameau : Nais

http://amzn.eu/d/c92kDdv

.
Brahms, Tapiola/Venzago

http://amzn.eu/d/dFcl4re

.
Debussy : Complete Works (Warner)

http://amzn.eu/d/fdh1YIe

.
Rossini : Semiramide

http://amzn.eu/d/1w7pz50

.

also the Bach 333 - whch I haven't yet broached :

http://amzn.eu/d/1zjHdMe

.

[rauschwerk]

I have bought just one 2018 reissue (King's Singers albums recorded between 1974 and 1990) and one new issue - Hindemith's Das Marienleben (original version) with Juliane Banse and Martin Helmchen.

The latter has made a great impression on me. I already have Soile Isokoski in the revised version but have never found it very compelling. Whether this is the result of the drastic revisions or Ms Isokoski's singing I can't yet say. But anyone tackling the more arduous original version needs to rise to its considerable technical and emotional challenges. This Banse and Helmchen do, magnificently. I now begin to understand why Glenn Gould called this the greatest of all song cycles.

[Camden91]

The best new classical albums: October 2018
Chopin Cello Sonata Schubert Arpeggione Sonata.
Bartók Violin Concerto No 1 Enescu Octet.
Haydn Cello Concertos Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht.
Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony.
Paderewski Piano Works.
Janson The Wind Blows – Choral Works.
Kastalsky Memory Eternal.
Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine.

[CallMePaul]

Schubert: String Quartets Nos 9 and 14 - Chiaroscuro Quartet
This is the finest Schubert chamber music I have heard, to my ears at least. On Friday next week I will be going to a concert at Manchester University, in which the Quatuor Danel will play No 14 (Death and the Maiden). I expect that the two interpretations will be completely different!
I have also enjoyed Erki-Sven Tüür's Peregrinus Ecstaticus/ Noësis/ Le Poids des Vies non vécues and Rachel Podger/ Brecon Baroque's recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Three very different recordings, each in its own way very enjoyable.

[pastoralguy]

Schubert: String Quartets Nos 9 and 14 - Chiaroscuro Quartet
This is the finest Schubert chamber music I have heard, to my ears at least. On Friday next week I will be going to a concert at Manchester University, in which the Quatuor Danel will play No 14 (Death and the Maiden). I expect that the two interpretations will be completely different!
I have also enjoyed Erki-Sven Tüür's Peregrinus Ecstaticus/ Noësis/ Le Poids des Vies non vécues and Rachel Podger/ Brecon Baroque's recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Three very different recordings, each in its own way very enjoyable.

Thanks for the recommendation, Paul. I'm reliably informed that Mr. S. Claus, esq, has the Chiaroscuro's cd for me!

[Richard Barrett]

That Schubert disc is superb. I think I'll have to add it to my list.

I must listen to that Hindemith too, being a longterm admirer of Juliane Banse.

[silvestrione]

Hilary Hahn solo violin Bach

Belcea and Anderszewski in Shostakovich Piano Quintet

[BBMmk2]

I’ve bought so many this year, I can’t think!

[AmpH]

RECORD OF THE YEAR



Very honourable mentions :-

RVW - A Sea Symphony - BBC SO / Ch - Brabbins ( Hyperion )

The Lost Music of Canterbury ( Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks ) Blue Heron

Brahms - String Sextets - Capucon et al ( Erato )

Beethoven String Quartets - Budapest String Quartet ( Sony )

Juilliard String Quartet - The Complete EPIC Recordings ( Sony )

Debussy Complete Works ( Warner ) together with ' A Painter in Sound ' by Stephen Walsh

[Beef Oven!]

Over the last week I've been reflecting on, and catching up with, some of the excellent releases that we've had this year. For me, it's been one of the best years ever. Not because there's been any Marquee Recordings, but because there have been some outrageously good recordings of many straightforward/mainstream works.

Perhaps I should reserve judgement because I'm besotted with F Xavier-Roth's latest Debussy recording, but I think it's my recording of the year.

The Christian Tetzlaff/Lintu Bartok that Jayne's been championing is another astonishing recording. I had been enjoying the Tedi Papavrami/Krivine very much indeed, but the former is so amazing that I can barely listen to the latter!

Giovanni Antonini's Haydn 2032 had vols 5 & 6 released this year and are excellent. I particularly like vol 5.

Haitink's Bruckner 6 was another excellent CD. It goes straight up there with Celibidache and Karajan, IMO.

Another latecomer is Currentzis' Mahler 6. I've only listened it through three times so far, but it is one of the best M-sixes ever!

I caught up with Hilary Hahn's solo Bach over the last few days and I can hear why some people are raving about it!

Another top release for me was Pablo Heras Casado/Münchner Philharmoniker/Javier Perianes in Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra and Piano Concerto #3. Excellent sound quality and a nice change from the older usual suspects in the Concerto for Orchestra.

Colin Currie's ensemble play through Steve Reich's Drumming with a vitality that knocks spots off all the performances that I've heard, including my old faithful DG release.

DSCH Symphonies 4 & 11 - Boston SO, Nelsons on DG is another outstanding disc that rivals all top performances of both symphonies.

And I was very surprised to fall in love with the Arcadia Quartet's Bartok string quartet cycle. Normally I like my BStQts either ice-cool and acerbic or dripping with goulash. But somehow Ive been overtaken by the Arcadia's warm and romantic approach. It's my current go-to.

I'm conscious that I've mentioned no new or contemporary music. I didn't come across anything particularly absorbing in 2018

Edit: I've only recently acquired the Antonini/Basle LvB9 and it's too early to say too much about it. So far I've really enjoyed what I've heard. Sort of half-way between Krivine and Immerseel. For some reason it puts me in mind of Skrowaczewski/Saarbrucken!!!???