Your records of the year 2019

[jayne lee wilson]

Best to divide these into New Release/Reissue, only rule: they must have been released/reissued in 2019....
Discs, downloads, streams..... all welcome!

If you can, choose a Record of the Year... or one or two if you like, something that changed you, "your music", your listening....

[pastoralguy]

Best to divide these into New Release/Reissue, only rule: they must have been released/reissued in 2019....
Discs, downloads, streams..... all welcome!

Rachel Podger playing the Bach 'Cello suites on the violin was a pair of CDs that I listened to a LOT this year. To be honest, I had my doubts but I was completely won over.

The new cd from Beatrice Rana was a lovely event even if the repertoire isn't 100% my thing.

I've also just taken delivery of a cd of Chopin and Liszt by Mariam Batsashvili which I was inspired to buy after hearing a snippet on the radio last week. Exquisite playing!! Although I've not heard it yet, if the rest is as good as that it'll be terrific!

And how could I forget, although I just did!, the outstanding Schubert 9 from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Maxim Emelyanychev!!

[pastoralguy]

What were yours, Jayne?

[verismissimo]

My favourite of 2019 was DUEL: Porpora and Handel in London. Giuseppina Bridelli with Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu directed by Franck-Emmanuel Comte.

Great singing and playing, full of life. And fascinating from a music history point of view.

Porpora was a direct contemporary of Handel, both trained in Naples, and they competed head to head in London in 1733-37. Much is known by music-lovers about Handel, but for most, Porpora is nowadays something of a closed book. He was the teacher of the great castrati, Farinelli and Caffarelli. The young Haydn was his assistant. And he wrote several dozen operas which were performed around Europe.

Quite why Vivaldi's operas have surfaced before Porpora's is a mystery to me.

[Edgy 2]

Leighton - Sacred Choral Works ,Choir of St Mary’s Edinburgh,Ferguson (Delphian)

Alkan - Concerto and Symphony for Solo Piano,Paul Wee (BIS)

British Tone Poems vol 2,BBC Phil,Gamba (Chandos)

Weinberg - Chamber Music,Kremer et al (DG)

Parry - Piano Trios,Leonore Trio (Hyperion)

[Felix the Gnat]

All new releases, no rereleases

In order:

1) Gabriel Jackson - Passion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Sols & Choir Merton College Oxford, Benjamin Nichols
(A game-changer in modern choral, IMHO)

2) Sibelius 1 - Gothenburg SO, Santtu-Matias Rouvali
(The new benchmark for this symphony, IMHO)

3) Mahler 7 - Budapest FO, Ivan Fischer
(Displaces Abbado as the gold standard in M7, IMHO. Also, amazing sound quality, best sound this year?)

All Hi-Res downloads

Then, in no particular order:

Bartok - Stqts 1, 2 & 4, Ragazze Quartet
(All female, wonderful musicianship and excellent sound quality. I look forward to the second instalment)

DSCH, Weinberg & Borodin - Stqts 8, 5 & 2, Dragon Quartet
(A seriously capable quartet - new to me)

Bartok - Stqts 1-6, Quatuor Diotima
(Usual high standard, but something missing? Can't quite put my finger on it. But still one of my faves of 2019)

Weinberg - Stqts 11-13, Silesian Quartet
(A rival for the excellent Quatuor Danel)

Schubert - Winterreise, Bostridge & Ades
(He just gets better. And Ades is a revelation)

Haydn - 65, 67 etc Basel Chamber Orchestra, Giovanni Antonini
(Keep 'em coming!)

Mahler - 3, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Xavier Roth
(Astounding performance and ear-boggling sound quality!)


All Hi-Res downloads



.

[gurnemanz]

One of each sort which I have enjoyed recently.

CD
Bob Dylan: Travelin' Thru, 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15

Stream
Franz Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin, Thomas Meglioranza, baritone, with Reiko Uchida on a Viennese Anton Zierer fortepiano from 1829.

Download
Reynaldo Hahn: , Complete Songs, Tassis Christoyannis (baritone), Jeff Cohen (piano)

[jayne lee wilson]

What were yours, Jayne?

In preparation....it was a great year....coming soon....!

[sgjames]

1) Morton Feldman - Piano Works : Philip Thomas - Another Timbre (5xCD)

2) Morton Feldman - For Bunita Marcus : Aki Takahashi - Mode (CD)

3) Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Sonatas 4, 7 & 9 : Alexander Melnikov - HM (CD)

4) Charles Ives - Symphonies 3 & 4 : SFSO, Tilson Thomas - SFS Media (CD)

THe Feldman/Philip Thomas set was only released in October but is already on it's second pressing after
the first batch of 1000 sold out.

[vinteuil]

.

... many very rewarding CDs this year.

The one that I have listened to again and again : the Raphaël Pichon, Stéphane Degout / Pygmalion 'Enfers'

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0783Z472D

EDIT - help! I'm a year out - where did that year go??

For 2019, then, : the Geoffroy Jourdain / les Cris de Paris 'Passions'

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TLPB3ND/

.

[pastoralguy]

Rachel Podger playing the Bach 'Cello suites on the violin was a pair of CDs that I listened to a LOT this year. To be honest, I had my doubts but I was completely won over.

The new cd from Beatrice Rana was a lovely event even if the repertoire isn't 100% my thing.

I've also just taken delivery of a cd of Chopin and Liszt by Mariam Batsashvili which I was inspired to buy after hearing a snippet on the radio last week. Exquisite playing!! Although I've not heard it yet, if the rest is as good as that it'll be terrific! *

And how could I forget, although I just did!, the outstanding Schubert 9 from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Maxim Emelyanychev!!

* Yes, it IS terrific. Throughly recommended!

[Bryn]

Despite misgivings regarding the expressed aim of recording techniques that place the listener 'inside' the piano , rather than in the audience, for me the release of the year was Philip Thomas's Morton Feldman Piano boxed set of 5 CDs on the Another Tmbre label, though was the official release date of Darragh Morgan and John Tilbury's second recording of Feldman's For john Cage (on he Dublin bases Diatribe label) to be given as this year, rather than next February, that might just have taken first place.

[HighlandDougie]

Where to begin? Much chamber music: Beethoven: Razumovsky 1 & 2 - Quatuor Ébène; Haydn: Hanson Quartet's clever programme of various SQs; Mozart: another arrestingly good release from the Quatuor van Kuijk; Shostakovich: SQ's 2, 7 & 8 from the Pavel Haas Quartet; Zemlinsky et al (oops, sorry Schönberg) by the Quatuor Arod. Solo piano: Schubert D959 from Arcadi Volodos; a thought-provoking and annoying at times but never dull and largely stimulating Beethoven sonata cycle from Igor Levit. My discovery of the year - Vigilia by Rautavaara. And to plunder other choices above - Ivan Fischer's Mahler 7 and F-X Roth's Mahler 3. And, as I am going to hear him tomorrow night with the LSO in the Barbican, two more F-X R releases, but with Les Siècles - Mahler "Titan" and, possibly my disc of the year, Berlioz and the Symphonie Fantastique, although their 'Harold en Italie" is also pretty good.

[jayne lee wilson]

RECORDS OF THE YEAR 2019 (Top Choices Starred).

____Early/Baroque

***“LA MORTE DELLA RAGIONE” (Various 15TH-17thC Dances etc., Giardino Armonico/Antonini. Alpha CDs)
Catchy, compelling or haunting, a journey from Renaissance to Baroque in dances and pavanes…. if this had been an LP I’d have worn it out long since…


***MONTEVERDI VESPRO La Tempête/Simon-Pierre Bestion. Qobuz Studio/Alpha CDs.
Utterly unique, Free and sometimes wild, yet devoted to its Earthy Mediterranean Village Church milieu, this sui generis take on the usually austere compendium gave me more sheer musical joy than any other recording this year…. and continues to…. the beauty never stops, and some of the solos have an ethereal, almost Imam-style hover & stillness about them…. Bestion finds the beating heart amid the old stones…

BACH VIOLIN CONCERTOS (Faust/AAM Berlin. Harmonia Mundi CDS)

CPE BACH CELLO CONCERTOS (Dieltiens/Oot18thC/Glossa)
Silvery, magical tonal beauty to these, but poised elegant and lively with it…gorgeous. Qobuz Studio.

****
____Romantic/Classical

SCHUMANN VIOLIN SONATAS Maalismaa/Holmstrom/Alba CD.

BRAHMS/PESSON/SCIARRINO “QUASI MORENDO” (Clarinet Quintet etc.) RETO BIERI/Meta4/ECM. CD.

***BRUCKNER Symphony No. 6 LSO Rattle. LSO Live SACD/CD. Freshest, most renewing Bruckner I’ve heard in years… such very natural pacing through its hills, peaks and valleys..

BEETHOVEN COMPLETE SYMPHONIES DCO/Adam Fischer/Naxos CDs. Fast and loose and wilfully creative, sometimes quixotic...if Willem could do it, why not Adam? Riveting cycle in truly excellent sound..

***BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTOS (Brautigam/Kolner Akademie/Willens/BIS SACD/CD)
Never as good as the first time? Only this time its better… stunningly impactful in-the-room sonic realism, quicksilver fortepianistic dazzleships, round, full, mellow physical punch from the wind-and-brass-led ensemble. An epitome.

BERLIOZ MESSE SOLENNELLE. Concert Spirituel/Herve Niquet. Qobuz Studio/Alpha CD.

*****
____20thC....

MAHLER Symphony No.10 (arr. Castelletti) Lapland CO/Storgards/BIS SACD/CD. Stunning new take on the great and tragically incomplete…. very intense, heartbreakingly beautiful account. Works very well on the Chamber Orchestra.

SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO.1. Gothenburg SO/Rouvali/Alpha CD. Absolute knockyouforsix stunna. Impatient for more.

MARTINU/DVORAK PIANO CONCERTOS Kahanek/Hrusa/Supraphon. Qobuz Studio.
Best “Incantation” I’ve yet heard….

MAGNARD Symphonies 3 & 4. Freiburg PO/Fabrice Bollon. Qobuz Studio/Naxos CD.
Supersedes previous recordings for idiomatic style and tonal beauties…. if you got the bug get this…

ALBERT ROUSSEL EDITION (11 CDs, Erato Reissue/Qobuz Studio). Many classic references in fine remasters. I spent weeks amid the glories.

****
_____Recent/Contemporary

“CHAMBER SYMPHONIES FROM RIGA”
Works by Dzenitis, Tumsevica and Leimane. Fascinating in their glitter, surprise and energy.

“POLISH CONTEMPORARY CONCERTOS”….for Guitar, Saxophone, Violin/Cello, by Blazewicz, Lukaszewski, Czarnecki….DUX CD.
Contemporary easy listening perhaps? You better believe it…(Rodrigo, Gorecki, Adams, all in the background)… All the more infectious for it. New pop classics with great cover art!

DALBAVIE La Source d’un regard; Oboe/Flute/Cello Concertos. Sols/Seattle SO/Morlot. SSM. Such colour, invention and energy…the Messiaen piece induces contemplation-unto-trance.... my favourite New Music this year.

DAVID MATTHEWS Symphony No.9 etc. English SO/Woods/Nimbus.
Highly wrought, intricate creation, always retaining that essential elusiveness and mystery of the “Haunted Pastoral”…. always leaves me wanting more.

*********
My Record of the Year 2019…?. it could only, possibly, ever be…..

MONTEVERDI VESPRO !
Never was more sheer musical creativity, piercing haunting beauty and devotional passion ever crammed into a coupla silver discs…!!

[Richard Barrett]

I hadn't given this much thought as yet...but the first thing that sprang to mind was Eliane Radigue's Occam Ocean 2, the most original piece for orchestra I've heard for many years. I haven't yet listened properly to the new Mahler recordings by Fischer and Roth but their appearance several times already on this thread will get me to do so soon, before the end of the year I hope. I don't feel as if I've got to know Antonini's Haydn vol.7 well enough to put it in my list either.

Otherwise, Henze orchestral music conducted by Oliver Knussen (Wergo), Bach violin concertos with Isabelle Faust (HM), volume 9 of the Michael Gielen edition dedicated to the Second Viennese School (SWR), Marais' Deuxième Livre with François Joubert-Caillet (Ricercar)... maybe I'll be reminded of some more as the thread continues.