The experts' choice: 5 favourite recordings from 2011

[Petrushka]

I'm going to cheat horribly here. The discs that have given me most pleasure during 2011 and which have been entirely new to my collection are James Levine's Mahler set on Sony which I can hardly believe I failed to buy on first issue on LP. Likewise, Wilhelm Furtwangler: The Great EMI Recordings filled an enormous gap in my collection as hardly any of these famous recordings are on my shelves.

Turning now to single or double CD's, one issue that knocked me out and again new to me was Bruckner's 4th Symphony with the Concertgebouw in a live 1975 concert under Eugen Jochum on the Tahra label. I finally managed to lay my hands on Kubelik's recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and was pleased to have my belief that this is the finest account of the work ever set down amply confirmed.

Mahler year mark II has seen plenty of goodies and top of my pile is a magisterial account of Mahler 3 with the LPO and Klaus Tennstedt as well as his Mahler 8 again with the LPO in a live 1991 concert which I attended.

There is only one brand new recording that has shone this year and that is Harrison Birtwistle's orchestral works with the Halle and Ryan Wigglesworth

Sorry to have so shamelessly ignored all the rules but couldn't fail to share my enthusiasm for all these discs. Other possible titles for inclusion such as Bernard Haitink's new recording of the Shostakovich 15 are hopefully in Santa's sack for delivery to Petrushka Towers on Dec 25.

[DublinJimbo]

That Accentus, Fauré Requiem's also my favourite purchase of 2011.

We're on the same wavelength there. It's the recording I've been recommending most to my friends.

Together with (I'm going to break the rules as I can't decide):

- J.S. Bach: Missae Breves BWV 233 & 236: Pygmalion/Pichon (Alpha)

[ ... ]

- Shostakovich: Complete Preludes & Fugues: Alexander Melnikov (HM)

- Shostakovich: Symphonies 6 & 12: RLPO/Petrenko (Naxos)

If I'd taken the cheating route, I too would have included those two Shostakovich releases (especially the Melnikov, good as Petrenko is).

The Missae Breves had escaped my notice, so thanks for that mention. I'm listening to extended excerpts as I write this, and I'm seriously tempted.

[Bryn]

Issued in their current format this year:

Volume 6 of the Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Live Radio Recordings (1990-2000)

Christian Wolff: Kompositionen 1950-1972

Morton Feldman: Orchestra (Deutsches S-O Berlin, Lubman)

John Cage: The Works for Percussion 1 (Percussion Group Cincinnati)

and another vote for:

JS Bach: Concerts avec plusieirs instruments (vol. I à VI) Intégrale [Boxed set]


[It would probably be a different selection tomorrow.]


There again, since it was recorded, and then made available in Radio 3's HD Sound on the iPlayer for a week, I should really replace one of my five above (the Bach, I guess) with:

Richard Barrett: CONSTRUCTION (Elision)

I have certainly listened to that recording more often than any other I can think of.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm going to cheat horribly here. Sorry to have so shamelessly ignored all the rules

What "rules"? Dougie's opening clearly stated:

what are the 5 recordings new to your collection in 2011 which you have most enjoyed? or to which you would urge others to listen?"

... nowt about "New to the catalogue" or "released in 2011". Anyone discovering Furtwangler's Tristan or the Elgar/Menuhin Violin Concerto can "vote" for that.

[Chris Newman]

Bruckner Symphonies , Munich Philharmonic, Sergiu Celibidache

Frank Martin, Golgotha, Estonian Philharmonic Choir, Estonian NSO, Daniel Reuss

Serge Rachmaninoff, The Bells, Spring, etc,Ch Mariinsky Theatre, BBCPO, Noseda

Arnold Schoenberg/Johannes Brahms, Piano Quartet in G Minor, BPO, Simon Rattle

Jonas Kaufmann, Verismo Arias, Accad. Nat. Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano.

[Nick Armstrong]

We're on the same wavelength there. It's the recording I've been recommending most to my friends.



If I'd taken the cheating route, I too would have included those two Shostakovich releases (especially the Melnikov, good as Petrenko is).

The Missae Breves had escaped my notice, so thanks for that mention. I'm listening to extended excerpts as I write this, and I'm seriously tempted.

[Chris Newman]

Bruckner Symphonies , Munich Philharmonic, Sergiu Celibidache

Frank Martin, Golgotha, Estonian Philharmonic Choir, Estonian NSO, Daniel Reuss

Serge Rachmaninoff, The Bells, Spring, etc,Ch Mariinsky Theatre, BBCPO, Noseda

Arnold Schoenberg/Johannes Brahms, Piano Quartet in G Minor, BPO, Simon Rattle

Jonas Kaufmann, Verismo Arias, Accad. Nat. Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano.

Oh, dear! I forgot Sir Charles's "Pathetique" Symphony. That was probably the real highlight of the year. I bought lots of historical records but the above list was my list of recent recordings.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, dear! I forgot Sir Charles's "Pathetique" Symphony. That was probably the real highlight of the year. I bought lots of historical records but the above list was my list of recent recordings.

Not the Belohlavek/BBCSO Martinu Symphonies, Chris?

[Biffo]

I have bought relatively few individual disca this year but quite a few of the large boxes that continue to flow from the archives:

(1) Barbirolli: Wagner - Overtures and Preludes
(2) Langgaard: Music of the Spheres (Dausgaard/DNSO)
(3) William Steinberg - EMI Icon
(4) Beethoven Complete Symphonies - Cluytens/BPO
(5)Strauss: Don Juan & Don Quixote - Reiner/CSO

[vinteuil]

... the Bach Missae Breves would be more apt for the season...

The Gloria from the Missa Brevis in F is possibly my favourite single track of the year ...

I have the Herreweghe and the Purcell Qtt of the Missae Breves - and yes, the Gloria in F is a fine busy piece - it's nice, ain't it, when a piece like this becomes as addictive as clearly it has to maître Caliban - for many a year I was completely besotted by the lone torso of BWV 50....

[Nick Armstrong]

I have the Herreweghe and the Purcell Qtt of the Missae Breves - and yes, the Gloria in F is a fine busy piece - it's nice, ain't it, when a piece like this becomes as addictive as clearly it has to maître Caliban - for many a year I was completely besotted by the lone torso of BWV 50....

My other single movement Bach addiction was for the Sinfonia in D BWV 1045 (part of a lost cantata also, I seem to recall): it takes turns with the Gloria as alarm music....

[Chris Newman]

Not the Belohlavek/BBCSO Martinu Symphonies, Chris?

Gosh, were they this year too? I have heard them so much I thought they were 2010. They are fabulous. After their Prom this summer I bought Jean Guihen-Queyras and Jiri Belohlavec's Dvorak Cello Concerto but the recording is older. I think I am exceeding my five recordings; in which case The Bells will have to fall off as the recordings of the Nielsen were far better balanced than the Rachmaninoff (which came from this year's Proms by the way) and Svetla Vassileva's Slavonic wobble in the latter is quite painful (not surprisingly they left her Vocalise off the CD: top notes like Callas at the end of her career). A shame as I really enjoy the performance for the main ensemble, tenor and wonderful bass.

[vinteuil]

My other single movement Bach addiction was for the Sinfonia in D BWV 1045 (part of a lost cantata also, I seem to recall): it takes turns with the Gloria as alarm music....

Yes, BWV 1045 is a favourite here too - I tracked it down on the hyperion twofer with Roy Goodman / Brandenburg of the Four Orchestral Suites etc..

Which reminded me of another addiction, which I found much more difficult to obtain : BWV 1040 ...

In the end I found it incorporated in the version of BWV 208 [Hunt Cantata] (attached to the aria "Weil die wollenreichen Herden") - another hyperion twofer with Roy Goodman/Peter Holman, Parley of Instruments - and also as a separate movement in a less satisfactory performance (Helmuth Rilling, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, on the CD "Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen [BWV 215] )

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, BWV 1045 is a favourite here too - I tracked it down on the hyperion twofer with Roy Goodman / Brandenburg of the Four Orchestral Suites etc..

Which reminded me of another addiction, which I found much more difficult to obtain : BWV 1040 ...

In the end I found it incorporated in the version of BWV 208 [Hunt Cantata] (attached to the aria "Weil die wollenreichen Herden") - another hyperion twofer with Roy Goodman/Peter Holman, Parley of Instruments - and also as a separate movement in a less satisfactory performance (Helmuth Rilling, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, on the CD "Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen [BWV 215] )

How very arcane we are in our addictions, M. Vindebourgogne. My BWV1045 is BC Japan / Suzuki I think.

I am about to investigate BWV 1040...

[vinteuil]

My BWV1045 is BC Japan / Suzuki I think.

... now that is showing off!

BWV1045 is on CD 45 of the Suzuki - clearly you are getting them as CDs when they come out (envy, envy... ) - whereas cheapskates like me wait until they come out in the bargain boxes of ten (ten CDs for the price of three... ) - and as far as I know we are still at box Four taking us up to CD 40 (envy, envy, envy... )