Nevertheless, even though my list is not as extensive as it was in days of yore, there were still a number of discs I want to put in a plug for.
SACD / Blu-ray Audio:
I love what the LSO Live label is doing now with their inclusion of SACD, Blu-ray Audio and Blu-ray Video all in the same release – excellent value IMHO! Although I was brought up on the fevered nightmares of the Munch and Paray recordings of the Sf, I’ve grown to appreciate over the years how an emphasis on orchestral weight can also pay dividends in this work – as in the Boulez or the under-the-radar Colin Davis / VPO recordings. (I’d place the better known Davis/LSO and Davis/RCOA recordings more midway between these extremes.) Based on Gergiev’s conducting in his Les Troyens and Benvenuto Cellini videos, I expected something near to Munch and Paray in this new recording. But not at all – Gergiev seems to be holding back here, bringing up some very interesting textural detail in the process. It’s not entirely on my wavelength, but it IS interesting. As usual, my tolerance for the Barbican acoustics as recorded on the LSO Live label is higher than that of many other listeners, so I even enjoyed the engineering too!
My incarnation of this recording is actually the two-channel 24/96 download. Perhaps you might be able to find certain details that you might prefer on other recordings (or even whole roles – I’m not entirely happy with the Maria here), but, particularly for the sound quality and orchestral execution in this work, I’d be surprised if there were a better recording overall than this one.
A bit of a controversial performance here because of Fischer’s jet-propelled approach to some sections. I like it a lot, because I feel that he’s tapped into the latent kinetic energy that could be part of the Bruckner sound world, and which has all but disappeared in Bruckner performances these days. Needless to say, the SQ is also excellent.
Jaspar de Waal was first horn in the RCOA from 2004 to 2012, and rarely will you find as full and as beautiful a tone quality on a French horn as what you hear on this recording. The two staples of the repertoire (the Brahms Horn Trio and the Schumann Adagio and Allegro) are joined by an enjoyable Clarinet/Horn/Piano Trio by Carl Reinecke, which, although written as late as 1905, sounds as if it could easily have been composed 50 years earlier. Nothing wrong with that in my book! The only criticism I have is that I wish the other players had been a bit more assertive and articulate in places, especially in the Brahms and Schumann works.
This blu-ray audio disc surely has to be the most beautiful recording of A German Requiem ever released. A few listeners might prefer greater intensity in some sections, but for me, this performance (aided by incredible SQ – especially in multi-channel) is very moving indeed. Sure, I might prefer the young Barbara Bonney (with Giulini) in “Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit”, but this is another instance where the total effect of the whole performance is overwhelming in its emotional effect. The choral work in particular is superb.
Just released a month ago (at least in the U.S.), this blu-ray shares the same virtues as the Wit/Warsaw German Requiem above, with the same spectacular SQ. It might be a difficult call between this new recording and the earlier Jansons/RCOA performance on an RCO Live SACD, but in this case, my very slight preference for Christiane Libor in the solo soprano parts (over Krassimira Stoyanova in the Jansons performance) might just tip the scales in favor of this new Naxos release. And even though Jansons has the Wiener Singverein at his disposal, Wit’s wonderful Warsaw Philharmonic Choir need not defer one. . . uh. . . whit to the better known group!
The field of just the recent recordings of the Sibelius Concerto has been incredibly competitive. My preference has been for Lisa (Batiashvili) in an in-concert performance on a Sony plain old CD, despite the inconsistent tone quality of the solo violin (no doubt caused by Lisa’s writhing as she plays – there used to be a video of this performance on YouTube which was later taken down). And from a purely sonic point of view, it would be hard to beat Akiko (Suwanai) in her performance (like Lisa’s, with Oramo conducting) on a Philips SACD. I think this new recording by Jenny (looking kind of Goth on the cover!) is certainly up at this level in terms of solo playing and SQ. (I have the 24/96 download, rather than the SACD.) The orchestral work under Andrew Davis however is just a bit on the bland side (in the purely orchestral works too), but I still want to include this recording on my list, if only because of Jenny’s outstanding solo playing.
Blu-ray Video:
I still have Chailly’s earlier Mahler 9 with the RCOA on a Decca SACD. I love it, but this new one with the LGO has even more intensity and sense of purpose. The bonus tracks which deal with Chailly’s explanation of certain points of interpretation add even more to the value of this release. I can’t remember if Chailly’s Mahler 5 was also released this year – if so, I’d include that release too.
Plain Old CD:
All was not lost for the babe musicians this year, and here, looking more babeliocious than ever at the age of 40+ (and straight from the pages of Elle and Vogue!), comes cellist/supermodel Nina Kotova in the Bach Cello Suites. In some ways, this recording was all I could have hoped for: this is Bach playing as if HIP never existed – so heartfelt and emotional! (And with actual vibrato – imagine!) I still like Starker’s SACD version the best, but I’m glad to have Nina’s recording in my library too. However, I’m a little put off by the engineering, the decibel level of which is noticeably higher than on other recordings – and when Nina pours out her soul in some of the more passionate sections, the SQ gets to be just a bit uncomfortable. I wish things were better in that respect. I was hoping that a 24/96 download might become available, but so far, I haven’t seen anything.
I don’t read the Gramophone much these days, but this was one of that magazine’s records of the month – and deservedly so too! I actually have the two-channel 24/96 download rather than the CD, and it sounds great – allowing us to hear the details of articulation and tone production of both artists in a way that I miss on so many older recordings.
OK – this is a bit of nepotism here, but I think this new recoding of my late father-in-law’s guitar music is very appealing: simple, unpretentious, and yet interesting at the same time. I'm not a guitarist, but Bradley Colton certainly seems to have this music well in hand. There are also a couple of song transcriptions too – the genre for which Bacon is best known, although I’d love it if there were a recording of some of his choral and orchestral music too, such as his “Hymn to the United Nations”.
I’m lazy today, so I’ll just condense my Audio Asylum comments from last week:
Khatia has already shown that she can do this type of music extraordinarily well (think: Liszt Liebestraum or Chopin Waltz in C-sharp minor), and she certainly doesn't disappoint here. Quite often, she achieves the deepest emotional effects with this often thrice-familiar repertoire by risking extraordinarily slow tempos, but, through sheer control, she builds astonishing continuity rather than splintering the line into fragments (as all too many other pianists would do at similarly slow tempos). For instance, she’s daringly slow "October" from Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" (really "The Months"!), and, wow, does she ever bring it off! You just want to shout, "Tchaikovsky! Such marvelous self-pity!". ;-)It's not all slow tracks however: there's a Mendelssohn Song Without Words (Op. 67, No. 2) which moves right along, as well as one of the pieces in Ligeti's "Music Ricercata" (No. 7), which, despite its rapid motion (lots o' notes in a short amount of time), still keeps to the meditative theme of most of the program. One exception to Khatia's penchant for slower than normal tempos is her Dvorak Slavonic Dance in E minor, Op. 72 No. 2, where she's joined in the composer's original four-hand version of the piece by her her sister, Gvantsa. Compared to other renditions, this performance just flies - it's surprising, but, at least IMHO, it works beautifully, thanks to both sisters' control of tone and balance as well as their marvellous leggiero touch!
Again, just a condensation of my Audio Asylum comments from last week:
Man, is this ever HOT! Khatia's gone back to her hepped-up mode! The second movement of the Franck Sonata really made me sit up at attention - what a charge she imparts to the music, especially to that piano solo right at the beginning of the movement! I've heard a lot of recordings of this piece (far from all however!), but I feel confident that this is one of the great ones!And I've never heard such a high-voltage version of the Grieg C-minor Sonata, and would never have expected that the folk-dance-inspired last movement would respond well to such treatment - but it does, and how! As so often with Khatia, she just gives us a new, revealing slant on the music. Khatia goes back to "calm" mode in the first two tracks of the Dvorak - very beautifully played by both musicians. And not to forget Capucon, he plays very well himself throughout the recital.
Finally, I’d like to mention that there were/are more recordings I was interested in this year, but I just didn’t get a chance to hear them, including the Järvi Nutcracker and the Bavouzet/Gardiner Janacek release on Chandos, the Brahms Choral Music with the Swedish Radio Choir released last month on Channel Classics, as well as a number of recordings on the BIS label (still waiting for multi-channel BIS downloads to become available).
