Two fine German baritones on top form and an English tenor taking them on in Schubert’s Winterreise. Christian Gerhaher brings his customary intensity to Mahler; Matthias Goerne continues his Schubert cycle in the company of a series of illustrious pianists; and Mark Padmore and Mark Lewis give us Schubert’s last song-cycle with massive intensity and poetry.
One of the newest categories and showcasing three superb singers on top form: Anne Sofie von Otter’s first foray into the French Baroque (and a triumph!), Joyce DiDonato slipping into the haute couture creations run up by Rossini for her and Jonas Kaufmann, in his native repertoire, demonstrating why he’s the tenor de nos jours.
Glorious Mozart from the Scottish CO and the late Sir Charles Mackerras, a magnificent memorial to a great conductor in the full glare of his Indian Summer; or could it be the Dvorák tone-poems for which conducts the Czech Phil…who also appear on a superb disc of Martinu’s last two symphonies, works of glorious colour and refinement.
Peter Maxwell Davies’s opera about a composer given a magnificent performance under another fine composer, Oliver Knussen; Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin performed with huge commitment by the German forces under Kent Nagano; and Sir Mark Elder’s anniversary concert performances of Götterdämmerung captured in magnificent sound – and showcasing an orchestra on top form.
A set of piano sonatas well worth exploring and played by one of the piano world’s newest stars; another instalment in the series that brought Jean-Efflam Bavouzet an Award last year; and a jaw-dropping live recital from one of the keyboard tigers of our age, Arcadi Volodos, a pianist who can conjure pure magic from a Steinway!
A fascinating collection of mainly Russian symphonic music conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky – including a truly shattering Shostakovich Ninth Symphony; 30 years worth of recordings from a towering musician – and human being – Pablo Casals; and an amazing (and arm-straining) 70-CD set that contains all of the RCA and CBS recordings of the phenomenal Vladimir Horowitz.
Three great pianists of the last century in performances appearing on disc for the first time: Friedrich Gulda offering a young man’s views of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas; Emil Gilels on aristocratic form in sonatas by Beethoven and Weber and Sviatoslav Richter on superb form in a challenging performance of Schubert’s C minor Piano Sonata.
The culmination of The Cardinall’s Musick’s magnificent Byrd series, genuinely great music from the Renaissance incomparably performed; consort music by John Ward played by the multi-Gramophone Award-winning Phantasm; and music from the Eton Choirbook sung by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford with great conviction under Stephen Darlington.
Prokofiev’s rarely heard Gambler given a terrific performance supported by Barenboim conducting at white heat; Purcell’s Fairy Queen, strongly sung and very engagingly (and funnily) acted; and Jonas Kaufmann on top form in Lohengrin, stylishly updated to the 1930s and performed with total commitment and conviction.
The heart-warming and genuinely life-changing El Sistema profiled with its most famous alumnus Gustavo Dudamel; Bernstein on Bernstein, an intimate and charming profile of a musical colossus; and Pierre Boulez working at his foundation in Lucerne on two of his own works and Debussy’s Jeux – a wonderfully revealing portrait of one of music’s greats.
