Gramophone's Collection is a long-running series in which we ask one of our panel of writers to survey the available recordings of a selected work and then to choose the album they would name as their 'top choice'. We've gathered the top choices from the last couple of years of Gramophone Collection below, as they are excellent starting-points for new voyages of musical discovery. We have also included the writers' citations and links to the original Gramophone reviews for further exploration.

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Mahler Symphony No 4

Persson; Budapest Festival Orch / I Fischer (Channel Classics)
'Though every detail is burnished into enchantment, Fischer manages to avoid a stage-managed effect. The slow music never lacks profundity, nor does the line lag when the argument needs to press on. Perfect singing, perfect playing, spontaneous-sounding rubato and state-of-the-art sound.' David Gutman, February 2020

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Beethoven 'Hammerklavier' Sonata

Claudio Arrau (Philips)

'The 1963 Philips studio sound gorgeously captures Arrau’s full-throated sonority. More significantly, Arrau channels his scrupulous pianism towards projecting Beethoven’s big picture without skimming over the slightest detail, and he’s not afraid to embrace the music’s Jovian struggle and triumph. Arrau resists casual listening: you have to work with him, yet the rewards are life-lasting.' Jed Distler, January 2020

Richard Strauss Symphonia domestica

Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra / David Zinman (Arte Nova)

'The most broadly recommendable of all modern recordings, this features a Tonhalle Orchestra on brilliantly buoyant and virtuosic form in a performance that brings together the work’s varied elements into a compellingly enjoyable whole.' Hugo Shirley, December 2019

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Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4

LPO / Vladimir Jurowski (LPO)

'Vladimir Jurowski gives the impression of having pondered long and hard to arrive at a workable balance between visceral excitement and respect for how the Fourth is structured. His is a performance that is both thrillingly spontaneous and tellingly cerebral. The LPO play brilliantly and the recording captures their performance with impressive luminosity.' Rob Cowan, November 2019

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Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

Ibragimova; OAE / Vladimir Jurowski (Hyperion)

'Glowing, strong, tender, vulnerable, fiery and exhilarating all at once, with a fabulous period-instrument sound, this recording has everything anyone could wish for, including a must-have Hebrides overture. Beyond all the perfect balancings and the ear-pricking little details being drawn out of the score, it’s played with bucketloads of heart. A true stand-out.' Charlotte Gardner, Awards issue 2019

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Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals

Frank Braley, Michel Dalberto et al (Erato)

'Here is the score as originally envisaged by the composer, played by a group of sophisticated and supremely talented friends in party mood. I hope the performance that the ageing Liszt heard was as good as this, though I doubt it. Boasting the most eye-catching CD cover of all, this Carnival is coupled with the Septet (another work written for La Trompette) and additional Saint-Saëns chamber pieces.' Jeremy Nicholas, October 2019

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Schumann Symphony No 2

WDR SO Cologne / Heinz Holliger (Audite)

'Schumann has long been central to Heinz Holliger’s creative thinking. His Cologne account – part of the most inclusive overview of Schumann’s orchestral works to date – fuses chamber-like clarity, authentic style astringency and full-orchestral immediacy for astounding results.' Richard Whitehouse, September 2019

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Elgar Symphony No 1

BBC SO / Adrian Boult (ICA Classics)

'Boult’s Indian summer during the 1970s produced several unforgettable Proms performances but this one from his penultimate season sits in a class of its own. The bloom of the Royal Albert Hall contributes to an electrifying performance in which the orchestra play as if possessed. Boult may have been getting frail in physical terms but his intellect and emotion keep all under his spell.' Geraint Lewis, August 2019

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Brahms Four Serious Songs

Thomas Quasthoff, Justus Zeyen (DG)

'Mingling awed gravitas and assuaging tenderness, Thomas Quasthoff responds with spontaneous-sounding intensity to every shade of verbal and musical meaning in these mighty songs. Justus Zeyen is a challenging, ever-illuminating pianist partner.' Richard Wigmore, July 2019

Ockeghem Requiem

Cappella Pratensis / Stratton Bull (Challenge Classics)

'A compact, rounded, thoughtful performance of impassive beauty, Cappella Pratensis fashion a coherent performance out of a varied collection of individual movements in a recording that grows with repeated listening.' Fabrice Fitch, June 2019

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Nielsen Violin Concerto

Vilde Frang vn Danish National Symphony Orchestra / Eivind Gullberg Jensen (EMI/Warner Classics)

'Vilde Frang offers a wider range of moods and colours than her rivals; in more holistic terms, she sounds at one with the concerto’s mood of rapture, impetuosity and fun.' Andrew Mellor, May 2019

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Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances

Orchestre de Paris / Paavo Järvi (Erato)

'Paavo Järvi drives a dramatic narrative without cracking the music’s romantic veneer. Ever light on his feet, he’s a master of rubato, a sprinter with a keen sense of rhythm, an evident lover of the score as much for its balletic exterior as for its spiritual depth. His mastery is complete and the Orchestre de Paris is on top form.' Rob Cowan, April 2019

Gershwin Porgy and Bess

White; Haymon; LPO / Simon Rattle (Warner Classics)

'Willard White’s second Porgy, vocally less fresh but by now definitive, is complemented by a practised cast and unashamedly interventionist conducting. In abbreviated form, this courageous, dynamic interpretation also provided the soundtrack for the first made-for-television production of the opera.' David Gutman, March 2019

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Nielsen Symphony No 5

New York PO / Bernstein (Sony)

'For sheer incandescence, no one has surpassed Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in 1962. With a lethal side drum and hurtling tempos in the second movement, Bernstein takes huge risks, capturing Nielsen’s sense of adventure and exhilarating discovery to the full.' David Fanning, February 2019

Beethoven 'Waldstein' Sonata

Jonathan Biss (Onyx)

'Jonathan Biss launched his highly regarded Beethoven sonata survey in 2012 and it continues with annual releases. There is something elemental in the way Biss evokes the titanic Beethoven but he does so with the most exquisite, unforced, multi-dimensional sound, rendering it profoundly human.' Patrick Rucker, January 2019

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Rossini La Cenerentola

Glyndebourne Op / Vladimir Jurowski (Opus Arte)

'With its period setting and naturalistic style, Peter Hall’s classic 2005 staging catches the darkness of the opera, yet such is the production’s truthfulness to character and detail, the lights shine out all the more brightly when the web is finally untangled and goodness prevails.' Richard Osborne, December 2018

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Couperin Leçons de ténèbres

Bennani sop Druet mez (Alpha)

'A tough call, and it can depend on your mood. Bennani and Druet are not big names, but the collective spirit of this performance, full of beauty but also heartfelt, subtle and wise while never overcomplicated, drew the right responses from me every time.' Lindsay Kemp, November 2018

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Handel Acis and Galatea

Dunedin Consort / John Butt (Linn)

'The instrumentalists’ illuminating expressivity, a superior five-part chorus, an unparalleled Polyphemus, Butt’s judicious direction, and impeccable sound engineering are just some of the elements that amply capture the work’s special charms.' David Vickers, October 2018

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Bach/Busoni Chaconne

Alicia de Larrocha pf (Decca)

'You get seduced then swept up into the vortex of Larrocha’s fieriness and outsized sonorities. Yet repeated hearings reveal carefully contoured textures, assiduous transitions and other elements that reflect high levels of both technical and musical precision.' Jed Distler, Awards issue 2018

Debussy La mer

Hallé Orchestra / Mark Elder (Hallé)

'From sea spray to thunder, from sunshine to threatening storm clouds, here’s a virtual-reality ocean caught in all her varied moods and colours – vivid, immediate, consistently atmospheric. The score is meticulously observed, but with no compromises.' Rob Cowan, September 2018

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Bernstein Serenade

Hahn vn Baltimore SO / David Zinman (Sony Classical)

'Hilary Hahn and David Zinman posit a cooler, less interventionist, strictly accurate take on the score, presaging the stripped-down intimacy often favoured today. The ‘neutral’ accompaniment won’t spoil you for more personalised interpretations.' David Gutman, August 2018

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Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No 1

Thibaudet pf Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / Herbert Blomstedt (Decca)

'Boisterous and playful, Thibaudet is at times on the rampage, at others tenderly caressing his latest flame, a devil-may-care buccaneer. Blomstedt is with him all the way, and the piano ideally balanced in the mix.' Jeremy Nicholas, July 2018

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Suk Asrael

Czech Philharmonic / Sir Charles Mackerras (Supraphon)

'Mackerras’s devotion to Czech music is clear in this live recording from Prague. The orchestra rekindles an excitement and personality found decades before. No other version quite conveys the stature of Asrael as a seminal 20th-century symphony.' Richard Whitehouse, June 2018

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Wagner Wesendonck Lieder

Stemme sop VPO / Mariss Jansons (EuroArts)

'An ideal way to perform the Mottl cycle is with a dramatic soprano voice and a carefully scaled down orchestra working with chamber music subtlety. As in a 21st-century Lieder recital, Stemme presents a gripping involvement with the psychology of each song.' Mike Ashman, May 2018

Handel Saul

The Sixteen / Harry Christophers (Coro)

'Christophers and his elite forces unerringly catch both the ceremonial splendour and the Old Testament gravitas of Saul. Christoper Purves gives the most complete and disturbing performance of the troubled monarch on disc.' Richard Wigmore, April 2018

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Mozart Don Giovanni

Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra / Carlo Maria Giulini (EMI/Warner)

'Nearly 60 years on, this is still wonderful. In addition to those mentioned above, the cast includes Graziella Sciutti, Piero Cappuccilli and Luigi Alva. Giulini (a late replacement for Klemperer) can’t be faulted.' Richard Lawrence, March 2018

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Shostakovich Violin Concerto No 1

Vengerov vn LSO / Rostropovich (Teldec)

'Vengerov and Rostropovich are at their most formidable in a dark, claustrophobic interpretation that locates the piece squarely in its historical context. No soloist is more ferociously articulate across so wide a range of sonorities.' David Gutman, February 2018

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Giordano Andrea Chénier

National Philharmonic Orchestra / James Levine (RCA)

'There’s better singing elsewhere in the discography, but James Levine’s excitingly conducted, vividly recorded version strikes the best balance of any modern studio set. The cast – including Domingo as Chénier – offers drama and robust vocalism.' Hugo Shirley, January 2018