Best recordings of 2010

[Nick Armstrong]

I find it much easier to nominate my worst CD - bit of a one horse race really (see t'other thread for details)- than my favourite. So many discs have given me great pleasure this past year.

Petrenko's on-going Shostakovitch cycle, particularly No.10; and the recent disc of Schubert Piano Duets by Stephen Osborne and Paul Lewis is an absolute gem.

If I were to nominate just one, I think it would be the Beethoven 4 and 6 from Ivan Fischer and the BFO. Both these great symphonies were in danger of becoming over-familiar, but this CD makes me feel as though I am hearing them for the first time all over again. At the end of the CD I always have a huge on my silly old face, and so this has to be my CD of the year.

Fischer's No 6 coming up as disc of the week at the end of CD Review I see, Mr Pee. You renew my intention to give it a good listen.

[mathias broucek]

Well, if it's acquired in 2010 then I must rave about

Celi / Munich Brahms symphonies. Extraordinary textures and less extreme tempo-wise than his Munich Bruckner
Horenstein's 1959 Mahler 8
Lupu's Brahms recital on Decca
Giulini's Chicago Mahler 1

[BeethovensQuill]

To HighlandDougie

Was interesting reading your post, i havent purchased the Volodos CD yet but im very much a Scriabinist so its on the wish list. The piano music is the heart of Scriabin and his 3 periods have many fascinating works. Volodos can play every note of Scriabin's something he set about learning as a teenager, i only wish sony would allow him to record his entire output. You might be interested in the Sudbin CD of Scriabin on BIS if you thought about exploring more Scriabin, would just say about that CD in my opinion he doesnt quite nail the Op2 no 1 etude, but Gilels certainly does http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S1MhgOxQ28

[HighlandDougie]

To Beethovens Quill

Many thanks for the recommendations which I shall follow up. Anything played by Emil Gilels is bound to be special.

[verismissimo]

Since I did some CD filing this morning, I've some additions to the Alfred Hill quartets and Hugo Wolf Anniversary box I mentioned in message 1:

Barenboim's set of Bruckner symphonies with the BPO
Rubbra string quartets by the Dantes
Rattle/CBSO in Schoenberg/Webern/Berg
Lula Mysz-Gmeiner singing Schubert, Mahler etc
Lots of Miles Davis

[DracoM]

NCO / Higginbottom // Monteverdi 1610 Vespers
Fire and Sleet and Candles // Coope, Boyes and Simpson [ not new in 2010, but new to me]

[madamesuggia]

It's La Venexiana's recording of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione Di Poppea for me

Not popular with the critics, but who cares

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not popular with the critics, but who cares

That's the spirit. They are no better than you. They just get paid for their opinions.

[gurnemanz]

Bob Dylan: Bootleg 9: The Witmark Demos:
Hyperion's Schumann Complete Songs
Johnny Cash: American VI: Ain't No Grave
EMI Hugo Wolf Anniversary Edition
Sacred Music in the Renaissance Vol I Tallis Scholars