Our reviewers highlight the best CDs from the classical world.
BEETHOVEN: COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS, Artemis Quartet (Virgin Classics/EMI). Here is a body of music without which no serious music lover can exist. The Artemis Quartet hold their own in a hotly contested field of recordings of these quartets, with this boxed set compiled of recordings from the past decade, completed this year. Whether as a first purchase of the full cycle or for someone looking for fresh interpretations, this is a contender.
CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH: SEI CONCERTI, Andreas Staier, Freiburger Barockorchester (Harmonia Mundi/Ode). If you were praising Bach in the later 18th century, it was more likely to be CPE than his father, JS. In these six harpsichord concertos from the 1770s, the formal musical surprises for which he was famous come as much from a sense of play as expression. Good, albeit more of an acquired taste than an instant winner.
HISPANIA & JAPAN – DIALOGUES (Alia Vox/Ode). Jordi Savall does it again with a disc combining novel conception with outstanding execution. The meeting of Spanish and Japanese art music and the arrival of St Francis Xavier in Japan (1549) inspire the musical cross-dressing between early and non-Western music that Savall does so well. More austere than usual, but a fine wine of a recording.
EVE DE CASTRO-ROBINSON: RELEASING THE ANGEL, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (Atoll/Ode). De Castro-Robinson’s sound-world of competing musical layers in which the most attractive generally triumph is present in five orchestral works ranging from the early Peregrinations to the good-humoured children’s choral evocations of These Arms to Hold You. The outstanding recording of new New Zealand music this year.
MOZART: DON GIOVANNI (EMI). Rest at ease. Glyndebourne’s latest take on Don Giovanni, in modern costume, avoids the obscure visions of many updates, with little touches of humour – such as Doña Anna using her pantyhose to tether the hapless Leporello in Act 2 – adding to rather than obscuring the production. The year’s top DVD.
ECHOES OF TIME, Lisa Batiashvili (Deutsche Grammophon/Universal). Batiashvili’s tone is superb in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto (shelved until Stalin was safely in the ground) and her interpretation convincingly severe. The unduly ubiquitous Rachmaninov Vocalise and works by Arvo Pärt and Giya Kancheli complete this package of Soviet Union echoes.
WALTON: STRING QUARTETS, Doric String Quartet (Chandos/Ode). The ever-splendid Dorics continue to look at less well-trammelled repertoire for their recordings – in this case, one fine mature quartet and a less accessible youthful curiosity by the inventive William Walton. One for chamber music devotees.
JOHAN HALVORSEN: ORCHESTRAL WORKS 3, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Chandos/Ode). Halvorsen is one of that growing band of composers being rediscovered by recording companies. His spirited Third Symphony (1928) and some works featuring Norwegian folk music and the Hardanger fiddle put him ahead of the pack.
THE SIBELIUS EDITION (BIS/Ode). You’d have to be a devoted Sibelius fan, but this miscellany, ranging from church-bell melodies and orchestral outtakes to the complete organ music, and early film of the composer, is a major landmark as BIS completes its Sibelius edition in 13 volumes, 68 CDs and too many works to count. Staggeringly comprehensive.
MAHLER: ORCHESTRAL SONGS, Katarina Karnéus, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (BIS/Ode). Who but Mahler could make one love a series of Songs on the Death of Children? Mezzo Karnéus’s performance is controlled but moving in the Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen and the Rückert-Lieder. Great Mahler.