In December, I customarily write an essay for the New Yorker website in which I recall the most notable performances and recordings of the year, insofar as I experienced them. This year I had planned to review the Year in Bach, focusing on Paul Jacobs’s astounding rendition of the Art of Fugue at Disney Hall and Pygmalion’s glorious recording of the Mass in B Minor. In the wake of my father’s death at the end of November, I was unable to meet the deadline. Nonetheless, I offer here a list of favorite recordings, with, naturally, Pygmalion’s Bach at the head.
Bach, Mass in B Minor; Raphaël Pichon conducting Pygmalion (Harmonia Mundi)
Timothy McCormack, mine but for its sublimation; Jack Yarbrough (another timbre)
Liza Lim, A Sutured World, Annunciation Triptych II: Mary / Transcendence After Trauma, The Compass; Edward Gardner, Franck Ollu, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony, with Nicholas Altstaedt, Carin Levine, William Barton (BR Klassik)
Raven Chacon, Voiceless Mass, Biyán, Owl Song; Chacon, Present Music (New World)
Chaya Czernowin, Seltene Erde, Atara; Uli Fussenegger, Johannes Kalitzke conducting Klangforum Wien, Sofia Jernberg, Holger Falk, Christian Karlsen conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony (Kairos)
Linda Catlin Smith, The Plains; Cheryl Duvall (Redshift)
[See Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s interview with Duvall.]
Steve Reich, Jacob’s Ladder, Traveler’s Prayer; Jaap van Zweden conducting the New York Philharmonic, Synergy Vocals, Colin Currie Group (Nonesuch)
Georg Friedrich Haas, Violin Concerto No. 2, De terrae fine; Miranda Cuckson, Markus Poschner conducting the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Urlicht)
Laura Cetilia, gorgeous nothings, six melancholies, soil + stone; Cetilia, Morgan Evans-Weiler, J. P. A. Falzone, Hannah Soren (Elsewhere)
Ash Fure, Animal (Smalltown Supersound)
Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht, Chamber Symphony No. 1, Die Jakobsleiter, Variations for Orchestra, Violin Concerto; Wolfgang Koch, Daniel Behle, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Kirill Petrenko conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and Rundfunk Chor Berlin (Berlin Philharmonic)
Louis Couperin, Complete Works; Jean Rondeau, with the Ricercar Consort and others (Erato)
Oskar C. Posa, Violin Sonata, String Quartet, Lieder; Juliette Journaux, Eva Zavaro, Simon Dechambre, Quatuor Métamorphoses, Edwin Fardini (Voilà!)
Feldman, The Viola in My Life I-IV; Antoine Tamestit, with Harry Ogg and François-Xavier Roth conducting the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln (Harmonia Mundi)
Edge of the Storm: Bacewicz Quartet No. 4, Britten Quartet No. 1, Weinberg Quartet No. 6; Telegraph Quartet (Azica)
Corelli, Concerto Grossi Op. 6; Georg Kallweit and Mayumi Hirasaki leading the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Pentatone)
Licht und Schatten: Schubert Lieder of 1824; Samuel Hasselhorn, Ammiel Bushakevitz (Harmonia Mundi)
Ustvolskaya, Symphonies Nos. 1-5; Christian Karlsen conducting the London Philharmonic (BIS)
Lalo, Le Roi d’Ys; Judith van Wanroij, Kate Aldrich, Cyrille Dubois, Jérôme Boutillier, Nicolas Courjal, Christian Helmer, György Vashegyi conducting the Hungarian National Philharmonic and Hungarian National Choir (Bru Zane)
Salieri, Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari; Mirco Palazzi, Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani, Marie Lys, Fabio Capitanucci, Christophe Rousset conducting Les Talens Lyriques and Chœur de Chambre de Namur (Aparte)
Brahms, String Quartets Op. 51; Zehetmair Quartet (ECM)