Here are some of the best things I heard this year.
Performances:
Jan. 20: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the LA Philharmonic in Adams’s Naïve and Sentimental Music at Disney Hall
Feb. 14: Audra MacDonald singing Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at LA Opera
March 14: Alan Gilbert conducting the New York Philharmonic in Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, with Christian Tetzlaff
April 11: California EAR Unit playing Julius Eastman’s Crazy Nigger at REDCAT
May 18: Justin Brown conducting the Alabama Symphony in Beethoven’s Eroica in Birmingham
July 31: Paul Lewis’s Beethoven Opus 111 at Mostly Mozart
Aug. 2: Paavo Järvi conducting the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in Beethoven’s Seventh at Mostly Mozart
Nov.
12: Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of
Venezuela in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Nov. 15: Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Thomas Adès’s Tevot at Carnegie Hall
Dec. 8: Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Metropolitan Opera
Recordings:
— Lorraine Hunt Lieberson live at Wigmore Hall, 1998 (Wigmore Hall Live)
— Radiohead, In Rainbows (self-released)
— As Steals the Morn…: Handel Arias and Scenes; Mark Padmore, Andrew Manze, the English Concert (Har. Mundi)
— Strauss, Salome; Teresa Stratas, Karl Böhm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic (DG DVD)
— Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8; Paavo Järvi conducting the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (BMG)
— Beethoven, Piano Sonatas vol. 3, Paul Lewis (Har. Mundi)
— Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians; Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble (Innova)
— Gershwin, Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue, Cuban Overture; Jon Nakamatsu, piano, with Jeff Tyzik conducting the Rochester Philhamonic (Har. Mundi)
— Stockhausen, Stimmung, Theatre of Voices (Har. Mundi)
— Wilco, "On and On and On" from Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)
— Björk, "Declare Independence" from Volta (One Little Indian)
Person of the Year:
Peter Gelb, Metropolitan Opera