My Top 5 Classical Albums for 2016
I know, people love lists. Especially men apparently. Remember Nick Hornby’s book High Fidelity? Subjectively speaking, half of the book are top 5 lists. Somebody even bothered to compile them.
Why do we love lists? Well, they are easily digestable, and give you the feeling that you really are getting the best of the best, right?
I must admit, I also pay quite a bit of attention to such lists, be it the Gramophone Awards, the Chocs de l’Année by Classica, or whoever else bothers to put together such best-of’s. Even on my own blog, my various best-of lists (from Mozart, to Christmas Jazz, to Jazz Covers) tend to be the ones with the most clicks.
So here we go again. Helpful even if you’re still looking for Christmas gifts (though in the age of downloads and streaming, giving away music becomes more tricky, an iTunes Gift Card is probably not very sexy under the tree).
They are ordered alphabetically, by composer. Please don’t ask me to rank them within.
So you DO ask me? Really?
Well, here you go. Note that this priority list may change next week if I’m in a different mood.
- Mozart: The Weber Sisters
- Schubert: String Quintet
- Bach: French Suites
- Mozart: Mass in C-minor
- Shostakovich: Symphonies No. 5, 8, and 9
Again, as all my reviews, this list is very subjective, and not only based on the performance itself, but how much fun I have listening to you.
Bach: French Suites – Murray Perahia
Perahia this year not only made it into my list of top 10 pianists (yes, yet another list), he is the only baroque album of 2016 onto this particular list.
A fantastic album (see my full review here), getting the well deserved Gramophone Editor’s Choice.
Mozart: Great Mass in C-Minor – Masaaki Suzuki
Mozart appears twice in my top 5 list this year, this is not on purpose, but a very happy circumstance. The playing of Mozart has evolved so much since the days of big orchestral Karajan, historically informed practice really has given us so many new insights into Mozart. Here we have two excellent examples.
Suzuki’s excellent new recording of the amazing C-minor Mass really is good enough to justify it’s place on this list. You’ll find my review here. Suzuki’s often very clean style doesn’t always convince me, but here we really have a winner.
Mozart: The Weber Sisters – Sabine Devielhe
Technically, this is an album that was released in November 2015 and I reviewed it last December. But I reviewed it after my Top 5 classical albums of 2015, so I it deserves to be highlighted here as well.
This is Mozart singing as beautiful as it gets. It’s a bit of a “concept album”, based on Mozart’s wife Constanze Weber, and her sisters. But honestly, you don’t need the booklet here to enjoy a voice that touches your heart directly.
Schubert: String Quintet – Quatuor Ebène & Gautier Capuçon
As reviewed here, this is one of the best versions ever of the absolute masterpiece that is Schubert String Quintet. It was one of the Gramophone Award nominees in it’s category, I have no idea why it didn’t win.
Shostakovich: Symphonies No. 5, 8 and 9 – Andris Nelsons
I didn’t have time yet to write a formal review about this album.
As mentioned previously, I don’t often venture into 20th century music.
This album however, is really worth it. Shostakovich 5 and 9 are probably among the most approachable symphonies from the Russian genius, and these are so well played here by Nelsons in extremely engaging live recordings with the BSO.
My rating: 5 stars
So now it’s your turn
Do you agree, disagree? Anything I’ve missed? Anything that shouldn’t be on there? Please tell me in the comments!
You can find the albums here:
Bach Perahia: here (Qobuz)
Mozart Great Mass: here (eclassical)
Mozart: the Weber Sisters: here (Qobuz) and here (Acoustic Sounds)
musicophilesblog - From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms 