Today Anne Midgette gives us her take on the best Classical music releases of 2008. Now, I’m not a particular fan of year-end lists – wait, that’s not right; I enjoy seeing other people’s, but I hate doing my own. And here’s why – say I compile the list on Monday. On Tuesday I’ll remember another CD that should have been on it, and on Wednesday another CD comes in to the music library that totally rules, and on Thursday I check my #1 pick again and find that it just doesn’t move me the way it did on Monday… And this happens whether it’s a sort of general year-end list that disregards categories, or a specific list of, say, best rock, or world, or “new music.” But Classical lists are a particularly tough nut. How do you compare the 155th recording of Beethoven’s 7th to the first recording of a choral work by the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli? (By the way, tune in tonight to “New Sounds” at 11 and you’ll hear that Kancheli piece for choir and sax quartet – it’s terrific.)
Anyway, NPR usually asks me for a top 10 list at the end of each year, and even more sadistically, asks me to pick ONE classical record of the year. At this point, I’m juggling a couple of contenders. I thought my favorite classical recording this year was Bela Bartok’s Music For Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by the Canadian early music ensemble Les Violons Du Roy. (Read my review here) Part of the allure is that this Baroque-style ensemble has no business doing a dark, mid-20th century work. And it’s one of my favorite pieces. Does that really mean it’s the very best classical record this year? What about the Philip Glass Box that I mentioned on last Friday’s blog? Or the DVD of John Adams’ opera “Doctor Atomic”? Or the terrific Hilary Hahn recording of the overlooked Schoenberg Violin Concerto and the familiar-but-still-great Sibelius Violin Concerto? (On Anne Midgette’s list too.) Or any number of really wonderful new recordings of old warhorses?
I am seriously screwed here. I have to be on "Morning Edition" the week after Christmas touting one record as the Best Classical Album of the Year. I fell in love last week with a new choral album of music by Estonia’s Veljo Tormis. It’s a shoe-in for my annual “New Sounds” top-10 (and it’s on tonight’s program as well), but I haven’t lived with it enough to make a snap judgment. Maybe I’ll cop out and say the recording of the year was the live performance that the NY Phil did in Pyongyang this past February. It was a singular experience in my life, and in the wider worlds of music and diplomacy. (Note that I put my life first, though. Hey, it’s my birthday; I’m allowed.) Hmmm… yeah, that may just be the ticket. And for a truly bizarre blog-reading experience, click here.
Tell us: What was your favorite classical record of 2008? Leave a comment.
John Schaefer has hosted Soundcheck since the show’s inception in 2002. He has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (“The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.
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