Your Favourite Purchases of 2015

[Que]

It is kind of early this year (we usually start in December), but by popular demand here it is: the thread to post your favourite purchases of this past year! 

It is time for a round-up of your amazing musical discoveries in terms of recordings and repertoire of this year.

Pleast post your favourites of the year, whether long standing or brand new recordings.   Mention as many as you like, and feel free to update in the coming weeks.

Q

[North Star]

     

     

     


Bought in December 2014, but received in January

[Brian]

Since I only made one major purchase this year, in January, this should be easy!!



The sad truth is, about 25% of that giant January order, I still have not listened to.  Including Jordi Savall playing Marais, a big box o' Biber, John Harbison's ballet Ulysses, and of course many CDs from the Giant Richter Box.

[Papy Oli]

Relatively much fewer classical purchases in 2015 (more rock  albums this year, or classical CD to replace older e-music downloads).

4 stand-outs from actual new purchases, fully listened to :

[asin]B005PUUMK8[/asin]
[asin]B000BK53DI[/asin]
[asin]B00NOB05ZW[/asin]
[asin]B005OZDXR8[/asin]

Bought in 2015 not yet started or partial listen only : Bernstein concerto Edition, BAT boxset, Argerich DG boxset, Richter Decca, RvW edition, Oistrakh boxset.

[kishnevi]

Easy choice for me this year
RICHTER
The Sony box
The Decca box
The bunch of single CDs on Alto/Regis

There are a number of others I liked but Slatioslav ranked first.

[mc ukrneal]

One comes to mind immediately: El Fenix de Paris. A truly amazing performance of some wonderful music:
[asin]B005FMQBH4[/asin]

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Q, now that we have a new sticky with this thread can we finally cut loose the Brahms 2 blind comparison sticky that's been dormant for about a year now?

[Daverz]

Q, now that we have a new sticky with this thread can we finally cut loose the Brahms 2 blind comparison sticky that's been dormant for about a year now?

But we never got the group's choice for the top Brahms 2.    I'd probably put on Walter/Columbia or Monteux/LSO in any case.

Can we get a sticky for the Best of 2015 thread as well.  There's still a month and a half for eligible discs to come in.

Here are my best purchases of 2015 that weren't released in 2015.

[asin]B005TQAEP6[/asin] Jean Morel/Paris Conservatoire Orechestra

[asin]B002WEC6XQ[/asin]

Segerstam's Sibelius Symphony No. 4 on Ondine (Presto download).


Kinsella Symphonies 6 & 7

[asin]B00007H4E2[/asin] Dvorak Requiem

Forgot one:

[asin]B002SF2VGQ[/asin]

I did not like the music in the Sony recording, but Bis's warmer sound makes a big difference in my enjoyment of the music itself.

[Maestro267]

I think of this not in terms of getting a particular recording of a work, but adding the work to my collection. One of my favourite purchases was a 4-disc set containing most of the major orchestral works by Josef Suk. At the time, I was looking for a recording of the Asrael Symphony, so to get that plus the other works (it's the only set I've seen that includes the work Epilogue) was a real coup.

Other highlights include finally getting round to a recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, expanding my Elgar choral collection with The Kingdom/Coronation Ode and Caractacus, adding to my Havergal Brian and George Lloyd symphony cycles, and Granville Bantock's wonderful Hebridean and Celtic Symphonies.

With 6 weeks or so still left, there's still plenty of time for me to add to this list.

[Mirror Image]

I think of this not in terms of getting a particular recording of a work, but adding the work to my collection. One of my favourite purchases was a 4-disc set containing most of the major orchestral works by Josef Suk. At the time, I was looking for a recording of the Asrael Symphony, so to get that plus the other works (it's the only set I've seen that includes the work Epilogue) was a real coup.

Other highlights include finally getting round to a recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, expanding my Elgar choral collection with The Kingdom/Coronation Ode and Caractacus, adding to my Havergal Brian and George Lloyd symphony cycles, and Granville Bantock's wonderful Hebridean and Celtic Symphonies.

With 6 weeks or so still left, there's still plenty of time for me to add to this list.

And what a nice list it is so far.

I've made quite a few purchases this year and here are six highlights:

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I've made quite a few purchases this year last hour and here are six highlights:

There, fixed!

[Mirror Image]

There, fixed!

Thanks for the correction, DD.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

For my disc of the year, I'd say it's this one for a fantastic find: the Britten cello sonata (the solo suites are good, too):


[asin]B00008AJLV[/asin]

Others:

For a Dante Sonata that'll knock your socks off:


[asin]B00GXE8EVO[/asin]


For a Première Année that practically brought tears to my eyes:


[asin]B007211FAY[/asin]


And a 2nd symphony that makes its case for best in class: tempos juuuusssttt a whisker zippier than I'm used to with ultra-clear sonics which gives ample room for some of the most sumptuous brass to sing, ring, ping, and literally party all over the place! But it ain't about hotdogging. The focus is, let the poetry rain. The woodwinds, too, are NOT shy. Impressively sinewy. This has got to be one of the better recordings of a wind section by anybody anywhere. Yes, it's Brian's Pittsburgh Symphony.


[asin]B00112A6S2[/asin]

[Que]

   

Nice to see we share some favourites!

[TheGSMoeller]

And a 2nd symphony that makes its case for best in class: tempos juuuusssttt a whisker zippier than I'm used to with ultra-clear sonics which gives ample room for some of the most sumptuous brass to sing, ring, ping, and literally party all over the place! But it ain't about hotdogging. The focus is, let the poetry rain. The woodwinds, too, are NOT shy. Impressively sinewy. This has got to be one of the better recordings of a wind section by anybody anywhere. Yes, it's Brian's Pittsburgh Symphony.


[asin]B00112A6S2[/asin]

I'm now searching for this recording based on your wonderful description, DD. Thanks!

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I'm now searching for this recording based on your wonderful description, DD. Thanks!

I hope it's a fruitful search, GS!

[Rinaldo]

I still got a few discs on the way in time for Christmas and I suspect Stephen Scott's Music for Bowed Piano might be a strong contender, but this gem

[asin]B0040Y7ERO[/asin]
takes the cake. From SA-CD.net:

His is a new name to me, and what a pleasant discovery it is! He's a Danish composer who lived from 1888 to 1966. One of his main teachers was Max Reger, whose influence, along with JS Bach and Carl Nielsen, can be keenly heard here. He uses chromatic harmony/melodies, but it's a little less forbidding than Reger's, and he uses Baroque forms, such as preludes, fugues, chaconnes, and passacaglias. This music must be quite challenging to play with its frequent use of counterpoint and multi-stops, but Hansen deals with them effortlessly. His robust yet warm tone is captured in astonishingly vivid sound with plenty of ambiance, although it tends to decay quickly at the end of movements. If you enjoy solo violin and the neo-Baroque genre, then I can highly recommend this disc.

Yup, pretty much.

[Brian]

takes the cake. From SA-CD.net:

Yup, pretty much.

That sounded familiar, I googled it, and discovered I wrote about it 5 years ago:

So what is the appeal of this music? It is composed with craft, sincerity, and formal rectitude; that much is certain. Whether it is enjoyable is a question in answer to which individual listeners will differ. While in the British Library recently I read a sermon given in 1699, to a Society of Lovers of Musick, by William Sherlock, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. Sherlock told the Musick Lovers (I have normalized capitalization for ease of reading), "A grave, serious mind, which is the temper of devotion, is disturbed by light and airy compositions, which disperse the thoughts, and give a gay and frisking motion to the spirits, and call the mind off from the praises of God, to attend meerly [sic] to the agreeable variety of sounds, which is all that can be expected from such sounds as have nothing of devotion in them ... I thank God, the ordinary service of our Church is very grave and solemn, and well fitted to devotion." William Sherlock would have liked to meet Niels Otto Raasted.

I think I'll give it another try tomorrow, on your recommendation. My ears have changed a lot in 5 years.

[TheGSMoeller]

Here are my top 10 favorite classical music purchases of 2015. This excludes discs actually released in 2015, which I've posted in this thread already.

[asin]B0001RBVM8[/asin]  [asin]B0000035WZ[/asin]  [asin]B000TLPW4O[/asin]  [asin]B007VH6HHU[/asin]  [asin]B00D56ACOK[/asin]  [asin]B000025UVS[/asin]   [asin]B000003FOS[/asin]  [asin]B000N6UGOQ[/asin]  [asin]B00530GNAS[/asin]  [asin]B000GIX9WW[/asin]

[kishnevi]

I still got a few discs on the way in time for Christmas and I suspect Stephen Scott's Music for Bowed Piano might be a strong contender, but this gem

[asin]B0040Y7ERO[/asin]
takes the cake. From SA-CD.net:

Yup, pretty much.

And not expensive on Amazon MP.  I am always game for solo violin stuff. Ordered, thank you for this.