What is your best purchase of 2010?

[Philoctetes]

Daverz - did you see Inception? (Not disagreeing with you. I haven't seen it yet myself and am going to watch it with a bit of skepticism.)

In the meantime, might I suggest you simply put too much stock into your own opinion?

First, Inception is awesome. Just awesome. Awesome. I think three will suffice.

Second, please do not waste your time replying to that jackknob. I'm hoping, and assuming, you have way better things to do with your time. Do those. Not this.

[Daverz]

First, Inception is awesome. Just awesome. Awesome. I think three will suffice.

Well, it does have that lil' cutie Ellen Page in it.  I just want to squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze her.

[Brian]

Second, please do not waste your time replying to that jackknob. I'm hoping, and assuming, you have way better things to do with your time. Do those. Not this.

The essay was something I was going to write anyway. And not for GMG, for another site. I've long learned that an artful putdown and a move to the next thread is the best way to deal with our enmirrored friend in one of his tempers.

Daverz, that post made me laugh something fierce.

[Philoctetes]

Well, it does have that lil' cutie Ellen Page in it.  I just want to squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze her.

And she's the worst part of the flick.

[Philoctetes]

The essay was something I was going to write anyway. And not for GMG, for another site. I've long learned that an artful putdown and a move to the next thread is the best way to deal with our enmirrored friend in one of his tempers.

Ah.. well then. Onward and forward.

[Mirror Image]

I'm not going to reply to this now, but rest assured that I am not going to forget your (not atypical) combination of genuine critique and patronizing ad hominem non-sequitur. It's just that my reply will take the form of a full-length essay, and as such will require a few days to produce and polish.

In the meantime, might I suggest you simply put too much stock into your own opinion?

If your reply will take a few days to "polish," then you might as well move onto something else. One reason I suggest this to you is because I was merely making an observation about you. If you want to turn something harmless that I wrote to you as a way to create a war of words, then I'm not going to engage you in such an activity.


All I'm saying is that you seem to defend people like Hurwitz and Ebert as if they hold the keys to the castle. They're just critics. If you agree with their opinions, fine, that's your right, but quite frankly I find it interesting that you would rather read their opinions rather than form your own.


I would hope I put some stock into my own opinion since more chances than not it's something that I believe in and the way I feel.


You can spin my comment to you however you want, but please know that I'm not disrespecting you and if I am, then I apologize. That was not my intent at all.

[Brian]

I was merely making an observation about you....you seem to defend people like Hurwitz and Ebert as if they hold the keys to the castle. They're just critics. If you agree with their opinions, fine, that's your right, but quite frankly I find it interesting that you would rather read their opinions rather than form your own.

Happily for me, you've just made that up. And as for "creating a war of words," that underestimates my intentions as a writer. 

[knight66]

Guy's please...back to the pleasureable topic of the best of 2010.

Knight

[Scarpia]

As some have pointed out, picking one is somewhat arbitrary, but this one popped up in my memory, so that must mean something.


Bax, Orchestral Music, Volume 5.

[Lethevich]

As some have pointed out, picking one is somewhat arbitrary, but this one popped up in my memory, so that must mean something.


Bax, Orchestral Music, Volume 5.

Best single Bax disc in da house.

[Bulldog]

I was very selective over the past year and purchased only about 40 recordings, over half of them Bach.  My favorite is Roger Woodward's set of the complete WTC.  Although a very expensive set, it's easily worth the price.

[Dax]

Not the Wallander author* but his grandfather (1868-1930) who wrote very pleasant piano music of a romantic, albeit unthreatening nature tinged with whole-tone chords and occasional strange harmonic progressions.

I've posted elsewhere a couple of recordings which discovered in the 1980s.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,17667.msg474689.html#msg474689



is indeed the cover art (more or less) of a double CD purchased a couple of months ago, but with the additions of Fantasy-Sonatas nos.3 and 6, plus the Ballade no.7 but minus the Andante and variations. In any case, these are all works from the 1920s to which my instant reaction was identical to the above quote (posted back in February), suggesting that his style had changed but little in the intervening years. His works seem mostly to have been for piano solo (there are a number of string quartets, some chamber music and a piano concerto) but, perhaps oddly, he appears to have been a teacher rather than a performer. I imagine that some would find the music unexceptional: there's little that is extraordinarily individual, nothing that is rhythmically striking and nothing particularly weird, despite apparent harmonic oddities. The temptation would be to dismiss it as non-virtuoso mood-music. Yet it certainly has its undoubted attractiveness and there is an unsurprisingly expert handling of pianistic resonance. Scandinavian understatement? Sounds like a national stereotype, but it's true. Amongst the pieces on the first CD (3 Preludes op 54, Valse mesto op 58, 3 Legends op 59 and 4 Pieces op 60) there is little drama. So Stormstämnig (Tempest mood) is the most restrained musical storm you're likely to encounter. That's the 3rd of the 4 Pieces (the others are Barcarolle, Evening mood and Slow waves) which, apart from the brooding Atlantis from the 3 Legends, were the most impressive things on the first CD.
The Fantasy-Sonatas (1 op 69, 3 op 72 + 6 op 76) do explore a different kind of territory. These are, it would appear, 3-movement jobs, although there's no different tracking for each movement, suggesting that the music should be continuous - each of them lasts 15 minutes or so. The drama is not that restrained and the narrative is much more directed towards musical argument than was apparent in the pieces on the other CD. Having said that, the argument seems not to be developmental in the way one would expect of a traditional sonata, but meandering in a way which seems acceptable although puzzling. Perhaps I wasn't used to this kind of music (whatever that is), but it has certainly made for rewarding listening.


For those who wish to view samples of dots -

http://www.ahlborgmusik.se/piano.html

*Off-topic link
Some are probably also aware of author Henning Mankell's diary published in the Guardian (he was on one of the ships which attempted to make its way to Gaza).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jun/05/flotilla-raid-henning-mankell-diary

[Daverz]

Looking back through my purchase records, I still have a lot of purchases from 2010 that are unassimilated.

[AndyD.]

Okay, I'm obvious and boring. I don't care.

[Brahmsian]

Okay, I'm obvious and boring. I don't care.

I've got that one too, Andy!  Terrific!! 

[Brian]

What a glorious cover photograph that is.

[Mirror Image]

I guess if I had to narrow it down, it would be the following:


-Szymanowski series on Naxos with Antoni Wit/Warsaw Philharmonic
-Szymanowski: Symphony No. 3 "Song of the Night," Violin Concerto No. 1, Pierre Boulez, Vienna Philharmonic, DG
-Shostakovich: Symphonies 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, & 15, Kurt Sanderling, Berlin Symphony Orch., Berlin Classics
-Shostakovich, series on Naxos with Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
-Rawsthorne series on Naxos
-Milhaud: Symphonies, Alun Francis, Basel Radio Symphony Orch., Cpo
-Martinu: Complete Symphonies, Vaclav Neumann, Czech Philharmonic, Supraphon
-Pettersson: Complete Symphonies, various conductors/orchestras, Cpo
-Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 11, Leif Segerstam, Norrkoping Symphony Orch., BIS
-Rautavaara: Symphony No. 7 "Angel of Light," Dances with the Winds, Cantus Arcticus, Osmo Vanska, Lahti Symphony Orch., BIS
-Bloch: Three Jewish Poems, Evocations, James Sedares, New Zealand Symphony Orch., Koch Classics
-Debussy, Ravel: String Quartets, Emerson String Quartet
-Villa-Lobos: Complete String Quartets, Latinoamericano Quartet, Dorian Recordings
-The Ligeti Project, various ensembles/orchestras/conductors, Telarc
-Dutilleux: Orchestral Works, Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic., Chandos
-Alban Berg Collection, various orchestras/ensembles/conductors, DG
-Complete Webern, Boulez, various ensembles, DG
-Guarnieri series on BIS w/ John Neschling/Sao Paulo Symphony Orch.
-Honegger: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5, Pacific 231, Neeme Jarvi, Danish National Radio Symphony, Chandos
-Bartok: Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Istvan Kertesz, Christa Ludwig, Walter Berry, LSO, Decca Legends
-Tubin series on BIS with various orchestras/Neeme Jarvi
-Simpson: Complete Symphonies, Vernon Handley, Royal Philharmonic, Hyperion
-

[Que]

The most notable purchases of the year:






2010 was for me the year of the German Baroque keyboard tradition and of Early Music:

Extra special was the issue of the clavichord sonatas by Johann Gottfried Müthel and Christoph Graupner's harpsichord works were a major discovery in the guise of the series by Geneviève Soly. A big delight was the Georg Böhm set by Mitzi Meyerson.






An honourable mention for a Early Music set purchased in december 2009, but that has been a center point of my listening activities in 2010.



The best purchase of all was: the William Byrd keyboard works set by Davitt Moroney!

Q

[Harry]

The best purchase of all was: the William Byrd keyboard works set by Davitt Moroney!

Q

That set has my votes too, and I would  add one, which was best bargain, and almost 100% quality recordings.