Your Favourite Purchases & Musical Discoveries of 2021

[TheGSMoeller]

I'll start with my favorite musical discovery of the year, The Ghosts of Versailles, the opera was completed in 1990 by John Corigliano, to a libretto by William M. Hoffman. I obtained two recordings this year, see pics below, The LA Opera version on Penatone was released in 2016 and I believe won a few Grammy's, and the Orchestre de l'Opera Royal released in March 2021 on the Chateau Versailles label. I've really fallen in love with this work, it's whimsical and funny, a bit lighter than in tone than what I'm used to with Corigliano.

A quick synopsis taken from Wikipedia...
"The opera is set in an afterlife existence of the Versailles court of Louis XVI. In order to cheer up the ghost of Marie Antoinette, who is upset about having been beheaded, the ghost of the playwright Beaumarchais stages an opera (obviously based on La Mère coupable, although described by Beaumarchais as a new composition) using the characters and situations from his first two Figaro plays."

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

What great choices!

I bought the Walton Edition thanks to the recommendations from you and Roasted Swan. I am very happy about the set. Have a great holiday, Jeffrey. I miss your reviews on the Walton thread.

Is this something generally available?

I bought it on eBay from an Azerbaijani seller after a lengthy negotiation on price.  Also, I asked him if he had discs of Vasif Adigezalov, but he said that he only had vinyls.  I may have to go to Azerbaijan and Armenia to buy some recordings.

[Symphonic Addict]

I bought it on eBay from an Azerbaijani seller after a lengthy negotiation on price.  Also, I asked him if he had discs of Vasif Adigezalov, but he said that he only had vinyls.  I may have to go to Azerbaijan and Armenia to buy some recordings.

Good luck if you decide to do it!!! That would be something else.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Good luck if you decide to do it!!! That would be something else.

I think I will after the pandemic. Somehow I have a thing for the music in the Caucasus region. Probably I was an Azerbaijani in previous life.

[Mirror Image]

I'm not that familiar with Kodaly's music, but these two works won me over immediately (and the performances are gorgeous).

That is a fabulous recording, Rafael. All of the Kodály recordings I bought on the Hungaroton label have been first-rate. As you mentioned before his blending of Hungarian folk music and Impressionism is certainly a winning combination.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

That is a fabulous recording, Rafael. All of the Kodály recordings I bought on the Hungaroton label have been first-rate. As you mentioned before his blending of Hungarian folk music and Impressionism is certainly a winning combination.

I grab onto Hungaroton whenever I see them. 

PD

[The new erato]

Hungaroton had lots of great recordings, obscure operas (Liszt amongst others), early music (Obrecht under Janis Bali etc),  but very little seem to have been reissued on physical media.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Hungaroton had lots of great recordings, obscure operas (Liszt amongst others), early music (Obrecht under Janis Bali etc),  but very little seem to have been reissued on physical media.

Are they only doing downloads and streaming these days?  I hope not.

PD

[Mirror Image]

I grab onto Hungaroton whenever I see them. 

PD

Always a good idea. They're difficult to come by --- even more so in an actual music store.

[Mirror Image]

Are they only doing downloads and streaming these days?  I hope not.

PD

Sadly, this appears to be the case.

[The new erato]

There's lots of stuff on Hungaroton I wold have bought if I could see any trace of physical issues. Strange really, at least from an cultural viewpoint, that they don't license the recordings to Brilliant at least.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

There's lots of stuff on Hungaroton I wold have bought if I could see any trace of physical issues. Strange really, at least from an cultural viewpoint, that they don't license the recordings to Brilliant at least.

Great idea!

PD

[Mandryka]

Oliver's the real deal! This is played often at Castle Mandryka and never fails to please.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Loyset Compère ont outhere music missa Galeazescha music of duke of Milan, this is very nice release for me of 2017 but who care It made my year, hello Que.

[André]

The most searing, impassioned performance of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique I've heard.
The orchestral playing is superb (fantastic brass and percussion) and the sound excellent.



This is incredibly intense music. Ferocious expression, extremely unusual themes and orchestral colours. Easily the most arresting work for double bass in the repertory. Regardless of what one may feel toward the instrument, it leaves a huge impression. The symphony is a gigantic nightmarish run, ghoulish, clownesque and creepy. Put Schnittke 1, Shostakovich 4, Popov 1 and Kancheli 5 in a blender and fasten your seatbelt.

[foxandpeng]

The most searing, impassioned performance of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique I've heard.
The orchestral playing is superb (fantastic brass and percussion) and the sound excellent.



This is incredibly intense music. Ferocious expression, extremely unusual themes and orchestral colours. Easily the most arresting work for double bass in the repertory. Regardless of what one may feel toward the instrument, it leaves a huge impression. The symphony is a gigantic nightmarish run, ghoulish, clownesque and creepy. Put Schnittke 1, Shostakovich 4, Popov 1 and Kancheli 5 in a blender and fasten your seatbelt.

I second your view on the Tabakov. He has been one of the pinnacles of new discovery for me on 2021. I find his turbulent, expressive, existential symphonic howl irresistible. #5 is a pinnacle amongst pinnacles in his output.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

I woukd won't to thank directo and Ensemble Elam Rotemand his ensemble Profeti Dalla Quinta & Elam Rotem a flabbergeisting fantastic album, whit madrigals, psalms, Sonatas, song's perhaps and on LINN label woaw awesome , the album caled Rossi Il Montovano Nebreo, very clever and riveting album, superbe sounds, very nice instrumentation and vocals may I says more?

[Symphonic Addict]

This is incredibly intense music. Ferocious expression, extremely unusual themes and orchestral colours. Easily the most arresting work for double bass in the repertory. Regardless of what one may feel toward the instrument, it leaves a huge impression. The symphony is a gigantic nightmarish run, ghoulish, clownesque and creepy. Put Schnittke 1, Shostakovich 4, Popov 1 and Kancheli 5 in a blender and fasten your seatbelt.

That mix is dynamite!! I''ll be sure to put the seatbelt on myself.

[classicalgeek]

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but here are my favorite new musical discoveries of 2021:

Composer: George Lloyd. I was aware of his existence, of course, but had never delved into his music until this year. Boy, am I glad I did! It's so refreshing to find a 20th-century composer who simply wrote gorgeous melodies; Lloyd is the sort of composer I want to emulate as I try to write music again. His slow movements are especially masterful.

shout out to Charles Koechlin, who just missed the cut.

Piece: Leonard Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's "Symposium". I listened to the work in detail for the first time this year (I think I've heard it in years past, but it never really registered for me) - and I was immediately taken by it. It's a tour de force for the violin soloist, with rhythmically propulsive outer movement, and some gorgeous, lyrical slower bits. And what Bernstein does with his orchestra of strings, harp, and percussion is nothing short of dazzling. What a remarkable work.

Recording: Carl Nielsen Symphonies with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic. Top-notch playing, brilliant recorded sound, and insightfully and sensitively interpreted, this has become my new favorite Nielsen cycle, bar none. And it happens to include my preferred recording of my favorite Nielsen symphony, no. 4 (the Inextinguishable), just an all-out stunner of a performance.

[Mirror Image]

Piece: Leonard Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's "Symposium". I listened to the work in detail for the first time this year (I think I've heard it in years past, but it never really registered for me) - and I was immediately taken by it. It's a tour de force for the violin soloist, with rhythmically propulsive outer movement, and some gorgeous, lyrical slower bits. And what Bernstein does with his orchestra of strings, harp, and percussion is nothing short of dazzling. What a remarkable work.

It truly is a remarkable work. The more I listen to Bernstein's music, the more I understand what a brilliant mind he had and the fact he was a notable composer on top of being an internationally renown and revered conductor and educator makes him a triple tour-de-force.