Favorite Discoveries of 2008

[Bunny]

Good!  It's available used and new at Amazon for a nice price.

[Haffner]

Bruckner, Tchaikovsky's Symphonies...currently Rachmaninov.

[marvinbrown]

The Janáček operas

  Now here Karl and I are in complete agreement. I bought this set a few weeks ago and it was a very pleasant welcome to my opera collection:

 

  Caution: this set does not contain librettos of the operas.  Happily I was able to locate librettos for a lot of Janacek's operas at my local library (individual recordings of the operas that come with librettos  )

  marvin

[Bonehelm]

Celibidache's Bruckner.
Mahler 5
Mahler 3
Barber Adagio for strings (omgwtfbbq?)

[Lethevich]

Havergal Brian: Thanks to Jezetha's Mediafire account. Previously I had only heard one symphony (27) - now I have heard a couple of dozen They range from interesting, to great, to "put off until later". Still can't get into the last movement of the Gothic, but I like the rest.

Cornelis Dopper - Symphony No.7: Lots of "nationalist" banging and crashing, neat tunes, and a fun trip.

Henk Badings: A very good symphonic writer, can easily stand alongside more famous British and Scandanavian symphonists.

Harold Truscott: Thanks to Thom. The string elegy is highly individual, flawed, but great because of that. His symphonic works are very interesting, which makes it all the sadder that the works he has left show more mere potential than a viable legacy.

Robert Schumann - Symphonic Etudes: Why the heck did I leave these off for so long

[Heather Harrison]

My main recent discovery is Schubert.  Of course, I have listened to his music off-and-on over the years, but for some reason he didn't quite connect with me and I never delved deeply - until now.  Lately, I seem to be listening to his music all the time, and I am enjoying it so much that I wonder why I didn't get into it a long time ago.  Some highlights are Symphonies Nos. 5, 8 (the Newbould completion), 9, and the unfinished 10th, the "Rosamunde" Quartet, the big cycles of lieder, the last Mass, and (just today) the Arpeggione Sonata.

Robert Schumann has also captured my attention recently; I have paid close attention to his symphonies, piano concerto, mass, and requiem, and have found a lot of depth and complexity that will reward repeated listening.

Louise Farrenc has been a favorite discovery for this year.  I immediately fell in love with her cycle of three symphonies, and I look forward to exploring her chamber music.  She wrote some powerful and complex music at a time (mid-19th Century) when women weren't expected to compose anything more than light music.

The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra.  This group has resurrected the forgotten popular music of the U.S. from c. 1900-1920.  For years, I have actively collected original recordings of this music, but the recording quality of that time is so dreadful as to be a serious distraction.  It is great to hear authentic performances in modern sound.  These performances demonstrate just how much life there is in this fun, self-confident, bombastic music.

Heather

[Teresa]

MICHAEL GANDOLFI: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Telarc DSD SACD-60696   
Excellent new composition that is very exciting, melodic and really hard to classify.

MESSIAEN: Turangalila Symphonie
Andre Previn, London Symphony Orchestra   
EMI Classics DVD-Audio 24 Bit 48kHz 4 92398 9
An older analog recording I just got last month, of the four versions I have heard of this work I think this is the best musically and sounds excellent despite being only 48kHz resolution.

Britannia
Sir Edward Elgar: "Pomp and Circumstance" Marchs Nos. 1 & 4
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise Scott Long, bagpiper
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three Screaming Popes
James MacMillan: Britannia
Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem   
Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Telarc SACD-60677
Fantastic SACD performance and sound, plus many new English compositions I had never heard before, this will likely become one of my very favorite discs.

[hautbois]

TODAY,

Stravinsky's Fireworks and Piano Concerto. WOW!

Howard

[The new erato]

Bloch's string quartets

They would have been here if it wasn't for the fact that I discovered them in 2007, in the Griller set. Now to find the 5th in a good recording!

[eyeresist]

My favourite discovery of this year is Kalinnikov's 1st symphony, specifically conducted by Friedmann. Fans of Russian Romantic symphonies need not hesitate.

[karlhenning]

MICHAEL GANDOLFI: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Telarc DSD SACD-60696   
Excellent new composition that is very exciting, melodic and really hard to classify.

We heard this in a partial performance by the BSO; some very nice work, indeed.

[71 dB]

I haven't "discovered" any classical music this year because I am having a break. On non-classical side Tangerine Dream has been a HUGE discovery! 

[Kullervo]

They would have been here if it wasn't for the fact that I discovered them in 2007, in the Griller set. Now to find the 5th in a good recording!

What about this?

http://www.amazon.com/Bloch-Quartets-Nos-IV-V/dp/B000000T7Y/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1210774825&sr=8-10

[Opus106]

Brahms

[ChamberNut]

Brahms

0:)

[karlhenning]

Hilary Hahn's recording of the Schoenberg Opus 36  0:)

[Harry]

Hilary Hahn's playing Bach's violin sonatas.
Honestly!
It was a present, a well meant present, and I actually liked it, something that I never expected.

[Harry]

Well okay then, my discovery until now is the Voice of Natalie Dessay, and her eyes, really big eyes, I am.......
I am as they call it hooked, stock and barrel.

[toledobass]

Hearing a live Turn of the Screw, then Grimes, then the first cello Suite.  I can't stop thinking about the Ligeti Violin Concerto performance I saw.  On disk=Boulez' compositions.  Oh, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Allan

[Heather Harrison]

Well okay then, my discovery until now is the Voice of Natalie Dessay, and her eyes, really big eyes, I am.......
I am as they call it hooked, stock and barrel.

For me, she was a big discovery of 2007.  I had heard her before, but from 2007 until now I have bought many of her recordings and found them to be of generally high quality.  She excels in the Baroque and the early Romantic bel canto repertoire.

Heather