{"id":12320,"date":"2023-12-18T21:36:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T21:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=12320"},"modified":"2023-12-18T21:36:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T21:36:11","slug":"classical-music-albums-of-the-year-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2023\/12\/18\/classical-music-albums-of-the-year-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Music Albums Of The Year 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Album of the Year? There\u2019s quite a few.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the ones that got away.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m in love with the Goldberg Variations by Vikingur \u2014 he seems to have dropped that long Icelandic surname \u2014 and have listened to them at least half a dozen times. I didn\u2019t review the release when new because it was swamped with critical hyperbole and I had little to add. I love this disc (DG).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Doric string quartet\u2019s new Beethoven cycle is brilliantly programmed. The first double-album contains quartets from different periods of the composer\u2019s life, neatly counterposed. This is a walk with Beethoven through his creative life. Can\u2019t wait for the next instalment (Chandos).<\/span><\/p>\n

Yuja Wang\u2019s capture of four Rachmaninov concertos and the Paganini Variations in a single concert made headlines for its athleticism. Beneath the attention-seeking lies some sensitive musicianship (DG). Boris Giltburg\u2019s set with the Brussels Philharmonic is warmer, more contemplative (Naxos).<\/span><\/p>\n

I got my Vaughan Williams fix from the Royal Liverpool Phil\u2019s dance album of Job and other bits, leagues apart from Strictly (Onyx). And I cannot resist Kurt Weill\u2019s Die Propheten, despite Franz Werfel\u2019s leaden polemics (Capriccio).<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the ones I did review, Semyon Bychkov\u2019s Czech Philharmonic account of Mahler\u2019s Resurrection Symphony joins the front rank of penetrative interpretations, wondrously performed (Pentatone). The last lifetime recording of the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho pulled heartstrings I didn\u2019t know I had (BIS). Anthony McGill\u2019s melding of Brahms sonatas and American music was memorably affecting (Cedille) and I was happy to spend time with the long-neglected Cesar Franck symphony in D minor (Alpha).<\/span><\/p>\n

But when push comes to stop-wasting-my-time, there were two albums of 2023 that will stand every test of time. One was the farewell gift of the Emerson Quartet, a dazzling menu of Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith and Chausson that no other ensemble could have conceived or pulled off \u2014 and with Barbara Hannigan doing the vocal bits. You won\u2019t believe what you hear, and you really won\u2019t want to miss it (Alpha).<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, my album of the year is \u2026 Fabio Luisi\u2019s Nielsen set with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the most idiomatic and immersive account of the six symphonies we have ever heard on record \u2014 and that includes Bernstein, Blomstedt and other epic forerunners. Luisi and his Danes just get it. Nothing more to be said. Get it (DG).<\/span><\/p>\n

And have a very happy festive season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Album of the Year? There\u2019s quite a few. Let\u2019s start with the ones that got away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":12322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[86,16],"tags":[93],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Albums-of-the-year.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12323,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions\/12323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}