{"id":8677,"date":"2012-12-22T08:33:43","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T13:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=8677"},"modified":"2012-12-22T08:33:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-22T13:33:43","slug":"musical-torontos-year-that-was-the-best-classical-and-opera-albums-of-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/12\/22\/musical-torontos-year-that-was-the-best-classical-and-opera-albums-of-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Toronto’s year that was — the best classical and opera albums of 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Karina
Karina Gauvin impressed with her all-Handel Prima Donna<\/em> album.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A clumsy list of 34 favourite CDs of art music and opera released in 2012 stubbornly refused winnowing until I split them into Canadian vs Other — both judged with the same ears and standards:<\/p>\n

A click on the album’s title will take you to my original post.<\/p>\n

FAVOURITE CANADIAN ALBUMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In order of increasing rapture:<\/p>\n

Barbara Pritchard, Barbara Pentland Toccata (CMC)<\/a> Serialist music has rarely been so filled with life.<\/p>\n

Joseph Johnson & Victor Asuncion, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich Cello Sonatas (Independent)<\/a> Music so deeply rendered you can almost touch it.<\/p>\n

Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin, Haydn Piano Sonatas III (Hyperion)<\/a> A great pianist’s sparkling celebration of classical order.<\/p>\n

Philippe Sly, In Dreams (Analekta)<\/a> This young baritone made quite the splash this year, capped by a wonderful d\u00e9but solo album.<\/p>\n

Aislinn Nosky, Bach, Ysa\u00ffe, Oesterle (Independent)<\/a> A remarkable violinist with remarkable interpretations.<\/p>\n

Cecilia String Quartet, Dvor\u00e1k Quartet Op. 106, Cypresses (Analekta)<\/a> Four young women make a deeply-felt artistic declaration.<\/p>\n

Gryphon Trio with James Campbell, For the End of Time (Analekta)\u00a0 <\/a>Music to shake the foundations of our being.<\/p>\n

Karina Gauvin, Prima Donna (ATMA)<\/a> One of George Frideric Handel’s muses gets her due from one of our favourite sopranos.<\/p>\n

CANADIAN ALBUM OF THE YEAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"David
David Jalbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jalbert, Goldberg Variations (ATMA)<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m not sure if anyone who has not personally wrestled with J.S. Bach’s intellectual and musical challenges can fully appreciate the let-the-rest-of-the-world-be-damned effort involved in a project like this. And because the artist can’t be anything other than fully committed, the result says as much about the interpreter as about the music.<\/p>\n

There are dozens and dozens of recordings of the Goldberg Variations<\/em> out there, but I bow deeply to the balance and clarity of this interpretation by a great Canadian artist on a modern Steinway piano.<\/p>\n

Here’s the promotional video for the album:<\/p>\n