My classical music listening for the year 2023

2023 has been one of my very best years for classic music listening.  I’ve discovered an unusually high number of excellent recordings, and made a lot of progress in understanding many composers better.  Most of all, that would be Bach, Scriabin, Byrd, Handel, Robert Ashley, and Caroline Shaw, but by no means exhausting the list.  For whatever reasons, I’ve just had an immense amount of emotional energy to put into these discoveries.

I thought I would write up a list of my favorite new recordings, but there are too many of them.  Here are just a few:

Handel, The Eight Great Suites and Overtures, Francesco Corti.  My whole life I’ve preferred these for piano, say by Richter.  Corti is converting me to the harpsichord versions.

Frank Peter Zimmermann, Bach, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, volumes one and two.  These are some of my favorite works to buy multiple versions of.  I started off preferring the Milstein recordings, which still are wonderful.  Last year went through a Biondi phase, now am enamored of these.  I never tire of these pieces.

Monteverdi, Vespro Della Beata Vergine, conducted by Raphaël Pichon, covered here by the NYT.  Monteverdi’s greatest work, and this recording has been receiving special praise from many quarters.

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma!, the complete score (for the first time recorded), John Wilson and Sinfonia of London.

Here is the Alex Ross New Yorker classical music recording list: “I can’t remember a year of so many pleasure-inducing, addiction-triggering albums.”

You also might consult these 2023 recommendations from Gramophone, the ones I have heard are excellent, the others are high expected value.

It is a marvel that such a revenue-poor, streaming-intensive musical world is generating so many new and amazing recordings for virtually all kinds of classical music.  This is not what I was expecting five to ten years ago.

Another marvel is how many world-beating recordings are coming from young performers who do not have mega-strong preestablished reputations.  A lot of them I have never heard of before.

Most of all, I am pleased to see that beauty is proving so robust.

Merry Christmas everybody!