As a postscript to the December chart, we’ve decided to share details of our fifty best-selling titles across the board for the whole of last year – it will likely come as no great surprise to regular followers of the monthly charts that Rachel Podger’s small-but-perfectly-formed Four Seasons with Brecon Baroque on Channel Classics (No. 1 in our very first chart back in April, and a regular in the Top 25s for much of the year) takes the top spot, followed by an eleventh-hour contender from The Choir of King’s College Cambridge, which notched up an impressive number of sales in just six weeks after its release in November.
Roughly three-quarters of the top fifty are 2018 releases, but we’ve also seen a resurgence of interest in several high-profile titles from the past couple of years – including John Nelsons’s Les Troyens on Erato (thanks in part to its winning Gramophone, Opus Klassik, BBC Music Magazine and International Opera Awards last year), and Daniil Trifonov’s Rachmaninov Variations from 2015, which enjoyed a new lease of life after the release of the same composer’s Second and Fourth Piano Concertos from the same artists this October.
No. 1
Rachel Podger (violin), Brecon Baroque
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 2
King’s College Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
No. 3
Murray Perahia (piano)
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 4
Six Evolutions
Bach: Cello Suites
Yo-Yo Ma (cello)
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 5
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 6
MusicAeterna, Teodor Currentzis
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 7
No. 8
Adrian Chandler (violin/director), La Serenissima
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 9
Destination Rachmaninov - Departure
Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4
Daniil Trifonov (piano), Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 10
Paul Lewis (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 11
Isabelle Faust (violin), Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord)
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 12
Musicaeterna, Teodor Currentzis
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 13
Boris Giltburg (piano), Pavel Nikl (viola), Pavel Haas Quartet
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
No. 14
Krystian Zimerman (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 15
Four Pieces - Four Pianos
Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Stravinsky
Alexander Melnikov (pianos)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 16
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Tanguy de Williencourt (piano), Magali Mosnier (flute), Antoine Tamestit viola), Xavier de Maistre (harp), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Javier Perianes (piano)
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 17
No. 18
No. 19
Isabelle Faust (violin), Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 20
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 21
Vox Luminis & Ensemble Masques, Lionel Meunier
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 22
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
& other works for two pianos four hands
Marc-André Hamelin (piano), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 23
Igor Levit (piano)
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 24
Deux
Music for Violin & Piano by Bartók, Poulenc & Ravel
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Polina Leschenko (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 25
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Lise Davidsen (soprano), Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), Victoria Nava (soprano), Johannes Weisser (baritone), Håkon Høgemo (Hardanger Fiddle); Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs, Edward Gardner
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 26
Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 27
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 28
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Sophie Koch (mezzo), Riccardo Chailly
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 29
Alexander Melnikov (piano), with Olga Pashchenko (piano)
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 30
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo), Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 31
Arcadi Volodos (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 32
Hilary Hahn (violin)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 88.2 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 33
Isabelle Faust (violin), Anne Katharina Schreiber (violin), Danusha Waskiewicz (viola), Kristin von der Goltz (cello), Lorenzo Coppola (clarinet), Javier Zafra (bassoon), Teunis van der Zwart (horn), James Munro (double bass)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 34
Jerusalem Quartet
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 35
Alfred Brendel (piano), Wiener Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
No. 36
Lisa Batiashvili (violin), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 37
Gewandhausorchester, Andris Nelsons
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 38
Czech Philharmonic, Jiří Bělohlávek
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 39
Franco Fagioli (countertenor), Il Pomo d'Oro, Zefira Valova
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 40
Lisa Batiashvili (violin), Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 41
Transfigured Night
Haydn & Schoenberg
Alisa Weilerstein (cello), Trondheim Soloists
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 42
Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Renaud Capuçon (violin), Bertrand Chamayou (piano), Edgar Moreau (cello), Gerard Caussé (viola), Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 43
Daniil Trifonov (piano), Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 44
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 45
Smetana: Má Vlast
In memoriam Jiří Bělohlávek
Czech Philharmonic, Jiří Bělohlávek
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 46
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (mezzo-soprano), Beatrice Rana (piano), Nadine Sierra (soprano), Dame Josephine Barstow (narrator), Alessandro Carbonare (clarinet); Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sir Antonio Pappano
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 47
Albina Shagimuratova (Semiramide), Daniela Barcellona (Arsace), Mirco Palazzi (Assur), Barry Banks (Idreno), Gianluca Buratto (Oroe), Susana Gaspar (Azema), David Butt Philip (Mitrane), James Platt (L’ombra di Nino); Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Opera Rara Chorus, Sir Mark Elder
Available formats: 4 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 48
Domenico Scarlatti: Sonatas Vol. 1
The Power of Illusion
Federico Colli (piano)
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 49
Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
No. 50
Philippe Jaroussky (Orfeo), Amanda Forsythe (Euridice), Emőke Baráth (Amore); Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera & I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
