Recording of the Week, Presto Personal Favourites from 2022

Since announcing our top Ten Recordings of the Year (decided by committee and revealed a fortnight ago), the editorial team have spent a lot of time discussing and revisiting some of our own personal favourites which made the Top 100 but haven't yet featured as Recording of the Week. Instead of a full-length review of a single recording, six of us have decided to share the honours today and each sing the praises of an album that we've particularly enjoyed over the past year...

Chris O'Reilly (CEO)

Coleridge-Taylor (Elena Urioste (violin), Chineke! Orchestra, Kevin John Edusei, Fawzi Haimor, Roderick Cox, Kalena Bovell, Anthony Parnther; Chineke! Records/Decca)

It was perhaps inevitable that for their first release on a new partnership with Decca, Britain’s first majority-Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, the Chineke! Orchestra, would release a 2-CD set of the celebrated mixed-race English composer, conductor and political activist Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

Whilst the only premiere on here is actually a work by Coleridge-Taylor’s daughter Avril, these lively performances of several of his suites are compelling and hugely enjoyable. They are coupled with recording of the Nonet and for me the standout work and performance on this set – the Violin Concerto – exquisitely played by the Elena Urioste, and worth the cost of the album alone.

James Longstaffe (Head of Sheet Music & Books)

A Gathering of Friends (Yo-Yo Ma (cello), New York Philharmonic Orchestra, John Williams; Sony)

This year saw much focus on John Williams's new Violin Concerto, but slipping rather more under the radar was this dazzling collection of pieces for cello and orchestra, including the revised version of his Cello Concerto, performed here by its dedicatee, Yo-Yo Ma, with Williams himself conducting the New York Philharmonic. It's a magnificently dramatic work that is given a virtuosic reading by Ma, not least in the devilishly fiendish first-movement cadenza.

Ma also offers a moving account of Three Pieces from Schindler's List (originally for violin but heard here in the composer-sanctioned cello arrangement), alongside music from two more Steven Spielberg films, Munich and Lincoln. Finally there is the premiere audio recording of the wonderfully atmospheric Highwood's Ghost, depicting the supposed haunting of one of the buildings on the Tanglewood campus.

Paul Thomas (Product Manager)

Bargiel: Piano Trios Nos 1 & 2 (Leonore Piano Trio; Hyperion)

The Leonore Piano Trio have been mining at the seam of lesser-known piano trios for Hyperion since their debut recording in 2014 and have once again struck gold with their recording of the German Romantic composer Woldemar Bargiel's first two piano trios.

The music here by Bargiel (who was the half-brother of Clara Schumann) is both highly melodic and dramatic and should appeal to any lovers of Romantic chamber music, with the performances here remarkable not only for their unanimity in this most challenging of genres but also for their vitality and drive, especially in the two Scherzo movements.

Katherine Cooper (Head of Classical Editorial)

Meyerbeer: Robert Le Diable (John Osborn, Nicolas Courjal, Amina Edris, Erin Morley, Nico Darmanin; Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Chœur de l'Opera National de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski; Palazzetto Bru Zane)

The run-up to Christmas might not be the most apposite time to sing the praises of an opera about the Devil's son incarnate, but what a gift Minkowski has given us with this high-octane, atmospheric recording of a criminally under-recorded score which influenced works from Gounod's Faust to Lloyd-Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. The French conductor gets the balance between campy Grand Guignol and genuine pathos absolutely right, and the cast are uniformly terrific: Nicolas Courjal makes for an unusually sympathetic Devil, John Osborn is indefatigable as his tormented progeny, and Erin Morley (whose sustained top Es and Fs will take your breath away) simply adorable as his beloved Isabelle. Quite possibly the finest complete opera recording of the year.

Paolo Pezzangora (Head of Marketing)

Alchemy - New Music For Trumpet and Orchestra (Fábio Brum, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Noam Zur; Naxos)

Well-known for being now the newest member of the Canadian Brass, Fábio Brum's Alchemy is a unique blend of distinct musical languages and a cohesive stylistic approach (the 'alchemy' of the title). The album features some of the most beautiful new music that I have ever heard, from the intense opening track 'Solaria' to the closing imaginative concerto, Tokyo Suite, both composed by Gabriele Roberto. From start to finish, this album is filled with lush melodies, virtuosic passages and intricate harmonies, which Brum masters with his unique dark sound in all registers.

Brum's playing is masterful throughout, as he weaves together elements of his musical journeys to create something truly unique, supported by Noam Zur's baton. His playing is thoughtful and precise, but also passionate and emotive, intense and profound at times. His use of dynamics adds depth to each piece, creating an atmosphere of captivating beauty.

Overall, it's in Dimitri Cervo's The Brazilian Four Seasons (a musical bridge Vivaldi and Piazzolla) that Fábio Brum demonstrates how he can combine different styles into something that is both accessible and artistically fulfilling.

David Smith (Head of Digital Catalogue)

Jóhann Jóhannsson: Drone Mass (American Contemporary Music Ensemble & Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier; Deutsche Grammophon)

The genre-defying music of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson takes a turn towards the ritualistic in Drone Mass, with Paul Hillier, Theatre of Voices and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. Despite the title, there’s scarcely any connection with the text of the Mass – the 'words' are abstract vocalisations and syllables that create texture rather than conveying meaning – but the eleven movements draw together classical, ambient and electronic techniques to create a palette of moods that are by turns solemn, eerie, and uplifting. Drone Mass speaks in a musical language that is immediately accessible when one first encounters it, yet at the same paradoxically retains a sense of shadowy mystery even after many listenings.