The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Here is Holiday Gift Guide No. 6 — NPR’s choices for the Top 10 classical recordings of 2015.

By Jacob Stockinger

Time is running out for Christmas and holiday shopping.

But there may still be time to either find a gift in a local store or to use that gift card you will receive.

In that spirit, here are the Top 10 classical recordings of 2015 as selected for NPR (National Public Radio) by Tom Huizenga and Anastasia Tsioulcas for their Deceptive Cadence blog.

The list, posted a bit late in the shopping season this year, runs from early music through mainstream classics to contemporary music, including John Adams‘ Beethoven-like work “Absolute Jest” (the origins of which you can hear John Adams discuss in the YouTube video at the bottom):

You can hear samples on the website:

http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/12/17/459871725/our-10-favorite-classical-albums-of-2015

And here are the previous five gift-giving guides that The Ear has posted:

Best classical CDs as chosen by the critics from The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/arts/music/best-classical-recordings-2015.html?_r=1

And an overall gift guide from The New York Times that was published around Thanksgiving on Black Friday:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2015/11/28/classical-music-its-small-business-saturday-here-are-classical-music-gift-suggestions-from-the-critics-for-the-new-york-times/

From the BBC Music Magazine and the Telegraph newspaper:

http://www.classical-music.com/awards/winners-2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/best-new-albums/

And the 2015 Grammy nominations:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/classical-music-the-new-grammy-nominations-can-serve-as-a-holiday-gift-guide/

Even if you don’t use these listings to buy gifts for others or yourself, they will give up some idea of what happened in the world of classical music recordings during the past year.

Happy giving!

Happy receiving!

Happy listening!

Happy learning!

Happy Holidays!