The Well-Tempered Ear
New Yorker critic Alex Ross names 26 notable classical music recordings from 2023
2 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Alex Ross (below) writes for The New Yorker magazine and is perhaps the most respected classical music critic not only in the U.S. but in the world.
His bestselling book of collected essays, “The Rest Is Noise,” has been acclaimed and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. HIs latest book about Wagner, art and politics has also been highly praised.
This year, unlike in many others, Ross chose to list notable recordings along with a few general observations about the live performances and the recording scene.
For example, he has both sharp criticism and high praise of how the largest commercial labels as well as smaller specialty labels such as BIS and Hyperion are coping with the ever-growing popularity and challenge of streaming.
Ross also sounds a warning about the “transformation” of the iconic Mostly Mozart Festival by Lincoln Center to re-conceive the famous summer concert series as more “inclusive” — despite its financial and artistic success over decades.
Ross’ remarks serve as a timely warning for programmers at concert venues and radio shows to be careful of trying to increase popularity with simplistic ways to “de-canonize” and “de-colonialize” the repertoire in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.
One suspects that what matters most of all to Ross is the quality of the compositions and the performances — not the genre, color or culture of those who are responsible for them. Not all parts of culture, he suggests in a longer version of the remarks, need to appeal to all parts of society.
Anyway, read his remarks about the best recordings and see the list of 20 others and see what you think:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/notable-classical-recordings-of-2023
One noteworthy fact is that he named the young Korean pianist Yunchan Lim (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucci) to his “best-of” list for Lim’s live recording made during the Van Cliburn Competition that he won last year at the age of 18.
In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear Lim play “Mazeppa,” perhaps the most fiendishly difficult of Liszt’s “Twelve Transcendental Etudes.” It depicts a Ukrainian folk hero who is punished for his adultery by being strapped naked to a galloping wild horse and struggles to free himself.
And if you have not yet heard Lim’s electrifying performance Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with conductor Marin Alsop during the finals of the Cliburn competition, you should check it out at YouTube.
Do you have any opinions about the recording that Ross selected?
About Yunchan Lim?
The Ear want to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, 2023, Adès, African American, Alex Ross, appeal, Arnold Schoenberg, Art, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, Bach, Barbara Hannigan, Baroque, Beethoven, Berg, best, Biber, BIS, black, blog, Britain, Busoni, Byrd, Canada, Canadian, Cassandra Miller, CDs, Cello, Chamber music, Chausson, choral music, Classical music, commercial, composer, Concert, concerto, contemporary composers, critic, crossover, culture, de-canonize, de-colonize, Decca, Decca Records, DEI, Deutsche Grammophon, DG, difficult, diversion, Early music, Ebene Quartet, electrifying, England, equity, essay, etude, Facebook, female, festival, fiendish, Finland, Finnish, folk, France, free, French, gallop, George Walker, Great Britain, Haydn, Heinrich Biber, hero, Hindemith, horse, Hyperion, Igor Levit, inclusion, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Luther Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Korea, Korean, label, last year, Ligeti, LIncoln Center, link, Liszt, Live Recording, London, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ludwig van Beethoven, Machaut, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, magazine, Marin Alsop, Mazeppa, merit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Missy Mazzoli, Monteverdi, Mostly Mozart, Mostly Mozart Festival, Mozart, Music, naked, New Music, New Yorker, nomination, nominee, notable, observations, opera, Orchestra, performing, Pianist, Piano, poerformance, Politics, popularlity, program, Pulitzer Prize, quality, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Radio, remarks, repertoire, repertory, review, Saariaho, Schubert, share, society, Sonata, Sony Classical, South Korea, South Korean, St. Lawrence Quartet, Steinway, streaming, String quartet, string quintet, symphony, tag, The Ear, The New Yorker, The Rest Is Noise, Transcendental Etudes, UK, Ukraine, Ukrainian, United States, Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, vespers, Violin, virtuosity, vocal music, Wagner, warning, Weinberg, wild, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, women, young, YouTube, Yunchan Lim
Recent Comments
 | Mary Friedel-Hunt on What do you think of the… |
 | music88 on Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes ar… |
 | diacon2 on Who was the better pianist? Ma… |
 | welltemperedear on Classical music: Madison Opera… |
| welltemperedear on Classical music: Was Bernard H… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 