{"id":11277,"date":"2022-12-30T18:07:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T23:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=11277"},"modified":"2024-06-04T10:25:40","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T14:25:40","slug":"best-of-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/best-of-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

NPR Music<\/a>
\n10 Best Classical Albums of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wild Up (Christopher Rountree<\/a><\/strong>)
\nJulius Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy
\nFor Those Who Like: Albert Ayler, Steve Reich, ecstatic excursions
\nThe Story:<\/em> If only Julius Eastman were alive to enjoy the recent, richly deserved resuscitation of his uncompromising music, which during his short career put him in collaboration with Pierre Boulez, Meredith Monk and other important experimentalists. Boldly gay and proudly Black, Eastman gained precarious acclaim in the 1970s for his provocative pieces and performances, then withdrew and crashed too early, dying alone and unknown in a Buffalo hospital in 1990. He was only 49.
\nThe Music:<\/em> In its second volume of Eastman’s work, the Los Angeles-based outfit Wild Up once again gives astonishingly committed performances. The music, unlike the first volume’s frenetically joyous Femenine, doesn’t always land comfortably on the ear, but dig in deep and you’ll find the rewards are manifold. Touch Him When, in two separate guitar arrangements (“Light” and “Heavy”), plumbs deep ambient spaces and shreds with scorched-earth \u00e9lan. Joy Boy offers a caucus of fidgety saxophones and flutes amid chaotic chatter, while the album’s final track, Stay On It, for voices and ensemble, returns to the funky spasms of ecstasy so warmly welcomed in Femenine. If you’re interested in art that prizes connection with one’s “authentic self,” this album is the sound of freedom.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\nBest Classical Tracks of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julius Eastman: \u2018Stay On It\u2019
\n\u201cJulius Eastman, Vol. 2: Joy Boy\u201d; Wild Up (New Amsterdam)
\nThe Los Angeles ensemble Wild Up [Led by Christopher Rountree]<\/strong> has embarked on a series of recordings of the once-forgotten music of Julius Eastman (1940-90). The second installment closes with the bright party of \u201cStay On It,\u201d a paean to community that veers between precision and lush chaos: troubled by shadows but ultimately, patiently, quietly triumphant.<\/p>\n

Rossini: \u2018C\u00e9leste providence\u2019
\n\u201cFrench Bel Canto Arias\u201d; Lisette Oropesa, soprano; Saxon State Opera Chorus Dresden; Dresden Philharmonic; Corrado Rovaris<\/strong><\/a>, conductor (Pentatone)
\nA peerless bel canto interpreter, the soprano Lisette Oropesa combed through her bread-and-butter repertoire to come up with an album\u2019s worth of material in French, her favorite language to sing. In this showstopper from Rossini\u2019s elegant comic opera \u201cLe Comte Ory,\u201d Oropesa\u2019s classy singing sneaks subtle flecks of color into fiendish runs taken at the speed of light.<\/p>\n

Gramophone<\/a>
\nBest Classical Albums of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donizetti. Rossini \u2018French Bel Canto\u00a0Arias\u2019
\nLisette Oropesa\u00a0sop\u00a0Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra \/ Corrado\u00a0Rovaris<\/strong> (Pentatone)
\nHere is a superb album of\u00a0bel canto\u00a0arias either written or revised for Paris performances from a star soprano.<\/p>\n

\u2018Lieder\u2019
\nMatthias Goerne\u00a0bar\u00a0Daniil Trifonov<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(DG)
\nMore superb lieder from another singer of intelligence and insight, baritone Matthias Goerne, his partner here in Schumann, Brahms, Berg and others the renowned virtuoso Daniil Trifonov.<\/p>\n

\u2018Time Traveler\u2019s Suite\u2019
\nInon Barnatan<\/strong><\/a> (Pentatone)
\nA fascinating and thought-provoking piece of programming \u2013 spanning the Baroque to the 21st century \u2013 that works wonderfully, thanks of course to Inon Barnatan\u2019s hugely impressive pianism.<\/p>\n

The New Yorker<\/a>
\nNotable Performances and Recordings of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Du Yun\u2019s \u201cIn Our Daughter\u2019s Eyes\u201d
\nDu Yun, who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for music for her operatic dystopia \u201cAngel\u2019s Bone,\u201d explores more intimate terrain in \u201cIn Our Daughter\u2019s Eyes,\u201d which had its premi\u00e8re at L.A. Opera, in April, and will play at the Prototype Festival, in New York, in January. The new opera is a one-man show, with the baritone Nathan Gunn<\/strong><\/a> portraying a father-to-be who faces down his demons and flaws. Du Yun\u2019s complex, seething textures helped Gunn to achieve a grittily detailed emotional realism of a kind I\u2019ve seldom witnessed on an opera stage.<\/p>\n

Nico Muhly, \u201cStranger,\u201d \u201cLorne Ys My Likinge,\u201d \u201cImpossible Things\u201d; Nicholas Phan<\/strong><\/a>, Brooklyn Rider, Reginald Mobley, Lisa Kaplan, Colin Jacobsen, Eric Jacobsen<\/strong> <\/a>conducting the Knights<\/strong><\/a> (Avie)<\/p>\n

Rossini and Donizetti, French Bel Canto Arias; Lisette Oropesa, Corrado Rovaris<\/strong> conducting the Dresden Philharmonic and the Dresden State Opera Chorus (Pentatone)<\/p>\n

The New Yorker<\/a>
\nThe Best Books of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every Good Boy Does Fine
\nby Jeremy Denk<\/strong><\/a> (Random House)
\nBilled as \u201ca love story, in music lessons,\u201d this memoir by a MacArthur-winning pianist began as an article in the magazine. With self-deprecating humor, Denk charts his progress from awkward, precocious boyhood to awkward, precocious adulthood and classical-music eminence via the many teachers he had along the way. He also attempts\u2014in a sequence of interludes examining rhythm, harmony, and so on\u2014to account for music\u2019s hold over us.<\/p>\n

Chicago Tribune<\/a>
\nBest of Classical and Jazz in 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Beethoven: The \u201cEroica\u201d was the only work on the Grant Park Music Festival\u2019s July 15-16 program that wasn\u2019t new, and that symphony is hyper-familiar to classical fans. But revelations came fast and furious in guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s account of this most battle-scarred of war horses. Watching me jot in my notebook, at one point my seat neighbor grumbled to his wife: \u201cThe person next to me is going crazy.\u201d He wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n

Billboard<\/a>
\nThe 20 Best Pride Albums of 2022: Staff\u00a0Picks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anthony Roth Costanzo<\/strong><\/a> & Justin Vivian Bond, \u2018Only An Octave Apart\u2019
\nOpera star Anthony Roth Costanzo brings his piercing, controlled countertenor to bear on cabaret legend Justin Vivian Bond\u2019s reedy but dulcet tones on Only an Octave Apart, an unexpectedly poignant, queer life-affirming triumph. The (ahem) aural odd couple crafts strangely congruent pop\/opera mashups that range from whimsical (Bangles\u2019 \u201cWalk Like an Egyptian\u201d meets \u201cEgyptian Sun\u201d from Philip Glass\u2019 Akhnaten) to emotionally shattering (Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Give Up\u201d brings a hard-won ray of light to the desperate \u201cDeh Placatevi\u201d from Gluck\u2019s Orfeo ed Euridice). Octave hits all the right notes while remaining on a frequency all its own.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\nThe Top 10 Classical Releases of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

10 Kurt\u00e1g: Kafka Fragments | Anna Prohaska\/Isabelle Faust<\/strong><\/a>
\nWe said: \u201cAmong the best of what has become one of Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s most frequently recorded works.\u201d<\/p>\n

WQXR<\/a>
\nBest Classical Albums of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lost Birds
\nChristopher Tin, conductor | Barnaby Smith, conductor | VOCES8<\/strong><\/a> | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
\nThis, now Grammy-Award nominated, album struck us\u2014and you, we\u2019re told\u2014at first listen. We\u2019re thrilled to include this one as one of the best albums of 2022. We feel the same as WQXR listener Patricia: \u201cAbsolutely loved Lost Birds \u2026 The music transports one to bird flight and song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington Post<\/a>
\nBest Classical Music in 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Only an Octave Apart\u2019
\nEvery year should open with something as bubbly as Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo<\/strong>\u2019s opera-inspired cabaret show (or cabaret-inspired opera revue), \u201cOnly an Octave Apart.\u201d The show, which I saw at St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse in Brooklyn, might at first seem like a spread of operatic hors d\u2019oeuvres, but this dynamically talented duo serves something far more nourishing. With music from Purcell, Bowie, Bizet, the Bangles and a long guest list of others, \u201cOctave\u201d offers an aggressively charming peek behind the facades of form, as well as an up-close-and-personal experience with two effervescent performers.<\/p>\n

New York Classical Review<\/a>
\nTop Ten Performances of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. Aaron Siegel:\u00a0Watching Birds at the End of the World.\u00a0Anthony Roth Costanzo<\/strong>, Sae Hashimoto.\u00a0The Death of Classical
\nIn the world premiere of this affecting song cycle, countertenor Costanzo and vibraphonist Hashimoto stirred together vocal colors and subtle vibrations in the candlelit Catacombs of Brooklyn\u2019s Green-Wood Cemetery. The texts, by the composer, were taut, often melancholy meditations on life and loss, sometimes solitary, sometimes addressed to a lover. In the end, while the mortuary trappings added their resonance (literal and metaphorical), the triumph of\u00a0Watching Birds at the End of the World\u00a0was mostly due to the music and words by the composer\/poet and his imaginative performers. It isn\u2019t hard to imagine this work having a powerful effect in any setting, including a traditional concert stage.<\/p>\n

Honorable Mentions<\/em>
\nHow could one\u2019s heart not beat a little faster at the thought of Chopin played by Emanuel Ax<\/strong><\/a>? The Polish-born American pianist, at 72 in the late stages of a distinguished career, interpreting the visionary last utterances of Poland\u2019s greatest composer in a May recital at Carnegie Hall. The program consisted of eleven of the kind of single-movement character pieces on which Chopin\u2019s reputation largely rests, then closing with the Piano Sonata No. 3. Delivered with unflagging imagination and deep resources of tone and touch, the imaginative program made for a satisfying, often illuminating, recital. For much of the evening, as barcarolle followed mazurka followed nocturne, introspection was the predominant mood, pianissimo the go-to dynamic. But Ax had plenty of power and brilliance in reserve, and when he let it fly in the sonata the effect was exhilarating.<\/p>\n

There are few singers that can effortlessly fill the Metropolitan Opera and Lise Davidsen is one of them. Her regal Ariadne made the Met\u2019s revival of\u00a0Elijah Moshinsky\u2019s production of Strauss\u2019s\u00a0Ariadne auf Naxos\u00a0one for the memory books. The sight of the three Nymphs floating across the stage remains one of the most beautiful sights ever to appear on the Met\u2019s stage. The Met Orchestra with Marek Janowski<\/strong><\/a> was the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

Washington Classical Review<\/a>
\nTop Ten Performances of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Debut<\/em>
\nConductor Karina Canellakis<\/strong><\/a> made a sparkling first appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra in November. She led an extraordinary rendition of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Concerto for Orchestra, as well as a fine Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand with C\u00e9dric Tiberghien as soloist. The much-missed French pianist also offered an incredibly deft, nuanced encore of \u201cOiseaux tristes\u201d from Ravel\u2019s\u00a0Miroirs.<\/p>\n

Best New Work<\/em>
\nIn May Louis Langr\u00e9e led the National Symphony Orchestra and soloist Alisa Weilerstein<\/strong><\/a> in the world premiere of\u00a0A New Day, a major new cello concerto by Joan Tower. The 83-year-old composer dedicated the work to her partner of 48 years, Jeff, with four movements depicting their days together. Tower\u2019s command of the orchestra is unparalleled among American composers, now that Christopher Rouse has left us. The lush Ravelian harmony in the first movement of the piece, co-commissioned by NSO and premiered elsewhere in 2021, made it fit perfectly with the program of Debussy and Ravel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NPR Music 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022 Wild Up (Christopher Rountree) Julius Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy For Those Who Like: Albert Ayler, Steve Reich, ecstatic excursions The Story: If only Julius Eastman were alive to enjoy the recent, richly deserved resuscitation of his uncompromising music, which during his short career put him in … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3636,3688,4286,4435,7148,4247,7024,7109,4956,4967,3824,3687,4853,4196,4188,3706,7220,7219,4622,5936,6046,7218],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11277"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14155,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11277\/revisions\/14155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/11276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}