{"id":7868,"date":"2020-12-18T02:23:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T02:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=7868"},"modified":"2023-02-09T12:05:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T17:05:58","slug":"best-of-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/best-of-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Classical Music of 2020<\/strong>
\nA host of livestreamed concerts, the sounds of silence, time-hopping quartets and at-home divas were among the highlights…
\nJennifer Koh<\/a>
\nA flood of free streams immediately started, mostly from determined musicians playing from their homes. One ambitious and heartening standout was the violinist\u00a0Jennifer Koh\u2019s \u201cAlone Together\u201d\u00a0project, for which she played 40 new solo works, half donated, half commissioned, broadcasting them over Instagram from her apartment in Manhattan.
\nDaniil Trifonov<\/a>
\nThe pianist\u00a0Daniil Trifonov ended up demonstrating\u00a0the before-and-after realities of the pandemic with two performances of Bach\u2019s \u201cThe Art of Fugue.\u201d The first took place in early March at Alice Tully Hall, and he played magnificently. He played the work again in June, without an audience, in a studio at Tanglewood. It was broadcast in August. This time, though he wasn\u2019t required to, he wore a mask, which came across as a gesture of solidarity with viewers around the world.
\n\u2018Lift Every Voice\u2019 (Morris Robinson<\/a>)
\nIf in March \u201ceverything stopped,\u201d then in late May everything changed. After the killing of George Floyd sparked nationwide demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality, institutions across society felt compelled to reckon with racial disparities within their ranks \u2014 and that includes classical music. A bevy of online panels explored the troubled legacy of the art form, which remains overwhelmingly white. The most powerful was \u201cLift Every Voice,\u201d a panel of six Black singers hosted by the Los Angeles Opera at the suggestion of Ms. Bridges, who moderated. The discussion exposed the discomfort, slights and pain artists of color have faced even during careers that might seem like success stories. Orchestras and opera companies have announced plans to perform works by composers of color and to find ways to make their ensembles more reflective of the diverse communities they serve. If these moves bring about real change, this could be at least one great benefit of the most devastating year ever for classical music.<\/p>\n

The Best of the Year\u2019s At-Home Divas<\/strong>
\nStephanie Blythe<\/a>
\nThere was an encompassing sense of safety in the pop standards this eminent mezzo-soprano posted on Facebook from her couch, accompanying herself on the ukulele. This was truly person-to-person communication through music: comfort-food consolation of the highest quality, warmed by Ms. Blythe\u2019s palpable love for her invisible audience. I keep thinking about her sweet, deep take on David Bowie\u2019s \u201cChanges,\u201d which she put up on April 27, and how she turned Bowie\u2019s \u201cfloat\u201d to \u201cflow\u201d in a line that was newly resonant at that relentless moment: \u201cThough the days flow through my eyes, still the days, they seem the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Broadening Canon<\/strong>
\nAre we getting there? Are we finally building a more inclusive culture in classical music? Nobody could possibly argue that the\u00a0work\u00a0is\u00a0done, particularly when it comes to race, but there has been evidence this year \u2014 on record at least \u2014 that\u00a0female composers\u00a0are starting to get more of their due\u2026Amy Beach has long been on the edges of the chamber music canon, even if it was her \u201cGaelic\u201d Symphony and Piano Concerto that made her\u00a0famous\u00a0\u2014 but Garrick Ohlsson<\/a> and the Takacs Quartet, the world\u2019s best, gave a haunting\u00a0beauty\u00a0to her 1908 Piano Quintet (Hyperion).<\/p>\n

The Glimpses of Change<\/strong>
\nClassical music has never been more accessible. But in 2020, every taste of good news came with a buffet of horrors; no matter what we celebrate, we can\u2019t forget that in what seemed like an instant, the industry was paralyzed by the pandemic. For so many artists, this year ended the second week of March.<\/p>\n

If we take a moment to appreciate the positive, though, remember that, as people became homebound en masse, they suddenly had the world\u2019s greatest musicians available on demand through livestreams and archival videos put online at no cost. As live performance crept back, the New York Philharmonic offered itself to the city from the back of a pickup truck (Anthony Roth Costanzo<\/a>). Yuval Sharon, the most innovative American opera director, transplanted the blaze of Wagner\u2019s \u201cG\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung\u201d to a parking garage, for Michigan Opera Theater; when the shows sold out, the company opened the cavernous Detroit Opera House to the public for free live screenings. (Christine Goerke<\/a> & Morris Robinson<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Best Theater of 2020<\/strong><\/a>
\n‘The Great Work Begins\u2019 (Patti LuPone<\/a>)
\nIn October, after more than 200,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, the creators of\u00a0\u201cThe Great Work Begins,\u201d subtitled \u201cScenes From \u2018Angels in America,\u2019\u201d\u00a0could not ignore the parallels between the current pandemic and AIDS, which over the course of four decades has killed millions worldwide. In five brilliantly imaginative excerpts, distilling Tony Kushner\u2019s seven-hour epic to 50 minutes, the director, Ellie Heyman, and a cast both starry (Glenn Close as Roy Cohn) and multifarious (three Priors, three Belizes, all excellent) showed how classic plays speak not only to their time but also predict their own futures \u2014 often, as here, with fury and regret.<\/p>\n

The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020<\/strong><\/a>
\nNadia Boulanger: \u2018Soir d\u2019hiver\u2019
\n\u201cClairi\u00e8res: Songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger\u201d; Nicholas Phan<\/a>, tenor; Myra Huang, piano (Avie) After Lili Boulanger, the gifted French composer, died in 1918 at just 24, her devoted older sister Nadia suffered doubts about her own composing and turned to teaching. On\u00a0this lovely recording, the tenor Nicholas Phan performs elegant songs by both sisters, ending with Nadia\u2019s misty, rapturous \u201cSoir d\u2019hiver,\u201d a 1915 setting of her poem about a young mother abandoned by her lover.<\/p>\n

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2, Andantino; \u201cSilver Age\u201d; Daniil Trifonov<\/a>, piano; Mariinsky Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon) The thoughtful pianist Daniil Trifonov explores the music of Russia\u2019s so-called\u00a0\u201csilver age\u201d\u00a0of the early 20th century on a fascinating album that offers various solo works and concertos by Scriabin, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. The spacious yet fiendishly difficult\u00a0first movement\u00a0of Prokofiev\u2019s Second Piano Concerto is especially exciting.<\/p>\n

Slate<\/a><\/p>\n

Best jazz albums of 2020<\/strong>
\nAaron Diehl<\/a>, The Vagabond
\nAt age 35, Aaron Diehl is the most elegant young pianist on the scene, equally accomplished with Ellington, Gershwin, Philip Glass, jazz standards, and the blues. This trio album spans his waterfront, and it\u2019s all captivating, the more so with each successive hearing.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Theater of 2020<\/strong>
\nRandy Rainbow on YouTube. Keeping theater people sane with his music videos in this annus horribilis, Randy Rainbow led the YouTube comedy resistance with clever show-tune parody numbers that plumbed the depths of Donald Trump\u2019s madness. Favorites include \u201cA Spoonful of Clorox,\u201d Gee, Anthony Fauci!\u201d and \u201cIf Donald Got Fired,\u201d a duet with Patti LuPone<\/a> that helped many of us over the election finishing line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Great Work Begins: Scenes From \u2018Angels in America,\u2019\u201d Broadway.com\u2019s YouTube channel. A streaming benefit to support the Fund to Fight COVID-19 set up by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, this collage of scenes from Tony Kushner\u2019s masterwork invited one plague era to share wisdom with another. Filming themselves at home, Glenn Close, Brian Tyree Henry, Laura Linney, Paul Dano, Andrew Rannells and Patti LuPone<\/a>, among other luminaries, delivered novel spins on indelible characters in an artfully edited production that provided invaluable research and development for a future \u201cAngels,\u201d a play that continues to resonate across national crises.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

From Messiah to Jonas Kaufmann: the best classical Christmas albums of 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

For old carols made new, from plainchant to Away in a Manger<\/em> to a medley written in 2017 by\u00a0Rosephanye Powell, try\u00a0Chanticleer<\/a> Sings Christmas<\/em>\u00a0(Warner Classics), from the a cappella American male voice choir. Its folksy snow-scene cover hides a well-conceived programme, the choir just a dozen-strong but blended, clear, with a west coast zing.<\/p>\n

The New Yorker<\/a><\/p>\n

Notable Performances and Recordings of 2020<\/strong>
\n\u201cLift Every Voice: A Conversation Hosted by J\u2019Nai Bridges,\u201d June 5th
\nIn the wake of nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, the soprano J\u2019Nai Bridges organized an\u00a0online discussion\u00a0with five fellow African-American singers: Julia Bullock, Lawrence Brownlee, Russell Thomas, Karen Slack, and Morris Robinson<\/a>. Their candor rocked the complacent world of American opera, encouraging an outwardly liberal establishment to see how systemic racism cuts through the heart of their institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwilight: Gods\u201d in Detroit, October 17th
\nEarly in the pandemic, opera companies began reaching out to Yuval Sharon, who had long made use of the unconventional settings into which mainstream institutions now found themselves forced. Michigan Opera Theatre agreed to Sharon\u2019s improbable scheme to mount a drive-through production of Wagner\u2019s \u201cG\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung,\u201d in a parking garage. Sharon was subsequently appointed the company\u2019s artistic director\u2014a sign that the reigning unrest might lead to a long-overdue rethinking of complacent assumptions. \u201cTwilight: Gods,\u201d as the Wagner production was called, would have been a triumph in any season; in 2020, it felt borderline miraculous. (Christine Goerke<\/a> & Morris Robinson<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Concertos by Tyshawn Sorey, November 6th and 19th
\nThe composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey unveiled not one but two major works in November, both cast in unconventional concerto form: \u201cFor Marcos Balter,\u201d which the violinist Jennifer Koh<\/a> presented with the Detroit Symphony, and \u201cFor Roscoe Mitchell, \u201d which the cellist Seth Parker Woods played alongside the Seattle Symphony. They were purely abstract creations, yet I couldn\u2019t help hearing them as contrapuntal responses to a dire, vicious year\u2014enigmatic monuments of artistic strength and conviction.<\/p>\n

Chicago Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Classical Recordings<\/strong>
\nJennifer Koh<\/a>: \u201cBach & Beyond, Part 3\u201d\u00a0(Cedille Records).
\nViolinist Koh concludes her epic traversal of solo violin repertoire with music of J.S. Bach, Luciano Berio and John Harbison. The point in this two-CD set, and in the series\u2019 previously released Parts 1 and 2, is to show the enduring vitality of a tradition that dates back to the baroque but can speak urgently via contemporary composers. Koh makes this case through performances bristling with intellectual rigor, tonal depth and technical elan. In all, a monumental achievement.<\/p>\n

BBC Music Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Best classical albums released in 2020<\/strong>
\nDreamtime<\/em>
\nBusoni: Divertimento, Op. 52; Penderecki: Flute Concerto; Reinecke: Flute Concerto in D; Ballade, Op.288; Takemitsu: I Hear the Water Dreaming\u2028; Emmanual Pahud<\/a> (Flute); Munich Radio Orchestra\/ Ivan Repu\u0161i\u0107\u2028 Warner
\n\u2018Emmanuel Pahud consistently delivers high-quality recordings with a twist.\u00a0Dreamtime\u00a0is similarly creative, programming a wide selection of concertos and concertante pieces themed around different experiences of that state.\u2019<\/p>\n

Hindemith: Kammermusik Nos 4-7
\nStephen Waarts (violin), Timothy Ridout (viola), Ziyu Shen (viola), Christian Schmitt (organ); Kronberg Academy Soloists; Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra\/Christoph Eschenbach<\/a>\u2028 Ondine
\n\u2018This vivid work opens with a pungent fanfare, its colours stemming from\u00a0jazz-band\u00a0instrumentation and the absence of orchestral violins. Stephen Waarts plays the solo part with brilliant attack. A long, central \u2018Nachtst\u00fcck\u2019 conveys the uneasiness of the times.\u2019<\/p>\n

Beach \u2022 Elgar<\/em>
\nBeach: Piano Quintet in F sharp minor, Op. 67; Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84\u2028; Garrick Ohlsson<\/a> (piano); Tak\u00e1cs Quartet\u2028 Hyperion
\n\u2018This is a performance every bit as imaginative and expressive as Elgar\u2019s remarkable score, rich in contrast and daring but never overblown and always precise. With excellent recording quality throughout, this is in every respect an outstanding disc.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dejours \u2022 Schubert<\/em>
\nSchubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D667 \u2018The Trout\u2019; Landler \u2013 D366 Nos 12 & 15; D790 Nos 5, 7, 8, 10 & 12; Olivier Dejours: Schubertiade\u2028 Yann Dubost, Christoph Eschenbach<\/a>, Jean-Frederic Neuberger (piano); Thymos Quartet, Yann Dubost (double bass)\u2028 Avie
\n\u2018In this delightful recording, the limelight is shared between Eschenbach\u2019s crystalline piano playing and the creamy string sound, underpinned by the rumbling, bouncing bass. The tempo is elastic, yielding. And there\u2019s no rigid ensemble, either; the mood is convivial, like conversing friends who occasionally interrupt each other. Eschenbach\u2019s solo moments have memorable rhetorical swagger.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rachmaninov<\/em>
\nPreludes; Etudes-Tableaux; Moments Musicaux\u2028; Sergei Babayan<\/a> (piano)\u2028DG 483 9181\u00a0\u00a0 58:26 mins
\n\u2018There\u2019s some extraordinary playing on this beautifully recorded disc. The Armenian-born American pianist Sergei Babayan exhibits a profound empathy for\u00a0Rachmaninov\u2019s music, revelling in its richness of sonority, its contrasting moods of elation and melancholy and its structural fluidity.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gramophone<\/a><\/p>\n

Recordings of the year (Editor\u2019s Choices)<\/strong>
\nIsabelle Faust<\/a> & Alexander Melnikov \u2018Mozart Violin Sonatas, Vol 2\u2019
\nWhile the catalogue boasts several inspired collaborations in this repertoire, forming here is another exquisite series from two key members of Harmonia Mundi\u2019s formidable artist family.<\/p>\n

Garrick Ohlsson<\/a> & Tak\u00e1cs Quartet ‘Beach.Elgar Piano Quintets’
\nDeeply reflective playing of these beautiful and emotionally crafted quintets from the ever-impressive Tak\u00e1cs Quartet, joined by a perfect partner in the pianist Garrick Ohlsson.<\/p>\n

Alisa Weilerstein<\/a> ‘JS Bach Six Solo Cello Suites’
\nAlisa Weilerstein embraces the full emotional and technical range of Bach\u2019s Solo Cello Suites with open-hearted devotion \u2013 richly coloured playing held aloft in a lovely acoustic.<\/p>\n

VOCES8<\/a> ‘After Silence\u2019
\nThis is a very fine album from Voces8 \u2013 hugely varied in scope, though thematically prepared so as to be inspiring, consoling and uplifting in equal measure, and exquisitely sung throughout.<\/p>\n

NPR Music<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Music of 2020 | Staff picks<\/strong><\/p>\n

WQXR<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Classical Albums of 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anna Clyne: Mythologies<\/em>
\nJennifer Koh<\/a>, violin
\nIrene Buckley, vocals
\nBBC Symphony Orchestra
\nMarin Alsop<\/a>, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Litton, and Andr\u00e9 de Ritter, conductors
\nAnna Clyne is one the most creative orchestrators working today. Her knack for drawing spell-binding sonorities from unexpected sources is on full display in this collection of works she wrote between 2005 and 2015, intrepidly premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times Best Classical Music of 2020 A host of livestreamed concerts, the sounds of silence, time-hopping quartets and at-home divas were among the highlights… Jennifer Koh A flood of free streams immediately started, mostly from determined musicians playing from their homes. One ambitious and heartening standout was the violinist\u00a0Jennifer Koh\u2019s \u201cAlone Together\u201d\u00a0project, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6953,5070,3636,3688,4286,6956,4435,3633,5914,5912,4441,6951,3613,3974,3712,4956,6955,6950,4928,4988,4853,3656,4436,6954,3991,6746,6946,3927,4622,3705,6948,3610,6147,6846,6947,3867,3857,4369,5913,6046],"class_list":["post-7868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-6953","tag-aaron-diehl","tag-album","tag-alisa-weilerstein","tag-anthony-roth-costanzo","tag-bass","tag-best-of","tag-cello","tag-chanticleer","tag-choir","tag-christine-goerke","tag-christoph-eschenbach","tag-conductor","tag-contemporary","tag-dance","tag-daniil-trifonov","tag-discussion","tag-emmanual-pahud","tag-flute","tag-garrick-ohlsson","tag-isabelle-faust","tag-jazz","tag-jennifer-koh","tag-lecture","tag-marin-alsop","tag-mezzo-soprano","tag-morris-robinson","tag-new-music","tag-nicholas-phan","tag-opera","tag-patti-lupone","tag-piano","tag-recording","tag-sergei-babayan","tag-stephanie-blythe","tag-string-quartet","tag-tenor","tag-theater","tag-vocal","tag-voces8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=7868"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11449,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868\/revisions\/11449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}