{"id":9761,"date":"2022-01-03T15:22:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T15:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=9761"},"modified":"2023-11-20T11:11:32","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T16:11:32","slug":"best-of-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/best-of-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2021<\/strong>
\nJennifer Koh<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cAlone Together\u201d; Jennifer Koh, violin (Cedille)
\nWhen the pandemic made in-person performances impossible, the superb violinist Jennifer Koh began an inspiring project to commission short solos, which she premiered online from her Manhattan apartment. \u201cAlone Together\u201d offers the results: 39 strikingly diverse pieces, among them Ang\u00e9lica Negr\u00f3n\u2019s playful, inventive \u201cCooper and Emma.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Ten Notable Performances of 2021<\/strong>
\nChristopher Rountree<\/strong><\/a>
\nJulius Eastman\u2019s \u201cFemenine\u201d in Orange County, June 18th
\nEastman\u2019s seventy-five-minute minimalist juggernaut resurfaced in 2016, more than twenty-five years after the composer\u2019s death. Since then, it has become a modern warhorse, with no fewer than four recordings in circulation, on the Frozen Reeds, Another Timbre, Sub Rosa, and New Amsterdam labels. The last album, performed by the L.A.-based ensemble Wild Up and overseen by Seth Parker Woods, Richard Valitutto, and Christopher Rountree, is the most vital of the lot\u2014an ode of and to joy. An\u00a0outdoor performance\u00a0in Orange County turned into a kind of agnostic service, with an orchestra of bells ringing into the night.
\nVideo: \u201cFemenine\u201d<\/p>\n

Notable Recordings of 2021<\/strong>
\nInon Barnatan<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cTime Traveler\u2019s Suite\u201d: works by Bach, Handel, Ravel, Ligeti, Barber, Brahms, Couperin, Rameau, Ad\u00e8s; Inon Barnatan (Pentatone)<\/p>\n

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

The 50 Best Albums of 2021<\/strong>
\nTop 10 Classical Albums of 2021<\/a><\/strong>
\nChristopher Rountree, Wild Up, Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine<\/strong>
\nFor Those Who Like:\u00a0Terry Riley, free jazz, jam bands\u2028The Story:\u00a0Being a Black composer in the 1970s was tough enough. Being boldly gay as well added another layer of complexity to how audiences understood this particular brilliant composer and performer whose fame and success crested and ultimately crashed too soon. Julius Eastman collaborated with\u00a0Pierre Boulez,\u00a0Meredith Monk\u00a0and other key figures in experimental music; his performances won him acclaim, and a Grammy nomination. His compositions, with their provocative titles and quirky instrumentation, earned him a reputation as distinctive and uncompromising. After a stint of homelessness and substance abuse, Eastman died alone in a Buffalo, N.Y. hospital in 1990. He was 49.\u2028The Music:\u00a0Femenine, from 1974, is a 67-minute groove based on a 2-note theme in the marimba that blossoms into a forest of captivating sounds, excursions for solo instruments and ecstatic episodes. This jubilant performance, by the Los Angeles-based ensemble\u00a0Wild Up, marks a sparkling beacon in the current Eastman revival.<\/p>\n

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

Chicago\u2019s Top 10 moments in classical music, opera and jazz that defined 2021<\/strong>
\nChristine Goerke<\/a>, Morris Robinson<\/a><\/strong>
\n\u201cTwilight: Gods,\u201d Lyric Opera, April 28 to May 2, streamed July 29 to Oct. 29:\u00a0Chances are, on a night out, your visit to the parking garage isn\u2019t going to be the evening highlight \u2014 unless you were one of the lucky few to attend this abbreviated reimagining of Richard Wagner\u2019s \u201cG\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung.\u201d For three performances, the Nibelheim that is the Millennium Lakeside Parking Garage briefly, beautifully\u00a0became its own opera hall, with audiences taking it all in from their cars. (Raphael S. Nash\u2019s dreamy film of the project, streamed for three months after the production wrapped, is a stand-alone artwork in itself.) Long before the pandemic, \u201cTwilight: Gods\u201d director Yuval Sharon built a career out of such site-specific, immersive projects, but none to date have felt quite so symbolically laden: Audiences remained in their vehicles, shut their windows tight, and took in the music via live radio broadcast, drive-in style, while Valhalla crumbled around them.<\/p>\n

Francesca Zambello<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cFlorencia en el Amazonas,\u201d Lyric Opera, Nov. 13-28:\u00a0Daniel Cat\u00e1n and Marcela Fuentes-Berain\u2019s opera has been praised for its popular appeal since its Houston premiere in 1996, and it\u2019s easy to see why: You\u2019ve got a meta \u201copera singer as protagonist\u201d storyline, a sumptuous score, and a tidy run time of about two hours. Oh, and magic \u2014 plenty of magic. (Yes, that\u2019s the hunky boatswain who just transformed into a river spirit, then back again; no, we will not be taking further questions at this time.) Strong performances across the board \u2014 including that of soprano Ana Maria Mart\u00ednez, tenderly portraying the eponymous diva \u2014 made for a\u00a0great night out, but what made this redux of director Francesca Zambello\u2019s original 1996 \u201cFlorencia\u201d unmissable was its credo that theater magic is the most potent enchantment of all. When the revolving steamboat set piece, the locus for all the opera\u2019s action, heaves off from shore in the opera\u2019s first few minutes, I was astonished to feel myself, too, buckle in my seat. The thrill of the voyage never abated.<\/p>\n

Chicago Classical Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Top 10 Performances of 2021<\/strong>
\nNicholas Phan<\/strong><\/a>
\n3.\u00a0Collaborative Works Festival: \u201cStrangers in a Strange Land\u201d.<\/strong>
\nThe enterprising Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago explored the migrant experience as reflected in classical vocal music from the English Renaissance through Schubert to Ruth Crawford Seeger and the local premieres of absorbing song cycles by Errolyn Wallen and Nico Muhly.
\nThe performers for the opening recital of CAIC\u2019s 10th anniversary festival in September included tenor and CAIC artistic director Nicholas Phan and mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms. Both were superb. Migrant journeys were explored, painful truths lost to history unearthed and timely resonances created, and Phan and friends have brought us no more thoughtful or absorbing a program.<\/p>\n

Honorable mentions<\/strong>
\nThe closing recital of the Collaborative Works Festival was a stand-out on this year\u2019s calendar. Artistic director and tenor Nicholas Phan<\/strong> joined soprano Helen Zhibing, mezzo Amanda Lynn Bottoms, pianist Shannon McGinnis, and violinist\u00a0Adriane Post for a thoughtful program at Ganz Hall. This roster gave superb advocacy to songs in the folk tradition from Bartok, Britten, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ginastera, and others, capping the festival with intelligence and trademark vocal splendor. (Tim Sawyier)<\/p>\n

Garrick Ohlsson<\/strong><\/a> reopened the Ravinia Festival (which had been shuttered in 2020) with the first of four recitals devoted to solo piano works of Brahms. The veteran American pianist delivered deeply considered renditions of Brahmsiana both familiar and seldom-heard.<\/p>\n

Washington Classical Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Top Ten Performances of 2021<\/strong>
\nJames Conlon<\/strong><\/a>
\n2.\u00a0Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, James Conlon.\u00a0The advent of artistic advisor James Conlon at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra coincided perfectly with the reopening of concert life this fall. The esteemed conductor began a three-year tenure co-helming with music director laureate Marin Alsop, while the BSO conducts a multi-year international search for a new music director. Debuting with two major, neglected works for large orchestra, Conlon inaugurated an exciting new era for Charm City.<\/p>\n

San Diego Union Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n

Classical music: My 5 favorite things from 2021<\/strong>
\nInon Barnatan<\/strong>
\nLa Jolla Music Society\u2019s SummerFest<\/strong>
\nIn 2020, La Jolla Music Society reduced its annual SummerFest to six livestream programs because of the pandemic. But in 2021, the arts organization \u2014 led by CEO Todd Schultz, Artistic Director Leah Rosenthal and SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan \u2014 presented 16 live concerts, with several also live-streamed. Despite artists\u2019 changing schedules, a shorter planning period and the uncertainties of COVID, SummerFest\u2019s lineup was stellar and its programming admirably diverse. The two Takeover @ The JAI concerts were curated by the boundary-blurring, Latin-American Grammy-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank. Only one of the 16 scheduled concerts at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center was cancelled \u2014 due to a featured (and vaccinated) artist\u2019s positive COVID test \u2014 but the rest of SummerFest continued successfully.<\/p>\n

Limelight Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

VOCES8<\/strong><\/a>
\nInternational Artist of the Year, People’s Choice<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2021 Jennifer Koh \u201cAlone Together\u201d; Jennifer Koh, violin (Cedille) When the pandemic made in-person performances impossible, the superb violinist Jennifer Koh began an inspiring project to commission short solos, which she premiered online from her Manhattan apartment. \u201cAlone Together\u201d offers the results: 39 strikingly … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7118,4435,4441,4247,7121,4988,3687,4401,4436,4434,6946,4622,7120,6046,7119],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761"}],"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=9761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12624,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761\/revisions\/12624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/9767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}