Chopin, Frederic

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    Yunchan Lim Plays Chopin With the New York Philharmonic

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    Performing with the New York Philharmonic and Kazuki Yamada, Lim played Chopin’s F minor Concerto with imperturbable calm and eloquence.David Geffen Hall is very nearly sold out for the New York Philharmonic’s performances this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So jump, if you can, at the vanishing chance to hear Yunchan Lim play Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor.In the spirit of the season, let’s give thanks for this 20-year-old pianist from South Korea. On Wednesday at Geffen Hall, Lim played in the spotlight as if he’d been doing it for decades, with such imperturbable calm and eloquence that it was hard to believe that two and a half years ago he was essentially unknown.It was June 2022 when he burst onto the international scene as the youngest ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition with a rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto that became a YouTube sensation. The two blockbuster Rachmaninoff concertos have been early calling cards for Lim, but this year has included a lot of Chopin, including an astonishing traversal of all 24 études at Carnegie Hall and on a new recording.Chopin, with his restrained refinement, is an even more natural fit for Lim than Romantic warhorses like Rachmaninoff. Lim’s playing never feels seething or sweaty; he seems like he has all the time in the world, without ever giving a sense of showboating or indulgence.In the first movement of the concerto on Wednesday, he was dreamily flexible in his phrasing without ever losing the music’s pulse. The slow central Larghetto was achingly poised, its 10 minutes framed by two perfect notes, both A flats: the first deep and softly buttery, the last a pinprick of starlight.This movement is an opera aria without voices and, like a great bel canto singer, Lim understands that coloratura ornaments mustn’t distract from, but actually emphasize, the long, sustained central line of the music. In the finale, he exuded graciousness, attentive to details of touch, as in a passage whose texture moved swiftly from silvery to steely without ever losing smoothness.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      聆听近200年后首度现世的肖邦圆舞曲

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      晚春的一天，在曼哈顿摩根图书馆和博物馆的地下室深处，馆长罗宾逊·麦克莱伦正在整理一批文化纪念品。其中有毕加索签名的明信片，一位法国女演员的老照片，还有勃拉姆斯和柴可夫斯基的信件。当麦克莱伦看到第147号物品时，他惊呆了：The Morgan Library & Museum那是一张有破洞、索引卡大小的乐谱残篇…………上面有小小的谱号和一个显眼的名字。这首曲子被标为“圆舞曲”。有一个草写的名字：肖邦。“我心想，‘这是怎么回事？这是什么呢？’”麦克莱伦说。“我认不出这是哪段音乐。”本身也是作曲家的麦克莱伦拍下了手稿的照片，并在家里用一台数码钢琴弹奏了它。真的是肖邦吗？他有些疑虑：这部作品异常激烈，以安静、不和谐的音符开场，然后爆发出轰轰烈烈的和弦。他把照片发给了宾夕法尼亚大学肖邦研究权威杰弗里·卡尔伯格。“我惊呆了，”卡尔伯格说。“我知道我以前从未见过这个。”在检测了手稿的纸张和墨水，分析了笔迹和音乐风格，并咨询了外部专家后，摩根博物馆得出了一个重要结论：该作品很可能是浪漫主义时代伟大的幻想家弗雷德里克·肖邦创作的一首不为人知的圆舞曲，这是半个多世纪以来首次有这样的发现。郎朗在曼哈顿施坦威音乐厅演奏肖邦圆舞曲全曲。Video by Mohamed Sadek for The New York Times这一发现可能会在古典音乐界引发争论，因为这个领域有时会对新发现杰作的报道持怀疑态度，而且历史上一直存在赝品和伪造手稿的情况。但近年来也有重大发现：德国莱比锡的一家图书馆于9月宣布，该馆发现了一份时长12分钟的莫扎特弦乐三重奏的副本。肖邦于1849年去世，时年39岁，死因可能是肺结核，新近发现的肖邦作品十分稀有。虽然他是音乐界最受喜爱的人物之一——他的心脏被浸泡在一罐酒精中，保存在华沙的一座教堂里——但他不如其他作曲家高产，他创作了大约250首作品，几乎全部是钢琴独奏曲。摩根博物馆的手稿据说是在1830年至1835年之间完成的，当时肖邦20岁出头。这份手稿有着几个奇特之处。尽管人们认为作品已是完稿，但它比肖邦的其他圆舞曲短——只有48小节以及一个反复段落，大约80秒。这首曲子为A小调，有着不同寻常的力度标记，包括开始不久的一处表示最大音量的极强音。但摩根博物馆表示确信这首圆舞曲手稿是真迹，并指出了肖邦的几个特点。The Morgan Library & Museum博物馆表示，该手稿纸张和墨水与肖邦当时使用的一致。手稿笔迹与肖邦的笔迹相符…………甚至包括不寻常的低音谱号画法。摩根博物馆收藏的另一份肖邦手稿也有类似的低音谱号。那份手稿上还点缀着肖邦的涂鸦，肖邦喜欢画画。“我们对我们的结论充满信心，”麦克莱伦说。“现在是时候将它公之于众，让全世界看看，并形成他们自己的看法了。”明星钢琴家郎朗最近在曼哈顿的施坦威音乐厅为《纽约时报》录制了这首圆舞曲。他说，这首作品让他感觉像是肖邦的作品。他说，刺耳的开头让人想起了波兰乡村严酷的冬天。“这不是肖邦最复杂的音乐，”他补充道，“但它是你能想象到的最地道的肖邦风格之一。”在肖邦去世后绘制的一幅肖像。 General Photographic Agency/Getty Images肖邦1810年出生于华沙郊外的一个村庄，父亲是法国人，母亲是波兰人。1830年，20岁的肖邦离开了波兰。他定居在巴黎，很快成为一名琴键上的诗人，他的音乐将人们带到全新的情感世界。与家人的分离以及对波兰未来的担忧可能是肖邦在这个时期的音乐作品带有苦痛色彩的原因之一。19世纪30年代初，波兰爆发了叛乱，武装反抗占领波兰部分领土的俄罗斯帝国。肖邦再也没有回到过祖国。“父亲绝望了——他不知道该如何是好，也没有人帮助让母亲振奋起来，”他在1831年游历德国时在日记中写道。“而我却无所事事地站在这里——我两手空空地站在这里。我只能无病呻吟，不时地对着钢琴发泄我的痛苦。”有一次，巴黎的一位贵族请肖邦解释他音乐中的忧郁，肖邦引用了波兰语单词“zal”，意为怀旧或遗憾。著名的肖邦传记作者艾伦·沃克表示，在圆舞曲等短曲中，可以明显感受到“zal”的韵味，肖邦在其中注入了一种此前只用于更宏伟的作品的情感深度。圆舞曲曾是欢快的舞厅主打曲风。但肖邦的圆舞曲从来都不是用来跳舞的。肖邦没有创作过交响曲、歌剧或清唱剧，人们并不总是将他视为一位严肃的作曲家。“我们的先祖从未想到，肖邦的一首短小的圆舞曲或玛祖卡舞曲，内涵会比博凯里尼的整部交响曲还要丰富，”沃克说。虽然专家认为肖邦创作了多达28首圆舞曲，但只有八首在他生前出版，九首在他死后出版。其余的都已轶失或损毁。他的一些圆舞曲振奋而精致，比如这首《华丽大圆舞曲》。还有一些则是嬉戏玩闹的曲目，比如《“小狗”圆舞曲》。此曲在流行文化中经久不衰，兔八哥和芭芭拉·史翠珊都曾演绎过。还有一些是忧郁的冥想，如《B小调圆舞曲》。那个时代的许多钢琴家喜欢在众多观众面前展示令人眼花缭乱的技艺。但肖邦讨厌他所谓的“空中飞人学校”式的钢琴演奏。他更喜欢沙龙的亲密氛围，在皇室、银行家、艺术家和音乐家面前表演他的作品——作曲家弗朗茨·李斯特称这些聚会为“肖邦教堂”。在这些场合，他的乐迷有时会索要圆舞曲等小作品作为礼物。肖邦同意了，偶尔会将同一首圆舞曲送给几个人。他至少有五次将《F小调圆舞曲》的手稿送给别人，全部是女士。“请您自己留着，”他在给一位受赠者的信中写道。“我不希望它被公开。”这首摩根博物馆的圆舞曲可能就是在这种情况下写成的。它被写在一张约4×5英寸的小纸片上，是一种常用于礼品的纸张。乐谱上有指法和力度记号，这表明肖邦认为这首曲子将来可能会用于演奏。但这位严谨的作曲家——在一页乐谱上花数周时间对肖邦是常有的事——似乎对这首圆舞曲有所犹豫。他没有像通常那样在乐谱上签名。根据笔迹分析，手稿顶端的“肖邦”是别人加上去的。此外，乐谱中还有几处未更正的节奏和记谱错误。艾莉莎·拉吉威尔画的肖邦，他讨厌所谓的“空中飞人学校”式钢琴演奏，更喜欢沙龙的亲密氛围。Universal History Archive, via Getty Images不管肖邦有何意图，这首圆舞曲从未公开过，也一直不为世人所知，可能一直在收藏家手中。纽约室内设计学院院长小A·谢里尔·惠顿一度获得了这份手稿。1972年去世的惠顿是一位狂热的签名收集者。他的子女说，他的大部分收藏都是从麦迪逊大道著名的沃尔特·R·本杰明签名店获得的。惠顿是一位业余钢琴家和作曲家，曾师从名师罗杰·塞申斯和纳迪娅·布朗热，对古典音乐情有独钟。二战期间，他作为海军中尉在南太平洋服役，只带了一本书：贝多芬晚期弦乐四重奏的微型乐谱。他写了三部歌剧，在去世当天完成了最后一部。小A·谢里尔·惠顿，摄于1958年。惠顿是一位业余钢琴家和作曲家，热衷于收集签名，肖邦手稿一度为他所有，后来连同他的其它一些资料被送到了摩根博物馆。via Paul Whiton“他总是弹奏肖邦，”他的儿子保罗·惠顿说。“这是他逃避现实的方式。”惠顿回忆说，他见过在康涅狄格州威尔顿祖宅陈列的这首圆舞曲，但家人并没有意识到它的重要性。惠顿的藏品于2019年作为阿瑟·萨茨的遗赠来到摩根博物馆，萨茨是惠顿的好友，从后者的妻子珍手中买下了这些收藏。五年来，这些藏品一直没有编目，部分原因是新冠大流行。藏品附带的说明没有提供太多关于这首圆舞曲的线索，只写着：肖邦，弗雷德里克音乐手稿。四行两谱表不明钢琴曲，看起来出自肖邦之手，但未署名。摩根博物馆的专家团队在红外线和紫外线下检查了手稿，以明确是否有损坏和涂改。他们确定这首曲子是用铁胆墨水在19世纪的机织纸上写成的。音乐风格与肖邦在19世纪30年代早期的作品一致。乐谱上的记号符合肖邦著名的细小笔迹特征，乐谱上方的“Valse”字样也是这样。研究人员考虑了其他可能性。肖邦是否抄写了别人的圆舞曲？会不会是学生的作品？这两种可能性似乎都不大。圆舞曲多变的开场仍然是一个谜。帮助鉴定乐谱的卡尔伯格说，这首圆舞曲的调——A小调——或许能提供线索。肖邦一些最汹涌澎湃的音乐都是用这个调式创作的，包括所谓的《冬风练习曲》、《第二前奏曲》，以及《第二叙事曲》的一些片段。“这个调，”卡尔伯格说，“让他写出了不同寻常的作品”。肖邦在1831年写了另一首狂暴且有不协和音的圆舞曲：《E小调圆舞曲》，同样是以爆发开场。摩根博物馆的这首圆舞曲的特殊性很可能会引发对其起源的争论。剑桥大学音乐教授约翰·林克说：“其中有很多极其不寻常的元素，你不得不问，这真的是肖邦的音乐吗？”他审阅了手稿的照片，但没有参与摩根博物馆的研究。尽管如此，林克还是认为很难质疑对笔迹、纸张和墨水的分析，称其为“关键的、决定性的因素”。他说，这份手稿可能反映了“肖邦充分发挥的想象力，一种在任何想法都还没有被琢磨透之前的创造性爆发”。肖邦会如何看待这首圆舞曲的公开？他经常用愤怒的涂写和墨水斑点来遮住自己的失误，他还告诉朋友们，他希望未发表的作品都在自己死后被销毁。不过，著名钢琴家和作曲家斯蒂芬·霍夫说，肖邦可能会为自己的音乐仍然受到人们的喜爱而感到高兴。他说，这首圆舞曲“可能没那么重要，但它有一种魅力和珍贵”。“只要肖邦知道他的影响是巨大的，他的作品被很好地收集、研究和记录了下来，”霍夫还说：“我无法想象他会不高兴。”音频：《降E大调华丽大圆舞曲》，作品第18号；《降D大调“小狗”圆舞曲》，作品第64号之1；《降B小调圆舞曲》，作品第69号之2，由阿图尔·鲁宾斯坦演奏（索尼古典）。《E小调圆舞曲》，作品号KK IVa之15，由爱丽丝·纱良·奥特演奏（德意志留声机）。由穆罕默德·萨迪克为《纽约时报》拍摄视频，在纽约施坦威音乐厅录制。由约瑟芬·塞奇威克、乔莉·鲁本和瑞秋·萨尔茨制作。翻译：Ziyu Qing、Annie Xu、晋其角赫海威(Javier C. Hernández)是《纽约时报》文化记者，报道纽约及其他地方的古典音乐和舞蹈。他于2008年加入时报，此前曾任驻北京和纽约记者。点击查看更多关于他的信息。

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      Hear a Chopin Waltz Unearthed After Nearly 200 Years

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      Deep in the vault of the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan on a late-spring day, the curator Robinson McClellan was sorting through a collection of cultural memorabilia. There were postcards signed by Picasso, a vintage photograph of a French actress and letters from Brahms and Tchaikovsky.When McClellan came across Item No. 147, he froze:The Morgan Library & MuseumIt was a pockmarked musical scrap the size of an index card…… with tiny notation and a conspicuous name.The piece was marked “Valse,” or waltz.And a name was written in cursive across the top: Chopin.“I thought, ‘What’s going on here? What could this be?’” McClellan said. “I didn’t recognize the music.”McClellan, who is also a composer, snapped a photo of the manuscript and played it at home on a digital piano. Could it really be Chopin? He had his doubts: The work was unusually volcanic, opening with quiet, dissonant notes that erupt into crashing chords. He sent a photograph to Jeffrey Kallberg, a leading Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.“My jaw dropped,” Kallberg said. “I knew I had never seen this before.”After testing the manuscript’s paper and ink, analyzing its handwriting and musical style, and consulting outside experts, the Morgan has come to a momentous conclusion: The work is likely an unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin, the great fantasist of the Romantic era, the first such discovery in more than half a century.Hear the full Chopin waltz, performed by Lang Lang at Steinway Hall in Manhattan.Mohamed Sadek for The New York Times More

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      Byron Janis, Pianist of Romantic Passion, Dies at 95

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      He had a brilliant career before arthritis in his hands forced him from the stage, but he overcame the condition and returned to performing.Byron Janis, an American pianist renowned for his commanding performances of the Romantic repertory and for his discovery of manuscript copies of two Chopin waltzes, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 95. His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his wife, Maria Cooper Janis. He remained active, writing about his career and managing recordings of his music, until recent days, she said. On the concert stage, Mr. Janis could seem like a tightly wound spring, full of tension that, when combined with the sheer physical energy he brought to his performances, yielded interpretations that could be overpowering and seductive, by turns. At the height of his career, in the 1950s and 1960s, he was known for the tremendous sound and colorful sonorities he drew from the piano, and for a freewheeling interpretive approach that sometimes led him to bypass composers’ expressive markings when they were at odds with his conception.“Mr. Janis has a quirky physical style compounded of nervous hovering, sudden jabs, bounces, brittle taps and tentative caresses,” the critic Will Crutchfield wrote in The New York Times, reviewing a recital at the 92nd Street Y in 1985. “The music emerges a little like that too; occasionally it’s disconcerting, but at least he has a style, and more often it is engaging.”What audiences did not know was that by the early 1970s, Mr. Janis was experiencing pain and stiffness during his performances, the result of psoriatic arthritis in both hands and wrists. After he was diagnosed, in 1973, he maintained his concert schedule, and his five-hour daily practice regimen.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Review: Yunchan Lim Plays Chopin at Carnegie Hall

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      For his Carnegie debut, the fast-rising Yunchan Lim gave a confident and dazzling performance of Chopin’s 27 fiendishly difficult études.It was that rare occasion on Wednesday: There was an encore at Carnegie Hall.I mean a literal, French-for-“again” encore, when a musician, brought back at the end of a concert by applause and more applause, gives another rendition of a piece he has already played.Bowing modestly after making his Carnegie debut with a confident, supple, eventually dazzling performance of Chopin’s 27 études, the teenage pianist Yunchan Lim had given three eloquent encores of other Chopin works. But the ovation continued. So he returned to the stage and started the gentle undulations of the A-flat major étude he had played some 40 minutes earlier — now with even more flowing naturalness.Lim was courting comparison with himself after a concert spent courting comparison with the canon. Chopin’s complete études are only an hour of music, but that hour is one of the most difficult and storied in the piano repertoire, a daunting yet irresistible gantlet for musicians who model themselves after the old school.Even precociously old school. At 19, the same age as Chopin when the earliest of these pieces was written, Lim has already shown boldness in taking on standards. When, in June 2022, he became the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition’s youngest winner, his victory was secured with a wholly unafraid version of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto. The Cliburn and Steinway have since released a live recording of his electrifying semifinal round, playing Liszt’s “Transcendental Études.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jan Lisiecki, Piano’s Doogie Howser, Comes of Age With Chopin

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      For this rising artist, Chopin’s 21 nocturnes are “pieces I play for myself.” A new recording will bring them to an audience.The Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki started out as something of the Doogie Howser of classical music. He was signed by the august record label Deutsche Grammophon when he was just 15, and at 18 was named an unusually young Young Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine.But Lisiecki’s technique was mature even then, and he won respect from critics and fellow musicians for his clarity and precision.“I appreciate a clean sound,” Lisiecki (pronounced lee-SHETS-kee), now 26 and still living with his Polish-born parents in Calgary, said in a recent interview. “Not too bombastic, not too virtuosic, not too audacious.”Lisiecki is poised and fairly inscrutable during concerts, his eyes often closed. In an interview, Annik LaFarge, the author of “Chasing Chopin,” said she regards his “unhistrionic” style as “extremely Chopinesque.”Chopin, as it happens, is a focus of his young discography. On Friday, Lisiecki released his new recording of that composer’s complete nocturnes, which he set down last October in Berlin for Deutsche Grammophon.Lisiecki (shown here performing last year) is poised and fairly inscrutable during concerts, his eyes often closed.Sven Lorenz/Klavier-Festival RuhrChopin’s 21 nocturnes, written over the course of nearly his whole composing life, are single-movement pieces of generally less than six minutes. Their allusion to the night refers not to gloom but to evening intimacies, the pianist and scholar Kenneth Hamilton said in an interview.Suggestive of music played for close friends, or even for a lover, the nocturnes get an even more intimate, meditative reinvention from Lisiecki, who said he regards them as pieces ideally to be played alone. His starkly slow tempos — with the works running, in some cases, a minute or longer than usual — give these nocturnes a Satie-like inwardness.Lisiecki spoke about the recording and his approach to music on a video call from his home in Calgary. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.How did you prepare for this new album of the nocturnes?I had dreamed of recording them for quite a while, but I knew that to do it well I would have to play them in concert first, to get the right emotion. They’re not technically difficult — you can approach them from an early age — but it is very difficult to make them sound good. I have been scheduling many of them in my recitals to get that experience of communicating them. The nocturnes make me feel like I’m at home at night and I have an emotion I want to express; they’re pieces I play for myself. To play them in front of people — to break that private bubble — has been the challenge.In recordings, the complete nocturnes are usually presented in chronological order. Why did you stick with that precedent?I’m very traditional. I’m the type of person who likes sending out postcards written in fountain pen, who uses a landline phone with a rotary dial. I am also traditional in how I listen to and present music. After I recorded the nocturnes, I did think about the order. They were not written to be played together — they are very individual pieces — but the slight adjustments I could have made to improve the flow of the recording were not worth compromising the tradition.Why did you choose to record in the Meistersaal, an early-20th-century Berlin concert hall?We chose it because it was very practical during Covid. We could have it to ourselves; there was nobody in the office; there were no distractions. And it isn’t too cavernous, so I didn’t have the feeling I was playing for an empty hall. Also, there is natural light, which I really appreciate. And we could easily adjust the electric lights if I wanted a different ambience. In the end, it was just a very inspirational space.Even when he was first gaining notice, as a teenager, Lisiecki was respected by critics and fellow musicians for the clarity and precision of his playing.Amber Bracken for The New York TimesWhat kind of piano did you use?I didn’t get to select my piano, but I was lucky enough to be able to choose Daniel Brech, who lives in western Germany, as my piano technician. I have worked with him several times, and he and I have the same vision for how a piano should sound. We bonded when we first met in 2013, when I replaced Martha Argerich in an Orchestra Mozart concert with the late Claudio Abbado. For a solo piano recording, it’s very important what instrument you’re playing on — if it is not correct, there is very little you can do. He brought his own piano, a Steinway D, and I trusted him.Why do you play the nocturnes faster in concert than on your new recording?To keep an audience invested in a performance, that sort of slow tempo would be nearly impossible in a concert hall, where there are external factors, like hums or slight noises. Any small disturbance will break the spell, but in the studio I could keep that spell for much longer.Chopin’s early nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2, is one the best known pieces of classical music, regularly used in film soundtracks. How did you approach it?I pay careful attention to the left hand. The right hand — the melodic line — is what draws most of us to Chopin. But what makes that melody work or shine is the waltz-like left hand, which often suffers. If you forget about the structure, then you lose the logic of the piece, and then you lose the beauty.Why do you like to close your eyes when you’re playing in concert?After so many hours spent on the piano, I pretty much know where all the keys are. When you shut down one of your senses, you heighten the others. Generally there are no smells onstage, so I heighten my hearing and completely immerse myself in the music. In a concerto with an orchestra, I have to communicate visually, not only with the conductor, but also individually with the musicians. I know when I have to look, and I am very respectful — except for a few rare cases where I have not enjoyed working with a conductor and I played with my eyes closed the whole time.Some of your fellow young pianists have used their fame to speak out on political issues. You seem to avoid that.I am a pianist, and I have a lot of knowledge about the piano. I am interested in other matters, but that is not my profession. There are things that collide with my own personal views, but it doesn’t go as far as saying I won’t play with a certain conductor or won’t play in a certain country. Or I might make those choices, but on a quiet level, without making a statement about it.We are divided on every point these days, and all sorts of matters are very politicized. Vaccine, no vaccine; political left, political right; refugees, no refugees. A concert should welcome everybody and be a unifying force. We’re playing music, which doesn’t have a political standpoint. Of course, certain composers did, but the music itself does not. It’s apolitical — it’s just music, and it’s beautiful, and I hope it can remain that way.You and the gymnast Simone Biles are roughly the same age, and you have both been in the public eye since your early teens. Did her recent struggles at the Tokyo Olympics strike a chord with you?I did identify with her, especially with her so-called “twisties.” Playing the piano onstage is not nearly as high-risk; I can’t injure myself. But there certainly are days when I’ve done everything I can — when I have slept decently, and am completely prepared — and then I go out onstage, and I feel like there is a blank page in front of me, like I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t put it down to being nervous. It’s just one of those days when I’m not in my element — I’m just not. As a musician, I can get past it. I have practiced enough, and I can rely on my instincts. But I can understand where she is coming from. More

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      The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020Listen to our critics’ favorites from a year in which much of the energy in music came from recordings.Credit…The New York TimesAnthony Tommasini, Zachary Woolfe, Joshua Barone, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, David Allen and Dec. 17, 2020Thomas Adès: Berceuse from ‘The Exterminating Angel’“In Seven Days”; Kirill Gerstein, piano (Myrios)The composer Thomas Adès and the pianist Kirill Gerstein’s artistically fruitful friendship has given us two essential albums this year: the premiere recording of Mr. Adès’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, featuring Mr. Gerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon); and this one, which includes a solo arrangement of the harrowing and slippery Berceuse from Mr. Adès’s opera “The Exterminating Angel.” JOSHUA BARONEBerceuse from “The Exterminating Angel”Myrios◆ ◆ ◆Bach: Cello Suite No. 4, GigueBach: Complete Cello Suites (Transcribed for Violin); Johnny Gandelsman, violin (In a Circle)From the beginning of this movement, ornamented with the insouciance of folk music, it’s difficult to resist tapping along with your foot. That urge doesn’t really leave throughout the rest of the six cello suites, lithely rendered here on solo violin by Johnny Gandelsman. This is Bach in zero gravity: feather-light and freely dancing. JOSHUA BARONESuite No. 4, GigueIn a Circle◆ ◆ ◆Beethoven: Symphony No. 2, Allegro moltoBeethoven: Symphonies and Overtures; Vienna State Opera Orchestra and others; Hermann Scherchen, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon)The few new Beethoven symphonies released in this, his 250th birthday year, have largely offered more evidence for the drab state of interpretive tastes today. Not so the rereleases — above all this remastered and exceptionally bracing cycle that was eons ahead of its time when it first came out in the 1950s. Scherchen’s Beethoven — like this Second Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — is fast, sleek and astonishing detailed, as exciting as anything set down since. DAVID ALLENSymphony No. 2, Allegro moltoDeutsche Grammophon◆ ◆ ◆Nadia Boulanger: ‘Soir d’hiver’“Clairières: Songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger”; Nicholas Phan, 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 this lovely recording, the tenor Nicholas Phan performs elegant songs by both sisters, ending with Nadia’s misty, rapturous “Soir d’hiver,” a 1915 setting of her poem about a young mother abandoned by her lover. ANTHONY TOMMASINI“Soir d’hiver”Avie◆ ◆ ◆Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, RomanceChopin: Piano Concertos; Benjamin Grosvenor, piano; Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Elim Chan, conductor (Decca)There’s pianism of historic caliber on this release, and another mark of Mr. Grosvenor’s breathtaking maturity, even though he is still in his 20s. Summoning playing of pure poetry, he lavishes on these concertos all his lauded sensitivity, innate sense of pace and effortless way with phrasing. He’s matched bar for bar by Ms. Chan, an impressive young conductor who makes an occasion of orchestral writing that in other hands sounds routine. DAVID ALLENPiano Concerto No. 1, RomanceDecca◆ ◆ ◆Duke Ellington: ‘Light’“Black, Brown and Beige”; Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Blue Engine)If Ellington’s 1943 Carnegie Hall performance of his “Black, Brown and Beige” remains matchless, its radio broadcast sound has dated, making the crispness of this faithful recent rendition worth savoring. Sterling interpretation and production values permit a fresh look at “Light,” including the elegant way Ellington weaves together motifs heard earlier in “Black,” just before a rousing finish. SETH COLTER WALLS“Light”Blue Engine◆ ◆ ◆Eriks Esenvalds: ‘Earth Teach Me Quiet’“Rising w/ the Crossing”; the Crossing (New Focus)Earlier this year, when singing together became just about the most dangerous thing you could do, Donald Nally, the magus behind the Crossing, our finest contemporary-music choir, began posting daily recordings from their archives. He called it “Rising w/ the Crossing,” also the title of an album of a dozen highlights. There’s David Lang’s eerily prescient reflection on the 1918 flu pandemic, performed last year, and Alex Berko’s stirring “Lincoln.” But I keep returning to Eriks Esenvalds’s dreamily unfolding appeal to the Earth, its text a prayer of the Ute people of the American Southwest: a work of true radiance, fired by the precision and passion of this spectacular group. ZACHARY WOOLFE“Earth Teach Me Quiet”New Focus◆ ◆ ◆Antoine Forqueray: ‘Jupiter’“Barricades”; Thomas Dunford, lute; Jean Rondeau, harpsichord (Erato)This is Baroque music as hard-rock jam: driving, intense, dizzying, two musicians facing off in a brash battle that raises both their levels. It is the raucous climax of an album that creates a new little repertory for lute and harpsichord duo, with arrangements of favorites and relative obscurities that highlight Thomas Dunford and Jean Rondeau’s sly, exuberant artistic chemistry. ZACHARY WOOLFE“Jupiter”Warner Classics◆ ◆ ◆Ash Fure: ‘Shiver Lung’“Something to Hunt”; International Contemporary Ensemble; Lucy Dhegrae and Alice Teyssier, vocalists (Sound American)I try not to be fussy with audio quality. But if anything calls for an exception, it’s this long-awaited collection of music by Ash Fure — works that experiment with how sounds are made and felt. So before hitting play, gather your focus, along with your best headphones or speakers, for an intensely visceral listening experience. JOSHUA BARONE“Shiver Lung”Sound American◆ ◆ ◆Handel: ‘Pensieri, voi mi tormentate’“Agrippina”; Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano; Il Pomo d’Oro; Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor (Erato)A shot of venom, boring its way into the brain: There are some arias that aim to soothe anxiety, but for pure cathartic transference of all the anger, fear and impotence that 2020 has sparked, this aria — “Thoughts, you torment me” — by the title character of Handel’s “Agrippina” is the ticket. The fiercely dramatic Joyce DiDonato brings her multihued mezzo and over-the-top embellishments to the music, while the period-instrument orchestra pushes things along with raw-edged insistence. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM“Pensieri, voi mi tormentate”Erato◆ ◆ ◆Handel: Harpsichord Suite No. 4, AllemandeHandel: Suites for Harpsichord; Pierre Hantaï, harpsichord (Mirare)Handel’s eight suites for harpsichord, published in 1720, haven’t always gotten as much attention or respect among performers as the keyboard works of Couperin, Rameau or, especially, Bach. Sometimes they’ve been viewed more or less as training exercises: good for technique but not quite sublime. Pierre Hantaï, known for his vivid Scarlatti, dispels the slightly derogatory preconceptions with suave danciness and lucid touch. ZACHARY WOOLFEHarpsichord Suite No. 4, AllemandeMirare◆ ◆ ◆David Hertzberg: ‘Is that you, my love?’“The Wake World”; Maeve Hoglund, soprano; Samantha Hankey, mezzo-soprano; Elizabeth Braden, conductor (Tzadik)With his playfully convoluted 2017 fairy tale opera “The Wake World,” David Hertzberg demonstrated that voluptuous, sweeping elements of grand opera could be reimagined for today. In the work’s swelling, shimmering climactic duet between a young seeker and her fairy prince, Ravel meets Messiaen, and Wagner meets Scriabin; the music is spiky, original and wondrous strange. ANTHONY TOMMASINI“Is that you, my love?”Tzadik◆ ◆ ◆Nathalie Joachim: ‘Dam mwen yo’“Forward Music Project 1.0”; Amanda Gookin, cello (Bright Shiny Things)Even when brief and minimalist, Nathalie Joachim’s compositions cross complex ranges of emotion. Here, in a piece for cello (and vocals recorded by its composer), the somber cast of mood at the opening is complicated by a change in gait. The effect is akin to what you might feel inventing a new dance on the spot, while trudging through otherwise grim surroundings. SETH COLTER WALLS“Dam mwen yo”Bright Shiny Things◆ ◆ ◆George Lewis: ‘As We May Feel’“Breaking News”; Studio Dan (Hat Hut)Boisterous riffs and counter-riffs seem to suggest improvisatory practices; after all, this veteran artist has explored those practices. Yet George Lewis’s 25-minute joy ride is fully notated. And it was written for an Austrian ensemble which appreciates the chug and wail of Duke Ellington’s train-imitation music, as well as the rigors of extended-technique modernism. SETH COLTER WALLS“As We May Feel”Hat Hut◆ ◆ ◆Meredith Monk: ‘Downfall’“Memory Game”; Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble; Bang on a Can All-Stars (Cantaloupe Music)For almost 60 years, the composer and performer Meredith Monk has created works mainly for herself and her close circle, so it’s been an open question what will happen to those intricate, idiosyncratic pieces when she’s gone. This album of sympathetic but not slavish new arrangements — collaborations with the Bang on a Can collective — offers tantalizing experiments. The clarinetist Ken Thomson gives the hawing vocals of “Downfall,” part of Ms. Monk’s post-apocalyptic 1983 evening “The Games,” seductively sinister instrumental surroundings. ZACHARY WOOLFE“Downfall”Cantaloupe Music◆ ◆ ◆Tristan Perich: ‘Drift Multiply,’ Section 6“Drift Multiply” (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch)Music emerges out of snowdrifts of white noise on this mesmerizing track. Tristan Perich is one of the most innovative tinkerers in electronic music, creating works of vibrant mystery. In “Drift Multiply,” 50 violins interact with 50 loudspeakers connected to as many custom-built circuit boards that channel the sound into one-bit audio. The result is a constantly evolving landscape where sounds coalesce and prism, where the violins both pull into focus and blur into a soothing ether. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM“Drift Multiply,” Section 6New Amsterdam◆ ◆ ◆Joseph C. Phillips Jr.: ‘Ferguson: Summer of 2014’“The Grey Land”; Numinous (New Amsterdam)Joseph C. Phillips Jr.’s “The Grey Land” is a stirring, stylistically varied mono-opera that draws on its composer’s reflections on being Black in contemporary America. The longest movement on the premiere recording makes an early textual reference to Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” while dramatizing an expectant couple’s unease in the wake of the death of Michael Brown. SETH COLTER WALLS“Ferguson: Summer of 2014”New Amsterdam◆ ◆ ◆Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2, Andantino“Silver Age”; Daniil Trifonov, piano; Mariinsky Orchestra; Valery Gergiev, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon)The thoughtful pianist Daniil Trifonov explores the music of Russia’s so-called “silver age” of 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 first movement of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto is especially exciting. ANTHONY TOMMASINIPiano Concerto No. 2, AndantinoDeutsche Grammophon◆ ◆ ◆Rameau: ‘The Arts and the Hours’“Debussy Rameau”; Vikingur Olafsson, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)Few musicians craft their albums with as much care as Vikingur Olafsson, whose “Debussy Rameau” is a brilliantly conceived, nearly 30-track conversation across centuries between two French masters. There is one modern intervention: Mr. Olafsson’s solo arrangement of an interlude from Rameau’s “Les Boréades” — tender and reverential, a wellspring of grace. JOSHUA BARONE“The Arts and the Hours”Deutsche Grammophon◆ ◆ ◆Jean-Féry Rebel: ‘Le Chaos’“Labyrinth”; David Greilsammer, piano (Naïve)In his riveting, aptly titled album “Labyrinth,” the formidable pianist David Greilsammer daringly juxtaposes pieces spanning centuries, from Lully to Ofer Pelz. The theme of the album is captured in Jonathan Keren’s arrangement of Rebel’s “Le Chaos,” which comes across like an early-18th-century venture into mind-spinning modernism. ANTHONY TOMMASINI“Le Chaos”Naïve◆ ◆ ◆Rebecca Saunders: ‘Still’“Musica Viva, Vol. 35”; Carolin Widmann, violin; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ilan Volkov, conductor (BR-Klassik)A renowned figure on Europe’s experimental music scene, Rebecca Saunders builds teeming systems of shimmying severity from the sparest melodic materials. In this live recording of her violin concerto, Carolin Widmann excels in fulfilling the score’s contrasting requirements of delicacy and power. Helping judge the balance is the conductor Ilan Volkov, an artist American orchestras might consider working with. SETH COLTER WALLS“Still”BR-Klassik◆ ◆ ◆Schubert: ‘Des Fischers Liebesglück’“Where Only Stars Can Hear Us: Schubert Songs”; Karim Sulayman, tenor; Yi-heng Yang, fortepiano (Avie)Intimate, sweet-toned and more easily given to dry humor than its powerful keyboard successors, the fortepiano should be a natural choice for Schubert lieder. Yet recordings such as this exquisitely personal recital — with the clear-voiced tenor Karim Sulayman and the sensitive pianist Yi-heng Yang — are still rare. Listen to them weave a storyteller’s spell in this song about a nighttime tryst in a fishing boat, and marvel at the emotional arc they weave with the simplest of gestures. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM“Des Fischers Liebesglück”Avie◆ ◆ ◆Ethel Smyth: ‘The Prisoner Awakes’“The Prison”; Experiential Orchestra and Chorus; James Blachly, conductor (Chandos)Ethel Smyth, suffragist and composer, is among several female composers receiving fresh, deserved attention as the classical music industry tackles its diversity problem. If they all receive recordings as perfect as this account of her last major work, we will all benefit. Half symphony, half oratorio, “The Prison” includes this striking chorale prelude, with dark and light in the same bars, at its heart. DAVID ALLEN“The Prisoner Awakes”Chandos◆ ◆ ◆Anna Thorvaldsdottir: ‘Mikros’“Epicycle II”; Gyda Valtysdottir (Sono Luminus)A subterranean hall of mirrors lures in the listener in this deeply affecting three-minute track. Gyda Valtysdottir’s cello takes on the guise of a modern-day Orpheus and the spectral sounds of the underworld as she layers her performance on top of two prerecorded tracks. As this protagonist cello line sighs, heaves and slackens, the taped parts add fragmented scratch tones, whispers and tremors, evoking terrain both alluring and treacherous. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM“Mikros”Sono Luminus◆ ◆ ◆Joseph Wölfl: Piano Sonata in E, Allegro“The Beethoven Connection”; Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano (Chandos)No finer recording has emerged from the Beethoven celebration than this, and it has not a single work by Beethoven on it. Mr. Bavouzet’s inquisitive look at the musicians who were composing at the same time as their colleague and competitor features Muzio Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Jan Ladislav Dussek — but it’s the forgotten Joseph Wölfl, who once battled Beethoven in a duel of keyboard skills, who comes out best, in this immaculate, charming sonata. DAVID ALLENPiano Sonata in E, AllegroChandos◆ ◆ ◆[embedded content]AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More