Our classical music critics supply their favorites, albums and concerts, from over the past year.

Jonathan Blumhofer

2024’s Top 10 Albums

The Kurt Weill Album (Deutsche Grammophon)

Kurt Weill is to Berlin what George Gershwin is to New York: a native son whose music defines a metropolis for an era. Ironically, this recording of his two symphonies and The Seven Deadly Sins only included one piece actually written in Germany (the Symphony No. 1). Nevertheless, the performances from the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and their chief conductor Joana Mallwitz boast a powerful sense of ownership. Katharine Mehlring is exemplary as Sins’ protagonist, Anna.

Mendelssohn (Sony Classical)

After the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, Igor Levit turned for reflection to Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words. This recording of selections from six of the eight books uncover a world of intensity, soul, and drama one doesn’t normally associate with this fare. The chaser, Charles-Valentin Alkan’s haunting “La chanson de folle au bord de la mer,” is a stroke of programming genius.

Mahler, Symphony No. 6 (BR Klassik)

Sir Simon Rattle’s Mahler discography has long been impressive, but his recording of the Sixth with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks is outstanding even by that standard. Overflowing with color, purpose, and drama, this is as convincing an interpretation of Mahler’s original conception of the score (with the ordering of the middle movements Andante-Scherzo) as they come.

Janine Jansen playing Sibelius & Prokofiev (Decca)

Leave it to Janine Jansen to solve the riddle of Klaus Mäkelä. The Dutch fiddler, perhaps the most insightful violinist of her generation, the Finnish wunderkind, and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra made for an exceptionally simpatico combination in this traversal of concerti by Sibelius and Prokofiev (his No. 1). Among other things, it’s the first recording to consistently demonstrate just how good a conductor the oft inconsistent Mäkelä can be.

Keel Road (ECM)

In a field crowded with excellent groups,

sets itself apart not just by its technical and expressive prowess but also by its stylistic restlessness. Two wit, Keel Road, the ensemble’s third exploration of Nordic (and, this time, North Atlantic) folk music. There are no weak links, either among the fourteen selections or the performances; rather, this is simply great music invigoratingly played.

Grace (Pentatone)

Michael Tilson Thomas’s extensive work a conductor has long overshadowed his considerable output as a composer. Grace rectifies this, with definitive performances of his major works by a remarkable lineup of top-flight musicians. In the process, it significantly fills out our understanding of this great American musician in his 80^th year.

Shorthand (Sony Classical)

Unique among most major living composers, Anna Clyne has discovered that one can embrace beauty—sometimes sumptuous beauty—and still turn out distinctive, non-cliché-ridden music. Shorthand, a collection of, mostly, concertante items with string orchestra demonstrates the best aspects of her style with some wonderful friends (Yo-Yo Ma, Avi Avital, etc.) in tow.

Americascapes 2 (Ondine)

Robert Treviño’s latest all-American album pairs music by two composers the conductor knew personally—George Walker and George Crumb—plus an obscure ballet by Silvestre Revueltas. It’s a fantastic program, all of it fearlessly played and wonderfully vitalizing.

Elgar, Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (Hallé)

Elgar’s music has stood at the center of Sir Mark Elder’s tenure with the Hallé Orchestra, so it was only fitting that the conductor’s final season with the group be marked by a new recording of his two symphonies. These are towering performances, knowing, lived-in, deeply felt—a beautiful testament to the extraordinary rapport formed over the course of two decades between Elder and his band.

Mozart, You Drive Me Crazy! (Alpha)

The title’s whimsical, the music’s excellent, and the performances sound effortless—what’s not to love here? Not much: Golda Schultz is one of the day’s great Mozart singers and, from the sounds of this, we can look forward to hearing her own a variety of roles for years to come.

Honorable Mentions

American Road Trip, Movements, and Vienna: Joyful Apocalypse (Warner Classics)

This triptych of solo and duet albums from Warner reminded that, despite the seriousness that often dominates the discussion around classical music, great musicianship can also be lots of fun to experience.

Nikolai Kapustin, Piano Concertos (Capriccio)

Though the Russian pianist-composer died largely unknown in 2020, Frank Dupree has been busy burnishing his posthumous reputation. This latest installment in the keyboardist’s multi-volume series highlights the sheer invention and charm of Kapustin’s output; like the above releases, it, too, overflows with joy.

Frank Peter Zimmermann playing Stravinsky, Bartók, and Martinů (Bis)

Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto gets the royal treatment from Zimmermann, the Bamberger Symphoniker, and conductor Jakub Hrůša. Their performance is as riveting for its drive as for the host of details it exposes in this familiar music, as well as selections from Bartók and Martinů.

A Room of Her Own (Chandos)

The Neave Trio’s exploration of music by four women—Lili Boulanger, Cécile Chaminade, Germaine Tailleferre, and Ethel Smyth—was certainly timely. More than that, it showcased four works that, by virtue of their musical strengths alone, deserve to be firmly established in the repertoire.

A Lionel Tertis Celebration (Harmonia mundi)

Lionel Tertis’ influence on the modern viola was enormous and Timothy Ridout’s homage to his career covers a tremendous amount of ground. Particularly fine are the album’s accounts of sonatas by York Bowen and Rebecca Clarke, which have rarely sounded better than they do here.

Other releases

Somehow there’s never enough time. That’s especially true of all the recordings that come my way in the course of a year: invariably more albums end up on my desk (or computer) than there’s time to review. 2024 was no different.

Among the highlights that didn’t get written up, Vilde Frang’s account of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin and Robin Ticciati (Warner Classics) stood out for its sweep and power. Likewise riveting was Yunchan Lim’s traversal of Chopin’s two sets of Études (Decca).

Another pianist, Víkíngur Ólafsson, brought his new recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Deutsche Grammophon) on tour. Exquisite as the album is, his February appearance at Jordan Hall was even better.

The Nash Ensemble has long been one of the finest chamber music collectives anywhere in the world and their release of string sextets by Tchaikovsky and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Hyperion) didn’t disappoint. Neither did pianist Lars Vogt’s final recording, this consisting of accounts of Brahms’s Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3 (Ondine). Joined by violinist Christian Tetzlaff, violist Barbara Buntrock, and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, the album is as much a testament to Vogt’s musicianship as to his humanity—he was a great artist who will long be greatly missed.

In memoriam

Also missed at this year-end are a trio of titans who profoundly shaped classical music in Boston over the last fifty years. Seiji Ozawa, who died at 88 in February, was the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s longest-serving music director. A charismatic ambassador for the art form, he was a force of nature and, sometimes, a source of professional and critical frustration. Still, his impact and legacy were enormous.

So, in his day, was that of Richard Dyer. The longtime chief classical music critic for The Boston Globe, Dyer was a brilliant writer—often a very entertaining one, too—and a person you could count on to help you learn something fresh or at least think differently about music you thought you already knew. He died in September at 82.

Burton Fine was another mainstay of the Boston music scene, but his time here went back even further: he studied at Tanglewood in the ‘50s and joined the Boston Symphony (after a stint as a NASA scientist) in 1963. By the time Fine—whose wife, Susan Miron, is a longtime contributor to the Arts Fuse—retired as the orchestra’s principal violist in 2004, he’d logged over 600 solo or chamber appearances with the ensemble and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players across more than fifty years. Fine passed away after a long illness aged 94 in November.

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Aaron Keebaugh

Best Performances of 2024

Aaron Larget-Caplan puts across Richard Cameron-Wolfe’s Heretic

Heretic, a one-person drama performed by guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan, wrestled with the disillusion and eventual madness brought about through a perverse contemplation of deep questions. Richard Cameron-Wolfe’s opera, inspired by Arthur Machen’s Hill of Dreams, felt fittingly tense and disjointed as the character struggled to come to terms with his own insanity. This gaze into the abyss was one of the best performances of the year.

Du Bois Orchestra explores music of Black composers

The Du Bois Orchestra continues to undercut the image of classical music as a highbrow diversion. Their goal is to present works by underrepresented composers, which this year included music by William Grant Still, Joseph Boulogne, and Jessie Montgomery. These were welcome and beguiling choices.

Jakub Hrusa and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

Whenever he comes to town, conductor Jakub Hrůša strikes dramatic visual as well as musical postures. But there was more to his program with the Bamberg Symphony orchestra of Brahms, Schumann, and Wagner than his aggressive downbeats, sweeping gestures, and the occasional leaping cutoff. These were performances of slow-building tension and shapely contours of line that sent shivers down the spine in this Celebrity Series presentation.

Boston Symphony Orchestra pays justice to Kevin Puts’s Brightness of Light

Images of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings, video footage of life after a broken relationship, and dramatic and colorful music combined to make this narrative of the marriage between O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz one of the most moving musical experiences of the year.

Horizon Ensemble take on Joachim Raff’s Symphony No. 10

Conductor Julian Gau and the Horizon Ensemble rang in the autumn with a rare performance of Joachim Raff’s Symphony No. 10. Falling somewhere between holding to classical form and embracing romantic excess, Raff’s work, as played by these musicians, resounded with joy and seasonal cheer. The Horizon Ensemble continues to take artistic risks, this performance was a reminder of the payoffs.

Jerusalem String Quartet

Many string quartets have tackled Shostakovich’s chamber music. But the Jerusalem Quartet’s stellar performance, sponsored by the Celebrity Series, was invigorating: it made Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 12 feel all the more bleak, sudden, and surprising. Music by Dvořák and Haydn provided ample counterweight. Leaning into the wild shifts of emotion, these musicians made this music sing beautifully and dance vigorously. It was all in a day’s work for an ensemble that has plenty of poise and personality.

Boston Symphony Orchestra presents Michael Gandolfi’s Ascending Light

A decade after its premiere, Michael Gandolfi’s Ascending Light returned to Symphony Hall with all its emotional weight and power intact. The music commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, but Gandolfi never resorts to funeral ritual or cliché. Under the direction of Samy Rachid, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and organist Olivier Latry grasped the life-affirming convictions that moving musical memorials like this provide.

Chameleon Arts Ensemble performs George Enescu’s Octet

A performance of George Enescu’s Octet is a rarity in Boston. But this past November the Chameleon Arts Ensemble supplied a reading of the work that delivered so much angst and turbulence that it’s a wonder why the score isn’t heard more often. The contentious, yet somehow teleological, process that Enescu explores in the Octet provided ample opportunities for the Chameleon musicians to lean into every lurching rhythm and wayward change of key. What emerged was music of deep if furtive memory, a theatrics of dark reflection that drew connections between fin-de-siecle decadence and the  dissipation of own troubled times.

Ralph Locke’s 2024 List of Notable Operatic Recordings and a Few Non-Operatic Ones