Friday, December 1, 2017

2017 - NML Team Picks: Our Favorite Albums of the Year



We know that the sheer size of Naxos Music Library can feel a little overwhelming, and that with so many amazing new releases joining the database it can be easy to miss out on an album that would have become a favorite. Even those of us on staff, who spend our weeks in the site, can find it hard to keep up with every new title.

Nevertheless, we have found quite a few favorite releases over the course of 2017, and we would like to share them with you. This is of course no exhaustive list of what we've loved, but these were the albums we found ourselves returning to time and time again. Some of these will be Grammy nominees, or critical favorites you'll see on many year-end lists. Others will be those hidden gems we dug up ourselves and really want you to hear and love as much as we do. Either way, we encourage you to not let these slip by unconsidered.

We've created a playlist of some of the highlights of these favorite albums, which you can find by clicking the appropriate banner in NML. If you are within your institution's wifi network, you might also be able to go directly to the playlist by clicking HERE.

Full albums can be reached by clicking one of that album's tracks in the playlist, by clicking the album cover image in the player, or by copying and pasting any of the catalog IDs below into the keyword search in NML.

We know that 2017 has been a weird year for most of us, but it has not been short on excellent music. Enjoy!



1.
Bjarnason / Thorvaldsdottir / Jonsdottir / Vilmarsson / Sigfusdottir
Recurrence
Iceland Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Bjarnasson
Sono Luminus - DSL-92213
2. 
Vincent Ho
The Shaman / Arctic Symphony
Evelyn Glennie, percussion; Winnipeg Symphony; Alexander Mickelthwate
Centrediscs - CMCCD24317
3.
Jane Antonia Cornish
Into Silence
Anna Elashvili, Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, Caitlin Sullivan, Claire Bryant, Hamilton Berry, Vicky Chow
Innova - INNOVA976
4.
Christian Lindberg / Osvaldo Golijov
Clarinet Concerto / The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
Emil Jonason, clarinet; Norrkoping Symphony; Christian Lindberg
BIS - BIS-2188
5. 
Eriks Esenvalds
The Doors of Heaven
Portland State University Chamber Choir; Ethan Sperry
Naxos - 8.579008
6. 
Georgy Sviridov
Russia Cast Adrift
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone; St Petersburg State Symphony; Constantine Orbelian
Delos - DE1631
7. 
Sergey Prokofiev
Symphony No. 7 / Suites
Sao Paulo Symphony; Marin Alsop
Naxos - 8.573620


8.
George Antheil
Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
BBC Philharmonic; John Storgards
Chandos - CHAN10941


9. 
Dmitry Shostakovich
Piano concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Boris Giltburg, piano; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Vasily Petrenko
Naxos - 8.573666

10. 
Zenamon / Faure / Bach / Piazzolla / de Falla / Part
Boyd Meets Girl
Boyd Meets Girl
Sono Luminus - DSL-92217
11. 
Gregory Spears
Fellow Travelers
Soloists; Cincinnati Symphony; Mark Gibson
Fanfare Cincinnati - FC-011

12. 
Adams / Ballard / Chee / Daugherty / Garland / Higdon
Walk in Beauty
Emanuele Arciuli, piano
Innova - INNOVA255


13.
Abdimomyn / Qazangapuly / Sagyrbayuly / Zhubanova
Kazakh Classical Music
Kazakh State String Quartet
Divox - CDX-21501-6


14. 
Jaan Raats
Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1
Nicolas Horvath, piano
Grand Piano - GP765

15. 
David Kirkland Garner
Dark Holler
Ensemble; Verena Mosenbichler-Bryant
New Focus - FCR191
16. 
J.S. Bach
Sonatas and Partitas
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Ondine - ODE1299-2D

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