October began with a celebration of Steve Reich's 80th birthday, represented here by a box set of his complete recordings on the ECM label. The month ended with the first of the holiday releases, including Song of the Nativity by The Sixteen -- one of three of the group's albums reviewed this month -- and a new recording of The Nutcracker by Valery Gergiev, who also had three new albums reviewed. In between these were Pepusch's opera Venus and Adonis performed by the delightfully named The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen and a new opera modeled after Baroque examples, Orfeo Chaman by Christina Pluhar, plus much more.






Blair Sanderson
Richard Egarr - J.S. Bach: The French Suites, BWV 812-817
John Eliot Gardiner, London Symphony Orchestra - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 4 'Italian'
Daniele Gatti, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
Valery Gergiev, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra - Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"
Valery Gergiev, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra - Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"
Owain Arwel Hughes, Cambridge Singers, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - The Planets
Marek Janowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra - Richard Wagner: Overtures, Preludes and Orchestral Excerpts
Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra - Stravinsky: Petrushka; Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Orpheus
Yannick Nézet-Séguin - Bruckner 2
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Requiems pour Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette: Cherubini, Plantade
John O'Conor - Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
John O'Conor - Haydn: Sonatas
Steven Osborne - Feldman: Palais de Mari; Crumb: Little Suite for Christmas
Antonio Pappano, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Schumann: Symphonies 2 & 4
Vasily Petrenko, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra - Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64
Simon Rattle, Australian World Orchestra - Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
Steve Reich, Steve Reich Ensemble - Steve Reich: The ECM Recordings
Robert Rawson, The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen - Johann Christoph Pepusch: Venus and Adonis
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Last Night of the Proms
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln - Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
The Sixteen, Eamonn Dougan - Helper and Protector: Italian Maestri in Poland
Michel Tabachnik, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra - Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps
Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony - Debussy: Images; Jeux; La Plus Que Lente
Daniil Trifonov - Transcendental: Daniil Trifonov plays Franz Liszt
Osmo Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra - Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 3, 6 & 7
Bruno Weil, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

James Manheim
L'Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar - Orfeo Chamán
Bach Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, David Hill - Stanford: Choral Music
Paul Bateman, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Oliver Davis: Dance
Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis - For the Love of Brahms
Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles - Adoration at Ephesus
Black Cedar - A Path Less Trod
Florian Boesch, Roger Vignoles - Krenek: Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen
Ian Bostridge, Antonio Pappano - Shakespeare Songs
Martyn Brabbins, BBC Symphony Orchestra - Ralph Vaughan Williams: Discoveries
Capella de Ministrers, Carles Magraner- Ramon Llull: L'últim pelegrinatge
Harry Christophers, Handel & Haydn Society Chorus- The Old Colony Collection
Kyung Wha Chung - Bach: Sonatas & Partitas
Matt Dunkley - Six Cycles
Ensemble Correspondances, Sébastien Daucé - Henri du Mont: O Mysterium
Franco Fagioli, Armonia Atenea, George Petrou - Rossini
Fifth House Ensemble, Baladino - Nedudim
Valery Gergiev, The Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4; The Nutcracker
Matthias Goerne, Christoph Eschenbach - Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge
Pablo González, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra - Granados: Liliana
Andrew Gourlay, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra- Emily Howard: Magnetite
Philippe Jaroussky - Bach, Telemann: Sacred Cantatas
Jonas Kaufmann - Dolce Vita
Pavel Kolesnikov - Chopin: Mazurkas
Lang Lang - New York Rhapsody
Choir of Magdalen Chollege, Oxford, Daniel Hyde - Thomas Tomkins: Anthems & Canticles
Damian Montagu, Hugh Bonneville - In a South Downs Way
Jonathan Plowright, Szymanowski Quartet - Friedman, Rózycki: Piano Quintets
Anna Prohaska, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini - Serpent & Fire
Nemanja Radulović - Bach
Aksel Rykkvin - Aksel!: Arias by Bach, Handel & Mozart
Sistine Chapel Choir - Palestrina
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers - Edmund Rubbra: Tenebrae Nocturns, Op. 72
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers - Song of the Nativity
Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan- J.S. Bach: Secular Cantatas, Vol. 7 - Peasant Cantata
Takács Quartet, Marc-André Hamelin - Franck: Piano Quintet; Debussy: String Quartet
Tenebrae - Music of the Spheres
Truro Cathedral Choir- Vox Clara: Music by Gabriel Jackson
Tamsin Waley-Cohen - Roy Harris, John Adams: Violin Concertos
Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside - Schubert Lieder: Der Wanderer
Pretty Yende - A Journey