AllMusic 2016 Year in Review
Favorite Classical Vocal Albums
The year's best classical albums with vocals included René Jacobs' innovative interpretations of Bach, Dvorák conducted by Mariss Jansons, and ORA's blending of modern a cappella choral works with Renaissance stylings.
Benjamin Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
The Aldeburgh Strings offers extraordinary performances, aided by top-notch soloists in a well-above-average Britten package.
Bach Collegium Japan / Masaaki Suzuki
Bach's sacred Cantatas been been lovingly recorded by Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan, and gathered in this impressive, super audio set.
Benjamin Chenier / Galilei Consort
Giovanni Rovetta: Messe pour la Naissance de Louis XIV
The Venetian celebrations of the birth of Louis XIV are imagined in this historic simulation by Benjamin Chénier and the Galilei Consort.
Brabant Ensemble / Stephen Rice
Pierre de la Rue: Missa Nuncqua fue pena mayor, Missa Inviolata
This satisfying release expands our understanding of a composer thought to be a lesser light of the Franco-Flemish style.
Britten Sinfonia / John Hopkins / Joyful Company of Singers / Philip Smith / Alan Tongue
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fair Child of Beauty
The seductive performance here is enough to suggest a lost Vaughan Williams masterpiece.
Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra / Flemish Radio Choir [Vlaams Radiokoor] / Hervé Niquet
Johannes Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
Hervé Niquet leads the Flemish Radio Choir and the Brussels Philharmonic in a revitalized interpretation of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem.
Capella de Ministrers / Carles Magraner
Ramon Llull: L'últim pelegrinatge
A detailed combination of settings of 13th century Llull's writings with music he might have encountered on the road.
Cappella Mediterranea / Leonardo García Alarcón
Monteverdi: I 7 Peccati Capitali
Capella Mediterranea celebrates the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi's birth with this album of excerpts from his operas and madrigals.
Choir of Westminster Abbey / James O'Donnell
Taverner: Western Wynde Mass; Missa Mater Christi Sanctissima
An above-average entry in the ongoing stream of recordings by England's renowned cathedral choirs.
Collegium Vocale 1704 / Václav Luks / Collegium 1704
Zelenka: Missa Divi Xaverri, ZWV 12; Litaniae des Sancto Xaverio, ZWV 156
There is something Bachian about the large ambitions and gravity in these movements that will remake the High Baroque repertory.
This a performance in which intelligent, small decisions cohere into a persuasive larger whole.
Florian Boesch / Roger Vignoles
Krenek: Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen
Krenek synthesizes a range of expressive devices to portray a modern individual for whom a vacation just raises deeper issues.
Harry Christophers / Handel & Haydn Society
An early 19th century anthology of anthems, glees, and opera and oratorio excerpts, the music here is guaranteed to please.
Hebrides Ensemble / Synergy Vocals
James MacMillan: Since it was the Day of Preparation
Uniquely powerful sacred music that combines the gravity of a somewhat antique style with a personal response to the texts.
Hervé Niquet / Le Concert Spirituel Orchestra & Chorus
Requiems pour Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette: Cherubini, Plantade
Requiems for Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette receive authentic period interpretations from Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel.
Ildar Abdrazakov / Riccardo Muti / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Schoenberg: Kol Nidre; Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti
These two works fit together powerfully, and they exploit the talents of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the hilt.
Arnold Schönberg, Max Kowalski: Pierrot Lunaire
Ingrid Schmithüsen presents contrasting settings by Schoenberg and Kowalski of the bizarre Pierrot poems of Albert Giraud.
James Conlon / Los Angeles Opera Chorus / Los Angeles Opera Orchestra
John Corigliano & William M. Hoffman: The Ghosts of Versailles
The LA Opera's spectacular production of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles was recorded live by the audiophile label PentaTone.
James Rutherford / Eugene Asti
James Rutherford and Eugene Asti present Schubert's posthumous Schwanengesang with five other songs by the master of Lieder.
Jesus College Choir, Cambridge / Mark Williams
The Evening Hour: British Choral Music from the 16th and 20th Centuries
A fine, genuinely reflective disc, with a program touching on the evening of a day or of a life.
John Alldis Choir / Colin Davis / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
PentaTone has remastered Colin Davis' quadraphonic recording of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, now on hybrid SACD.
Jordi Savall / La Capella Reial de Catalunya / Hespèrion XXI
Ramon Llull: Temps de conquestes, de diàleg i desconhort
A document of rare historical immediacy and power, bringing Golden Age Spain to life.
King's College Choir of Cambridge / Stephen Cleobury
Duruflé: Requiem; Four Motets; Messe Cum Jubilo
Following an immensely successful Fauré Requiem, this Duruflé Requiem might easily result in a revival of this otherworldly, intimate work.
L'Arpeggiata / Christina Pluhar
A pre-Columbian setting of the Orpheus myth, impressively mixing genres, original music, and traditional dance tunes.
Leonard Slatkin / Orchestre National de Lyon
Ravel: L'Heure espagnole; Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
Absolutely delightful, Slatkin artfully captures the spirit of Ravel's music.
Les Arts Florissants / William Christie
Bien que l'amour...: Airs Sérieux et à Boìre
William Christie and Les Arts Florissants present a delightful collection of "serious and drinking airs" from the French Baroque.
Scattered Ashes: Josquin's Miserere and the Savonarolan Legacy
This ties together repertory by diverse composers without reference to liturgy or purely musical considerations.
Marek Janowski / Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Marek Janowski's concert recordings of Wagner's Ring cycle are gathered together in this deluxe box set from PentaTone.
This live recording from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons captures the full weight of this powerful work.
Masaaki Suzuki / Bach Collegium Japan
J.S. Bach: Secular Cantatas, Vol. 7 - Peasant Cantata
A cantata with comic components, unlike anything else Bach ever wrote, in a typically attractive entry in Suzuki's series.
Matthias Goerne / Christoph Eschenbach
You couldn't do better than the selection and performances here for a cornerstone collection of songs by Brahms.
Michelle DeYoung / Matthias Goerne / Jaap van Zweden / Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic present the second of Wagner's Ring operas, Die Walküre.
The choral works of Palestrina, Victoria, and Guerrero are given distinctive performances by New York Polyphony.
A must-have choral collection situating contemporary a cappella choral pieces in relation to Renaissance music.
This highly original recording asserts that today marks a golden age of choral music comparable to that of the Renaissance.
The medieval courtly love songs of Guillaume de Machaut receive idiomatic and convincing performances by the Orlando Consort.
Philadelphia Singers / David Hayes
Randall Thompson's Requiem for double-chorus a capella receives its world premiere recording on this 2016 Naxos release.
Bach, Telemann: Sacred Cantatas
The main attraction is Jaroussky's instrument itself, undiminished by a decade in the classical Top Ten.
René Jacobs / Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin / Berlin RIAS Chamber Choir
René Jacobs presents an innovative interpretation of Bach's St. John Passion, with a concerto-like arrangement of the choir.
Richard Egarr / Scottish Opera
Gilbert & Sullivan: HMS Pinafore
The Scottish Opera's historically informed production of HMS Pinafore was recorded at the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival.
Robert Rawson / The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen
Johann Christoph Pepusch: Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis, a masque by the German-born English transplant Johann Christoph Pepusch, is presented in a lively period re-creation.
Rogers Covey-Crump / Christopher O'Gorman / John Potter
Conductus, Vol. 3: Music & Poetry from 13th Century France
The last of a series, this will convincingly fill a major hole in most collections of medieval music.
Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets
An ambitious (and elegant) mix of accompanied readings, opera, and chamber pop to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death.
Kermes draws together diverse material for a very strong recital, as well executed as it is original.
Schmidt: Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln
Simone Young's farewell concert with the Hamburg Philharmonic featured Franz Schmidt's oratorio, The Book with Seven Seals.
Sophie Bevan / Malcolm Martineau
Max Reger's under-performed Lieder receive polished performances by soprano Sophie Bevan and veteran accompanist Malcolm Martineau.
St. John's College Choir, Cambridge / Andrew Nethsingha
Traditional carols, a few of them by well-known composers, but the majority by contemporary names, with a measure of seriousness.
The Cardinall's Musick / Andrew Carwood
Tallis: Lamentations and Other Sacred Music
The Lamentations of Jeremiah and other choral works by Thomas Tallis are powerfully performed by The Cardinall's Musick.
Helper and Protector: Italian Maestri in Poland
The Sixteen continues its series of Renaissance choral music by Italian composers who worked in the court of Sigismund III Vasa.
Vox Clamantis / Jaan-Eik Tulve
A marvelous Pärt collection, with flawless and entirely idiomatic sound from the Tallinn Transfiguration Church.