AllMusic 2017 Year in Review
Favorite Classical Instrumental Albums
For our second look into the year's best classical music, we focus on works without vocal accompaniment, featuring new recordings of compositions from Beethoven, Schubert, Ravel and Mahler.
Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin
Telemann: Concerti per molti stromenti
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin presents lively performances of Telemann's concertos for various instruments, including the rare calchedon.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Tangere
Lubimov achieves insight into the mind of this notoriously troublesome composer that no one else has quite managed before.
Alina Ibragimova / Cédric Tiberghien
Mozart: Violin Sonatas Nos. 12, 16, 17, 23, 32, 36
Cédric Tiberghien and Alina Ibragimova present fluid interpretations of Mozart's juvenile and adult sonatas for piano and violin.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada / Houston Symphony Orchestra
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"; 2 Slavonic Dances
Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony perform Dvorák's "New World" Symphony in this luminous audiophile recording.
Domenico Scarlatti: Sonatas, Vol. 2
Angela Hewitt's performances of Scarlatti sonatas are distinguished by their crisp rhythms, cleanly articulated ornaments, and incisive attacks.
Antonio Pappano / Martha Argerich / Daniele Rossi
Saint-Saëns: Organ Symphony; Carnival of the Animals
This wonderful album contains perhaps Saint-Saëns' two most popular works; thoroughly a pleasure, all the way through.
Buxtehude: Trio Sonatas, Op. 1
The first volume of Dietrich Buxtehude's trio sonatas receives lively performances by the period instruments group Arcangelo.
Hans Abrahamsen: String Quartets No. 1-4
Covering the period 1973 to 2012, the music is recognizably the product of one composer, stretching the chops of string quartets.
Rana notches a substantial success and bears out the predictions of those who tout her as a major star.
Bob van Asperen / Christiaan Müller
Reijnold Popma van Oevering: Suittes voor't Clavier
Reijnold Popma van Oevering may be obscure today, but his six keyboard suites likely influenced J.S. Bach's English Suites.
Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli: Sonate da Camera Nos. 1-6
The first six of Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli’s twelve chamber sonatas are played with refinement by Bojan Cicic and the Illyria Consort.
Christophe Rousset / Les Talens Lyriques
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pygmalion
Rameau's 1748 acte de ballet Pygmalion receives a period-style performance by Les Talens Lyriques, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
Darrell Ang / L'Orchestre National de Lille
Darrell Ang and the Orchestre National de Lille present overtures from Offenbach's operettas and the youthful Ouverture à grand orchestre.
Jean-Marie Leclair: Violin Concertos, Op. 7 Nos. 1, 3, 4 & 5
Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante present four of Jean-Marie Leclair's violin concertos in the resonant acoustics of San Francesco Grande, Padua.
François-Xavier Roth / Ensemble Aedes / Les Siècles
Ravel: Daphnis & Chloé, Complete Ballet
François-Xavier Roth and his period instruments ensemble Les Siècles re-create Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé with the sounds of its 1912 premiere.
Giovanni Antonini / Il Giardino Armonico
Haydn 2032, No. 4: Il Distratto
Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico present the fourth volume in their series of the complete Haydn symphonies.
Isabelle Faust / Alexander Melnikov / Salagon Quartet
César Franck: Sonate pour Piano et Violon; Ernest Chausson: Concert
The combination of Faust's gut-strung 1710 Stradivarius and Melnikov's 1885 Erard yields impressive transparency. French chamber music at its best.
Jakub Hrůša / Bamberger Symphoniker
Bedrich Smetana's Má Vlast is given a stirring performance by Jakub Hrusa and the Bamberg Symphony on this 2016 hybrid SACD.
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet / Andrew Davis / Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra round out their Ives cycle in superb form.
Jonas Kaufmann / Jonathan Nott
Employing his wide vocal range, Jonas Kaufmann sings the tenor and baritone songs in Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.
Joonas Ahonen / Christian Poltéra / Baldur Brönnimann / BIT 20 Ensemble
Ligeti: Piano Concerto; Cello Concerto; Chamber Concerto; Melodien
The Norwegian BIT20 Ensemble explores the innovative ideas in György Ligeti's experimental concertos on this BIS release.
Jordi Savall / La Capella Reial de Catalunya / Hespèrion XXI
Lorenzo de’ Medici and Maximilian I, 1450 – 1519
Another Savall triumph, demonstrating how Renaissance music was part of a wider cultural system.
Krzysztof Chorzelski / Skampa Quartet
Dvořák: American String Quartet & Quintet, Opp. 96-97
The Skampa Quartet has an uncanny way of showing Dvorák as a Czech fascinated by what he heard in America.
Maurice Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works
The complete piano music of Maurice Ravel receives lucid performances from Larissa Dedova on this 2017 Centaur release.
Thomas Adès: Asyla; Tevot; Polaris
Three large orchestral works seem to flow one into the other, with the LSO sounding highly energized.
Martin Haselböck / Chorus sine nomine / Steve Davislim / Orchester Wiener Akademie
Martin Haselbóck and his Vienna Academy Orchestra present a period reading of Franz Liszt's most influential work, A Faust Symphony.
Masaaki Suzuki Plays Bach Organ Works, Vol. 2: ... sei gegrüßet, jesu gütig
Masaaki Suzuki plays works by Johann Sebastian Bach on the organ of the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel.
Metamorphosen Berlin / Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt
Metamorphosen Berlin plays string orchestra works by Tchaikovsky, including the Souvenir de Florence and the Serenade in C major.
Beethoven: Appassionata, Les Adieux, Waldstein
Pashchenko plays an 1824 Graf fortepiano, an instrument with five pedals and an awesome variety of sounds.
Oliver Knussen / Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble
Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale
This performance of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat features Sir Harrison Birtwistle and George Benjamin with Downton Abbey's Dame Harriet Walter.
The unusually satisfying program alternates between fun and intellect, with a bright, slightly splashy sound reminiscent of E. Power Biggs.
The Oslo String Quartet pits Beethoven's "Quartetto Serioso" against Schubert's final string quartet in a study of contrasts.
Osmo Vänskä / Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra launch a Mahler cycle on BIS with this transparent recording of the Symphony No. 5.
Paul Mann / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
David Hackbridge Johnson: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1
David Hackbridge Johnson's debut recording on Toccata Classics presents his extraordinary Symphony No. 9 and two shorter orchestral works.
Christopher Tye: Complete Consort Music
Phantasm explores Christopher Tye's instrumental pieces, which are among the earliest examples of English chamber music.
Philippe Jordan / Paris National Opera Orchestra
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Prokofiev: Classical Symphony
Popular works by Mussorgsky and Prokofiev receive vigorous performances from Philippe Jordan and the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris.
Rachel Podger / Brecon Baroque
Baroque violinist Rachel Podger and her period instruments ensemble Brecon Baroque play violin sonatas by Vivaldi, Tartini, Veracini, and Pisendel.
Rafael Kubelik / Seiji Ozawa / Boston Symphony Orchestra
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
Remastered Bartók recordings by Kubelik and Ozawa make this Pentatone release essential listening for audiophile collectors.
Renaud Capuçon / Gérard Caussé / Bertrand Chamayou / Marie-Pierre Langlamet / Edgar Moreau / Emmanuel Pahud
Hearing a group of Debussy works in traditional forms together is of considerable interest; these performances are attractive.
Riccardo Muti / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra deliver a convincing performance of Bruckner's unfinished Ninth that feels complete.
Balancing lively dance rhythms with profound expressions, Richard Egarr explores the many layers of Bach's Partitas.
Samuel Coles / Mark Van de Wiel / Paavo Järvi / Philharmonia Orchestra
Nielsen: Flute Concerto; Clarinet Concerto; Aladdin Suite
Carl Nielsen's Flute Concerto and his Clarinet Concerto receive vivid performances on this spectacular-sounding album from Signum Classics.
Myer rightly makes these into concert works, not showboat nostalgia; this is an essential item for ragtime collections.
Stefan Blunier / Beethoven Orchester Bonn
Schmidt: Symphony No. 2; R. Strauss: Festival Prelude, Op. 61
Stefan Blunier and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn present Franz Schmidt's massive Symphony No. 2 with Richard Strauss' Festival Prelude.
Steven Osborne / Ludovic Morlot / BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ravel: Piano Concertos; Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Steven Osborne delivers sparkling performances of impressionistic piano concertos by Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla.
Takács Quartet / Lawrence Power
Dvorák: String Quartet Op. 105; String Quintet Op. 97
The Takács Quartet conveys the three nationalistic strands of these wonderful late Dvorák works as few others have ever done.
The City Musick / William Lyons
The Topping Tooters of the Town: Music of the London Waits 1580-1650
The London Waits performed rousing dance music and songs for civic ceremonies and various public functions in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Valery Gergiev / Münchner Philharmoniker
Strauss: Don Juan; Ein Heldenleben
Valery Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic deliver lush and luxuriant performances of Richard Strauss' Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben.
Franz Schubert: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4
Vladimir Feltsman plays Schubert's Sonata in A minor, D. 784 and Sonata in A major, D. 959, inviting speculation on the composer's moods.
Scott Joplin:The Complete Rags, Waltzes & Marches
For this set of the complete rags, waltzes, and marches, William Appling observes the moderate tempos Scott Joplin required.