Tag Archives: classical

Best Classical Releases of the Year 2011 — With Podcast

You knew I’d weigh in.

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The full list of my picks for best classical CDs and downloads of 2011 is below the break.

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Kronos 25

Go read Steve Smith’s interesting NY Times feature on the Kronos Quartet — an ensemble whose revolutionary programming and concertizing laid much of the groundwork for the “alternative classics” championed by Bang on a Can, Absolut Ensemble and innumerable other adventurous ensembles and series — as they celebrate their 25th anniversary. To be honest, though, the more traditonal but often more daring Arditti Quartet deserves the same amount of ink.

Cheap Thrills: Outstanding Recent Budget CDs

I know, I know — the market for music recordings is in flux if not chaos, and there are growing indications that downloads are finally starting to hit the head of a “tipping point” among the non-teen-and-college-age demographic. And yes, a growing share of my own acquisitions are file downloads. But for the most part I remain an unreconstructed consumer knuckledragger who orders finished product online, bids on scarce audio gratification in disc formaat on eBay, and frequents the handful of well-stocked “record stores” left in Manhattan.

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