# best recordings of 2003



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Don't know why, but this idea struck me. Ten years on, what stand out to you as the best recordings of 2003?


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

We really need the complete master list of new recordings from 2003 to refresh our old and ailing memories...
I can't of the top of my head name one recording published in 2003 that I bought the same year, but that is me squared, I'm not a numbers guy, I never cared much for years... But if I had the list to refresh my memory I can tell You exactly which discs where worth while! 

Sorry for the inperfectionallity rant..

/ptr


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2013)

Here is what won Gramophone awards in 2003:







Schumann: String Quartets 1 & 3, Zehetmair Quartet, ECM







Solo Piano Recital, Trpceski - EMI







Handel: Arcadian Duets - Haim - Virgin







Hummel: Masses - Hickox - Chandos


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2013)

Sibelius: Rondo of the Waves - Vanska - BIS







Vivaldi: La Stravaganza - Podger - Channel Classics







Reich: City Life - Ensemble Modern - RCA







The Call of the Phoenix - The Orlando Consort - HM


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2013)

Chopin: Etudes - Perahia - Sony







Britten: Turn of the Screw - Harding - Virgin


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2013)

Of these, I have/have heard the Vivaldi, The Call of the Phoenix, and Perahia's Chopin Etudes. I enjoy them all, but if I had to pick one, it would be The Call of the Phoenix. I stumbled across it in a library, later than 2003, and it was one of those key recordings that turned me on to Medieval and Renaissance music. Not only is it a great album, but one of the key "gateway" albums in my appreciation of Classical music.


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

The recording year 2003, and corresponding CDs in my collection. :tiphat:

*JS Bach* - The Art of Fugue, w. ESQ (DG)
*Haydn* - String Quartets, Op. 50, w. Lindsay Qt. (ASV)
*LvB* - Early String Quartets, w. Takacs Qt. (Decca)
*Schubert* cw. *Mendelssohn* - String Quintet in C; String Quartet, Op. 80, w. Haimovitz/Miro Qt. (Oxingale)
*Debussy* cw. *Ravel* - String Quartets, w. Parkanyi Qt. (Praga)
*Enescu* - Piano Suites, w. Borac (Avie)
*Penderecki* - Violin Sonatas, w. Bieler & Tichman (Naxos)
*Poulenc *- Concerto for Two Pianos, w. Sage/Braley/Liege O./Deneve (RCA)
*Prokofiev* - Symphony - Concerto; Cello Sonata, w. Chang/LSO/Pappano (EMI)


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

2003 was during my doldrums period, when I didn't buy much classical music and before I started paying attention to new releases.

Of those Gramophone Award winners, I have the Hummel and Vivaldi and would certainly endorse them.

According to my music library, which isn't necessarily reliable, 2003 gave me, among other things, a Stravinsky disc from Paavo Jarvi, The Harp Consort's "Miracles of Notre-Dame", Kathryn Stott's recording of Koechlin's Les Heures Persanes, and Chitose Okashiro's extraordinary piano version of Mahler's First.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Among the mentioned releases above, I only know the Chandos Hummel Masses, a great issue. 

The BIS Sibelius rare orchestral works seems interesting. 

Otherwise I don´t keep a system where the release year is easily identifiable, unfortunately.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I own a few of the Gramophone awards discs DrMike lists.

- The Zehetmair Quartet Schumann Disc is still one of my absolute favourites of these quartets, the only qualm is that they did not include No 2 of the Three Quartets. It is still Five out of ***** TC stars! 
- The Trpceski recital disc I remember as technically impeccable, but lacking the the lyrical emotions I expect from Russian Piano literature, haven't listened to it for many years, so I may conclude a different opinion today (No I don't think so!), I heard Trpceski live a few years later and was much more persuasive in that medium.
- Vänskä's recording of the earlier "Oceanides suite" haven't left much memories, nothing I would consider as Sibelius at his best...
- Ensemble Modern's Reich disc on the other hand is something I return to a couple of times each year, one of those discs that makes me think highly of Reich's music!
- My data base insists that I have the Chopin disc with Perahia, but I have no memories of it at all.. 
- I'm not much of an Opera Buff, but I listen to some 20th century stuff, and I quite liked Harding's "Turn of the Screw", but I generally find Opera on CD lacking it's most important cue, *the visual part*, so I rarely allot it any listening time. 

Of the disc's on Vaneyes list, I hold the Lindsey's Haydn and the Takac's Early Beethoven in high esteem, the rest of these disc's have eluded me.

Not to self: I can't quite understand why I never made a field for recording and/or publishing dates in my data base, it is quite frustrating that something I've put so much effort in to, lacks such vital information, I'm such a Klutz... 

/ptr


----------



## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Hail To The Thief


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

kv466 said:


> Hail To The Thief


----------



## Guest (Jul 5, 2013)

I, too, neglect to include release dates on all my recordings. With some I do. Looking at Vaneyes' list, I realize that I, too, have the Takacs' recording of Beethoven's Early String Quartets - actually, I have the entire cycle, and I have to say that I really enjoy them all. Still, The Call of the Phoenix stands out for me.


----------



## Guest (Jul 5, 2013)

Based on what my iTunes says (and I don't have all my music in iTunes, as my computer doesn't have enough memory - just the stuff I am most interested in right now, and what will fit onto my 32GB iPod), these also came out in 2003:
Mozart: Night Music - Andrew Manze and The English Concert - HM - my favorite recording of Eine kleine Nachtmusik







Haydn: London Symphonies, Vol. 1 - Florilegium - Channel Classics - This is the arrangement for a smaller chamber group, and is performed by 2 violins, a viola, a cello, a flute, and a fortepiano. I love this recording.







Mozart: Clarinet Concerto and Quintet - Martin Frost - BIS - This has become my go to album for both of these works.







Haydn: Airs, Variations, and Dances - Ronald Brautigam - BIS - I only have this one volume of Brautigam's recordings of Haydn's solo keyboard works, but it is a good one. He plays them with the fortepiano, and they are wonderful, great sound, very playful music.

If I am wrong about the dates of any of these, please correct me.


----------

