Quarterly Critic’s Choice
The best and most interesting new releases of the previous three months are awarded a place on the Quarterly Critic’s Choice. Evaluation criteria are artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation, and sound quality. From 2014 onward, the Long Lists are stored directly with each Quarterly Critic’s Choice.
Orchestral Music & Concertos
»Heroes – Lifes – Songs«
Antonín Dvořák: A Hero’s Song op. 111, Alexander Glazunov: To the Memory of a Hero op. 8, Richard Strauss: A Hero’s Life op. 40. Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jakub Hrůša. Accentus Music ACC30646 (Naxos)
The idea of the hero, however straightforward it may appear, is complex and multifaceted. Jakub Hrůša and his Bamberg musicians explore this in a thoughtfully-conceived programme. The centrepiece is Richard Strauss’s self-fashioned monument, here given an athletic suppleness. By contrast, Dvořák’s »Heroic Song« is light on its feet and not remotely intimidating. As in Glazunov’s piece, the music seems to step outside its own time: in Dvořák, towards a better future; in Glazunov, back into the past. In both, a warm, peaceful sound prevails—inviting and deeply human. For the jury: Benjamin Herzog
Orchestral Music & Concertos
»Silenced«
Dmitri Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 op. 77, Theme with variations op. 3, Henriëtte Bosmans: Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra. Hyeyoon Park, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Gergely Madaras. Linn CKD 772 (Naxos)
Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto is a journey through hell. By the end of the Passacaglia, when the soloist must launch from the gruelling cadenza straight into the frenzied finale, the music seems to hover on the brink of total exhaustion. Psychological extremity is part of the design. Hyeyoon Park drives this virtuosic ordeal forward with astonishing stamina and focus, cutting through the orchestral maelstrom with unflagging intensity. As presented here, the rediscovery of Henriëtte Bosmans’s »Concert Piece« is likely to remain a benchmark for a long time. Breathtaking to the very last note. For the jury: Jörg Lengersdorf
Chamber Music
Debussy/Szymanowski: String Quartets
Claude Debussy: String Quartet op. 10, Karol Szymanowski: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2. Belcea Quartet. Alpha Classics 1074 (Naxos)
Whether they already know both of Szymanowski’s string quartets or are encountering them for the first time, lovers of chamber music will find much to marvel at in this recording. The music itself is striking in the way it brings together irresistible lyric sweetness and advanced polytonality, folkloric energy and an almost sensuous refinement. The Belcea Quartet’s interpretation is equally compelling, and its heightened sensitivity also sheds light on Debussy’s quartet: pure seduction through remarkable clarity, a deep relish of and immersion in every single, magical sonority. For the jury: Lotte Thaler
Chamber Music
Beethoven: The Piano Trios Vol. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven: The Piano Trios Vol. 1 (op. 1 No. 1 & 3, op. 11 »Gassenhauer«). Busch Trio. Alpha Classics 1164 (Naxos)
Why record Beethoven again, when so many outstanding versions already exist? The Busch Trio offers several answers. Every pause carries a sense of expectancy, every phrase a renewed sense of wonder at Beethoven’s early chamber music. Violinist Mathieu van Bellen and the brothers Ori and Omri Epstein on cello and piano move effortlessly between energy and lyricism without ever losing momentum. This superb recording evokes a young composer setting out to make fearlessness itself an artistic principle. The complete cycle cannot come soon enough. For the jury: Ida Hermes
Keyboard Music
Schubert: Piano Sonatas Vol. 1
Franz Schubert: Piano Sonatas Vol. 1 (D 157, 571, 850, 279, 784 & 664). Martin Helmchen. 2 CDs, Alpha Classics 1174 (Naxos)
From the outset of his projected four-volume survey of the Schubert sonatas, Martin Helmchen commands attention. With finely-calibrated dynamics and a flexible, narrative approach to tempo, he reveals new facets of a composer who, for all his familiarity, can still seem elusive. The result offers fresh perspectives and deepens our understanding of Schubert’s music. Helmchen makes this music speak directly to the present. The next instalments are keenly awaited. For the jury: Stefan Pillhofer
Keyboard Music
Bach: The Complete Works for Keyboard Vol. 11
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Complete Works for Keyboard Vol. 11: Clavier-Übungen I & II, Partitas, Italian Concerto. Benjamin Alard. 3 CDs, harmonia mundi HMM 902475.77
Another recording of Bach’s Partitas on the list? Yes – and deservedly so. Benjamin Alard’s account of Books I and II of Bach’s »Clavier-Übung«, supplemented by the duets from Book III, combines vitality with clarity in both sound and execution. The Partitas and the Overture in B minor unfold in the expressive musicality of Alard’s articulation, each tempo held in subtle tension. This is nowhere more the case than in the Italian Concerto, where he makes intelligent use of the colours of the brilliant, richly expressive 1757 Kirkman harpsichord. A high point in an already widely-praised series. For the jury: Friedrich Sprondel
Opera
Kurt Weill: Love Life
A Vaudeville in 2 Parts. Quirijn de Lang, Stephanie Corley, Themba Mvula, Justin Hopkins among others, Chorus & Orchestra of Opera North, James Holmes. 2 CDs, Capriccio C5550 (Naxos)
Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s »Love Life« was simply too unusual for its time in 1948, with its concept of telling the story of a marriage that spans 150 (!) years and ends in divorce. Now, at last, a complete recording is available. It reveals both the work’s innovative character, anticipating the later »Concept Musical«, and the rich musical variety of Sam and Susan’s changing »Love Life« as a reflection of the evolving American way of life. With this excellent recording from Opera North, Capriccio has added an important cornerstone to its Weill edition. For the jury: Manuel Brug
Choral Music
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
[A German Requiem]. Sabine Devieilhe, Stéphane Degout, Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon. harmonia mundi HMM 932772
Before those who have »died in the Lord« are finally borne towards eternal bliss on a wave of harp arpeggios, Brahms’s Requiem leads them along a path that runs from apocalypse to the »Liebesliederwalzer« [»love-song waltzes«]. In the hands of Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion, this polarity is not flattened into generalised piety, but rather transformed into a pervasive tension, evident in both the large-scale architecture and in expressive detail. Exceptional transparency and a clear, unsmeared sound texture illuminate dense passages without weakening their force. Such artistry lays bare the existential drama at the heart of Brahms’s journey from grief towards consolation. For the jury: Martin Mezger
Lieder and Vocal Recital
»Un Cycle Imaginaire«
Franz Liszt: Songs Vol. 3: Complete French Songs. Katharina Konradi, Daniel Heide. CAvi AVI4868024 (Universal)
This is the third instalment in a richly exploratory journey through Liszt’s songs, which Daniel Heide began with the baritones Andrè Schuen and Konstantin Krimmel. The album brings together (almost) all the French songs to form an »imaginary cycle«. It charts a course from the works of the 1840s, where traces of the salon still linger, to the late, inward meditations of the Crucifix. Katharina Konradi negotiates the potentially hazardous transition from melancholy to sentimentality with unfailing stylistic assurance and musical poise, supported by Heide’s lucid piano playing. For the jury: Holger Noltze
Early Music
»Leuven Chansonnier«
Works by Johannes Ockeghem, Antoine Busnois, Firminus Caron. Sollazzo Ensemble, Anna Danilevskaia. 3 CDs, Passacaille PAS 1150 (Naxos)
For seven years, Anna Danilevskaia, director of the Sollazzo Ensemble, has been researching the Leuven Chansonnier from the years 1470-75. This musical treasure has now appeared in a substantial three-CD edition from the Passacaille label. The Sollazzo Ensemble brings these works vividly to life, distinguished by fresh, incisive music-making. Some of the 50 pieces are performed instrumentally – a wholly legitimate choice that reflects 15th-century musical practice. For the jury: Bettina Winkler
Contemporary Classical Music
Ustvolskaya: Symphonies Nos. 1-5
Galina Ustvolskaya: Symphonies Nos. 1-5. Oliver Barlow, Arlo Murray, Sergej Merkusjev, Joonas Ahonen, Barbara Kozelj, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Christian Karlsen. SACD, BIS 2304 (Naxos)
Uncompromising, stylistically diverse and fearlessly individual: even nearly twenty years after her death, Galina Ustvolskaya’s work remains singular, not only within the Soviet Russian context. This is equally true of her five symphonies. Written between 1955 and 1990, they span very different periods, yet their development appears strikingly coherent and internally consistent. The performances heard here achieve a gripping intensity of expression. Elemental forces are made audible, ranging from extreme brutality to the most fragile tenderness. For the jury: Marco Frei
Historical Recordings
Sir Thomas Beecham: The Mono Era
... On HMV & Columbia Graphophone 1926-1959. London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra among others, Thomas Beecham. 53 CDs, Warner Classics 5021732629951
Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961), a brilliant maverick, elevated the breed of autocratic conductors who dominated the first half of the twentieth century. A patriarch of British orchestral life, independently wealthy, he became the great founder of orchestras, establishing the London Philharmonic and later the Royal Philharmonic – while dismissing any form of so-called »historically informed« performance. Beecham’s musical outlook is vividly reflected in Warner’s »The Mono Era« edition: from Handel and Mozart to Wagner, from Debussy and Grieg to Delius, from Beethoven to Borodin, it brings together a gallery of operatic and symphonic masters. For the jury: Wolfgang Schreiber
Crossover Productions
Sokratis Sinopoulos, Yann Keerim: Topos
ECM 2847 (Universal)
Sokratis Sinopoulos, master of the Cretan lyra, and pianist Yann Keerim, his long-standing musical partner, draw on deep cultural experience. In these musical dialogues they engage with Bartók’s »Six Romanian Folk Dances«, bringing them to life and extending them through their own compositions. In this way, imagined roots in south-eastern European folk traditions become a source of fresh creative energy. In the natural flow of the performance, and in the shifting moods between exuberance and melancholy, a highly sensitive form of chamber music emerges, with considerable emotional impact. For the jury: Bert Noglik
Film Music
Jonny Greenwood: One Battle After Another
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Jonny Greenwood, London Contemporary Orchestra, Hugh Tieppo-Brunt. CD/2 LPs, Nonesuch 0075597894332 (Warner)
A musical theme like a poem: Jonny Greenwood’s idea for the main theme of »One Battle After Another« brings together longing, radicalism and urgency. For decades, Greenwood’s unconventional yet masterful scores have formed an ideal counterpart to Paul Thomas Anderson’s films. Like Anderson’s images, his sound world ranges from wit to harrowing intensity. Greenwood sets pianos pounding, makes the strings shimmer and ache, and uses percussion to unsettling effect; he also weaves in flutes and guitars. The result is a perfectly attuned musical partner to the film. For the jury: Jenni Zylka
Music Film
Babo – The Haftbefehl Story
A documentary film by Sinan Sevinç and Juan Moreno. Digital, Netflix 81687374
»Babo – The Haftbefehl Story« shifts the focus away from the provocations of the lyrics to the man behind the icon: someone who, despite enormous success, remains trapped in deeply ingrained patterns. Over many years, the film follows his rise and fall with unusual intimacy, making both addiction and childhood trauma vividly tangible. Through tightly-constructed flashbacks and carefully-placed original recordings, it explores not only the effects but also the underlying causes: the wounds from which this intensity springs – alongside an ambivalently-drawn portrait of his wife as a source of support. Despite its broad appeal, the film opens up a space for reflection on art born of suffering and the price it exacts. For the jury: Nanna Schmidt
Jazz
Klaus Wienerroither & Barbara Bruckmüller Big Band: Trumpet Tales
Quinton Q-2505-2 (Galileo)
Viennese guitarist, composer and radio journalist Klaus Wienerroither dedicates his album »Trumpet Tales« to nine major figures in the history of jazz trumpet. The range extends from Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker to Clifford Brown, Don Cherry, Miles Davis and Kenny Wheeler. Wienerroither draws on the distinctive stylistic traits of these players, placing them in new contexts and combining the familiar with the unexpected. The big band, led by pianist and composer Barbara Bruckmüller, performs these nuanced arrangements with sensitivity and precision – combined with a genuine affection for the music and its traditions. For the jury: Werner Stiefele
Jazz
Sylvie Courvoisier, Wadada Leo Smith: Angel Falls
Intakt Records Intakt CD 444 (harmonia mundi/Bertus)
Sylvie Courvoisier has been a leading figure in improvised music for decades. A defining feature of her playing is the shifting intensity she brings to each musical moment. She has collaborated for many years with the trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, yet this is their first duo recording. »Angel Falls« traces a shared musical path, shaped by a deep and focused exchange. »We don’t chat, we don’t try something out and then move on to something else. We work with concentration,« Courvoisier says. The results speak for themselves. For the jury: Hans-Jürgen Linke
World Music
Yasmine Hamdan: I Remember I Forget
CD/LP, Crammed Discs cram323 (Integral)
Singer – and actress – Yasmine Hamdan explores the paradoxes of life in the diaspora: between Beirut and Paris, between remembering and forgetting. She asks whether forgiveness lies in forgetting, or in remembering. From afar, she follows events in Lebanon, her former home, with anguish, while seeking solace in memories of warmth, friendship and family. She transforms this inner tension into melodies poised between declamation and lament. Although she works primarily with digital instruments, their sound – another paradox – is strikingly warm and personal, often even tender. For the jury: Jodok W. Kobelt
Traditional Ethnic Music
LINA_ & Marco Mezquida: O Fado
Galileo Music GMC115
With »O Fado«, the Portuguese singer LINA_ and the Balearic pianist Marco Mezquida present an album in the style of »fado profissional«, where lyrical poetry and emotional depth meet artistic refinement. The programme is strikingly varied, ranging from impressionistic soundscapes to pizzicato textures on prepared piano. Alongside their own compositions, the two musicians offer fresh interpretations of traditional fados. »O Fado« is an album that resonates deeply and opens new perspectives within the fado tradition. For the jury: Lea Hagmann
German language Singer/Songwriters
David Lübke: Wo der Mond die Erde küsst
[Where the Moon Kisses the Earth]. Timezone Records TZ 2803 (Timezone Distribution)
This is »old school« in the best sense – recalling the early days of Reinhard Mey – and it remains the hallmark of the Hanover-based singer and guitarist David Lübke. On his previous album he cast himself as a »wandering singer«, and the songs sounded as though they had been freshly strummed in a pedestrian precinct or a small cabaret venue. The new material is more fully produced, with a proper band and guest appearances by Charlotte Pelgen, Max Prosa and Felix Meyer; yet Lübke still writes and performs without affectation. Everything feels authentic, including the large-hearted themes of life, love and death. It may sound simple, but it is anything but. For the jury: Michael Laages
Folk and Singer/Songwriters
Daniel Kahn, Jake Shulman-Ment, Christian Dawid: UMRU – unrest
Oriente Music RIENCD97 (direct distribution)
The singer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Kahn, born in Detroit and now based in Germany, has immersed himself in Eastern European culture. On »UMRU«, he moves linguistically between Yiddish, English and German, and musically between the sounds of the old shtetl, his own compositions, and songs by Ewan MacColl, Georg Kreisler and Tom Waits. In doing so, he gives voice to a sense of rootlessness that transcends time. Together with Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) and Christian Dawid (clarinet and saxophone), Kahn offers deeply felt interpretations shaped by klezmer traditions. For the jury: Almut Kückelhaus
Rock
Midlake: A Bridge To Far
CD/LP, Bella Union BELLA1688CD (Bertus)
Nearly twenty years after their breakthrough with »The Trials of Van Occupanther«, the Texas band Midlake have reached a new peak with »A Bridge To Far«. Warm harmonies, touches of psychedelic folk and meticulously-crafted arrangements come together in an album that feels soulful, light of touch and even quietly hopeful – deeply rooted in the past yet far more than a 1970s pastiche. The band succeeds in making the music’s inherent melancholy a sound that is at once historically aware and confidently contemporary. For the jury: Julia Lorenz
Hard and Heavy
Coroner: Dissonance Theory
CD/LP, Century Media 19802944502 (Sony Music)
With »Dissonance Theory«, the Swiss band Coroner transcends the past rather than merely revisiting it. More than three decades after »Grin«, this thrash metal outfit doesn’t sound complacent – if anything, the musicians are more alert than ever. Here, refinement takes the form of precision, and elegance becomes controlled escalation. The music unfolds between surgical hardness, progressive sophistication and a dark, brooding atmosphere, its strength lying in its consistency. Coroner refuses nostalgia, cultivates its singular voice, and for that very reason comes across as timeless, assured and frighteningly relevant. For the jury: Boris Kaiser
Alternative
FKA Twigs: Eusexua Afterglow
LP/Digital, Young/Atlantic YO466DA (Bertus)
»Whatever the British artist Tahliah Barnett, alias FKA Twigs, turns her hand to, she succeeds« – this was the jury’s verdict last year when awarding her album »Eusexua« the quarterly prize. Now its successor, »Eusexua Afterglow«, has arrived. The new release takes up the thread from January 2025 and develops it further, once again unfolding a sound world that draws on pop, rave, alternative and ambient. The elements are combined so seamlessly that the album resists easy classification; and yet – or precisely for that reason – it is impossible not to admire the assurance with which Barnett brings it all together. For the jury: Jan Ulrich Welke
Club and Dance
Efdemin: Poly
2 LPs/Digital, Ostgut Ton OSTGUTLP38 (direct distribution)
Efdemin’s »Poly« offers a kind of musical compass for our times: here, true greatness lies not in excess but in clarity, conviction and integrity. Phillip Sollmann, alias Efdemin, layers sounds with such precision and restraint that the music is given space to breathe. In an age of emphatic gestures, this deliberate spareness can itself feel like an act of courage. The openness of the textures invites deep listening – whether at home or on the dance floor. In this way, »Poly« emerges as a work of enduring significance within electronic music. For the jury: Gesine Kühne
Electronic and Experimental
Malo Moray: Embrace
CD/LP/Digital, Possibly Sam PSCD 005 (Direktvertrieb)
Can an album be conceived and recorded live in front of an audience, without a script or any preconceived ideas? Malo Moray suggests that it can. Inviting two dozen listeners into an atmosphere of total immersion, he captures the moment using double bass, a wide array of sound sources, electronic effects and layered soundscapes ranging from deep sub-bass to the sound of flowing water and moments of ethereal shimmer. Moray’s work explores the idea of musical freedom, weaving together ambient, jazz and Krautrock in the tradition of the Stockhausen-influenced band »Can«, and opening up new sonic spaces. For the jury: Jean Trouillet
Blues and Blues-related
Miss Emily: The Medicine
Digital, Gypsy Soul Records 8721093076667 (Bertus)
Emily Fennell, alias Miss Emily, has appeared live in Germany on several occasions. Now 44, she has been touring for more than two decades, developing her craft as a songwriter and a powerful, soulful vocalist. On her new album »The Medicine«, she blends blues, roots, soul, pop and rock in a style all her own, with dark ballads and atmospheric mid-tempo tracks often taking centre stage. With this release, the Canadian is likely to leave her status as an insider tip behind. For the jury: Philipp Roser
R&B, Soul and Hip-Hop
De La Soul: Cabin In The Sky
Digital, Mass Appeal MA20251121 (direct distribution)
With »Cabin In The Sky«, De La Soul delivers an impressive new album. It includes previously-unreleased vocals by Trugoy the Dove, who died in 2023, lending the project the character of an emotional testament. Even after decades, the group shows that it has lost none of its relevance. »Cabin In The Sky« looks both backwards and forwards at once, combining retrospective reflection, homage and a sense of future direction. Across twenty tracks, it unfolds as a rich and expansive album that speaks to long-time fans as well as new listeners. The release forms part of the »Legend Has It…« series on the Mass Appeal label, which brings together a number of iconic rap albums. For the jury: Jörg Wachsmuth
Spoken Word
Angela Winkler: Mein blaues Zimmer
[My Blue Room]. An autobiographical narrative. mp3-CD, speak low ISBN 978-3-948674-29-8
Normally such hesitations would be edited out – but not with Angela Winkler. In her autobiographical audiobook »Mein blaues Zimmer«, the actress repeatedly interrupts herself, pauses, corrects and comments on the text she is reading. Alongside deeply personal and intimate reflections, the book becomes a journey through post-war German theatre, with Winkler’s artistic touchstones Peter Zadek and Klaus Michael Grüber at its centre. The blend of narrative, fragments of memory and behind-the-scenes reflection is distinctive, both in content and in performance. For the jury: Jörn Florian Fuchs
Recordings for Children and Youth
Cornelia Funke: Hinter verzauberten Fenstern
[Behind Enchanted Windows]. Katharina Thalbach. 3 CDs, Argon Hörbuch ISBN 978-3-7324-4334-5 (Argon Verlag)
A timeless Advent classic, now presented in a fresh new recording. Julia’s little brother Olli receives a chocolate Advent calendar – while she is given only one made of paper. What begins as bitter disappointment soon turns into a far greater adventure, as a magical world is revealed behind the calendar’s doors – a world in which everyone has been waiting for Julia. Newly read by the wonderful Katharina Thalbach, accompanied by festive guitar music and a booklet illustrated by the doll-maker Sara-Christin Richter, this audiobook invites listeners to curl up and listen spellbound, surrounded by the warmth of the hearth and the scent of Christmas baking. For the jury: Helen Seyd