Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor Rob Barnett Editor in Chief
John Quinn Seen & Heard Editor Emeritus Bill Kenny MusicWeb Webmaster
David Barker Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf MusicWeb Founder Len Mullenger
Discs for
review may be sent to:
Jonathan Woolf
76 Lushes Road
Loughton
Essex IG10 3QB
United Kingdom
jonathan_woolf@yahoo.co.uk
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL
Recordings Of The Year 2021
This is the nineteenth year that Musicweb International has asked its reviewing team to nominate their recordings of the year. Reviewers are not restricted to discs they had reviewed, but the choices must have been reviewed on MWI in the last 12 months (December 2020-November 2021).
The 136 selections have come from 29 members of the team
and 71 different labels, the choices this year reflecting as usual, the great diversity of music and sources.
Of the selections, two have received three nominations: •
Simpson's symphonies 5 & 6 on Lyrita • Gustavo Dudamel's Ives symphony cycle on DG
and five have received two: • the PaTRAM Institute's More Honourable than
the Cherubim on Chandos • the Pagliacci/Cavalleria Rusticana
pairing on Naxos •
Maliszewski's orchestral works on Dux • the Eugene
Ormandy/Philadelphia boxset on Sony • chamber works of Nino Rota on
Alpha
Of the labels, Naxos and Deutsche Grammophon headed the field with
nine nominations,
with BIS close behind with eight.
Click on the cover image to read the full review.
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL RECORDING OF THE YEAR
Choosing one recording from the more than
2000 reviews we published in the last twelve months is a near
impossible task, yet pick one we must.
In some years,
there is a significant composer anniversary which produces an
outstanding release that makes for a suitable choice. In other
years, the selection is determined by a recording which garners
a significant number of nominations, both in the Recording of
the Year awards, but also throughout the year as a Recording of
the Month or a Recommended tag. This year the final selection
met both those criteria.
Robert
SIMPSON Symphonies 5 & 6 - London SO/Andrew Davis, London
PO/Sir Charles Groves rec. 1973/80 LYRITA SRCD.389
So it came down to a choice between the Simpson and the Ives,
both having collected three nominations - either would have been a
worthy winner. The decision to pick the Simpson was made partly
because it is the centenary of his birth, and because it also gained an "honourable mention" from one of
the reviewers in his ROTY preamble, as well as three Recommended
awards (out of three reviews) throughout the course of the year.
Read the three reviews by clicking on the cover image here,
but a few quotes from those reviews are appropriate: "one of the
most revelatory archive/historical discs of the year" (Nick
Barnard), "the closing pages which are absolutely electrifying
here" (David McDade), "a thrilling, visceral complimentary
experience" (Richard Hanlon).
