New York Classical Review

1. Mahler: Symphony No. 7. Gustavo Dudamel/New York Philharmonic

Gustavo Dudamel isn’t officially the music director of the New York Philharmonic until next season, but performances this year show that conductor and orchestra are fully in sync. The pinnacle was the season-closing concert in May, a contender for one of the greatest Mahler performances from Mahler’s own orchestra. Beyond technique, Dudamel and the musicians were making music together in the truest collaborative sense. This was thrilling, powerful, and immensely beautiful. (GG)

2. Music of Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. Manfred Honeck/Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Led by longtime music director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra impressed the audience and critics alike in their sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in December. It was the PSO’s first appearance there in 11 years and left everyone wondering where they had been all this time. Honeck led the orchestra in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, which got to the essence of this monumental, terrifying work. In Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Seong-Jin Cho dazzled with the brilliance and emotional depth of his playing. (RP)

3. Music of Beethoven, Corigliano, Schumann. Emanuel Ax

An evening of fantasy with Emanuel Ax was not going to be a random walk. The pianist, known for compelling, straight-no-chaser performances of keyboard classics, played five pieces in his May recital in Carnegie Hall, four of which had some form of “fantasy” in the title. But there was no relaxation of his standards when it came to finding and communicating the entire shape of a piece. Beethoven’s two sonatas “quasi una fantasia,” Op. 27, and Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Op. 17, were among the works that sat up straight and made a statement. (DW)

4. Stravinsky: Violin Concerto. Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Jakub Hrůša/New York Philharmonic

In the middle of what was a stimulating New York Philharmonic concert with an attractive world premiere and a strong interpretation of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja erupted like Athena exploding, this time, from a volcano. She is one of the most remarkable musicians one will hear in a lifetime, so there were massive expectations and excitement over her Philharmonic debut. Her incredible turn as soloist, followed by a jaw-dropping encore, showed what makes her special; not just virtuosity but musical thinking that seems to come out of her body, with the violin as the only way to express it. (GG)

5. Music of Varèse, Ravel, Gershwin. Gustavo Dudamel/New York Philharmonic

It started with a Parisian in America, and it ended with An American in Paris. But it was really about a Venezuelan in New York. This March concert found the Philharmonic’s music director-designate leading the orchestra in wild yet lucid Varèse, Ravel by turns childlike and sensuous, and jaunty-sentimental Gershwin—a taste, New York audiences hoped, of vivid, stylish performances to come from these artists. All that, and a Ravel world premiere: a recently discovered fragment of the young composer’s projected cantata Sémiramis. (DW)

6. Strauss: Salome. Metropolitan Opera.

Elza van den Heever embodied Richard Strauss’s description of Salome as “a 16-year-old princess with the voice of Isolde” in the Met’s new production. Van den Heever’s Salome demanded and got the head of Peter Mattei’s gaunt, spectral Jochanaan, the fearless prophet who berates Herodius and bewitches her daughter. Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Met Orchestra in a swirling, brilliant performance that captured the full arc of Strauss’s music drama. For those who wonder how a young girl could become so twisted, Claus Guth, in his Met directorial debut, provided the answer. (RP)

7. Ravel: Complete Solo Piano Music. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

There was no better celebration of Maurice Ravel’s 150th anniversary that this concert by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Playing in chronological order, from memory, his elegant and slightly dry touch and interpretations put Ravel’s style, allure, and craft on full display. This was a marathon event in the sense of duration, while free of dull moments, or anything not at the highest level. And then, for an encore, he played La Valse! (GG)

8. Music of Beethoven, Schoenberg, Kurtág and  Schubert. Mitsuko Uchida

In the atmosphere of deep concentration that is her hallmark, Mitsuko Uchida held an April audience in Carnegie Hall spellbound with two sonatas—a little-known Beethoven (Op. 90 in E minor) and a vast, visionary Schubert (D. 960, B-flat major). Side by side, the resemblances were such that one sonata sounded like the fulfillment of the other. Concise, subtle works by Kurtág and Schoenberg provided more matter for reflection, aided by Uchida’s seemingly inexhaustible variety of keyboard touches and voicings. (DW)

9. Bellini: La Sonnambula. Metropolitan Opera

Start with the rarity: a famous bel canto opera infrequently performed, and its first appearance on stage at the Met in over a decade. Continue with the intrigue and quality of tenor-director Rolando Villazón’s marvelous and imaginative production, which used specific, succinct details to build a whole social world. Finish with soprano Nadine Sierra as Amina and tenor Xabier Anduaga as Elvino, with stellar, gorgeous vocalization from the former and superb dramatic depth and balance from the latter. This was the kind of skill and subtlety that goes deep. (GG)

10. Music of Handel, Montéclaire, Castello, Corelli. The Sebastians

Halloween arrived early in this dark October program featuring cantatas of horror, death, and abandonment. In the resonant space of the chapel of Brick Presbyterian Church, the intensely expressive voice of soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon brought to life tragic heroines of history and myth, as searing Baroque violins and basso continuo plumbed the depths of dissonance. (DW)

Honorable Mentions

Richard Strauss’s first opera, Guntram, bombed. The musicians in the pit decried it as the“scourge of God,” while the composer mourned it as his “child of sorrow.” Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra proved Strauss right in one point in their June concert performance of Guntram: the opera does contain some glorious music. In the title role, tenor John Matthews Myers was indefatigable, singing with burnished tone, dramatic acuteness, and enthusiasm. Soprano Angela Meade lavished vocal luster on the music Strauss wrote for the virtuous Freihild. (RP)

Ryan Speedo Green is one of the most welcome sights on the opera stage. The voice is grand, and his performances are always vivid and full of character, so there was great anticipation for the bass-baritone’s solo recital in Zankel Hall. His sympathy for the music of Wolf, Mussorgsky, and a fascinating mix of spirituals, Mahler, Schubert, and Wagner was the kind of complex musicality one hears from only the finest vocal artists. (GG)

Gabriel Fauré, the great French composer of songs and choral works left his mark on chamber music as well. In two memorable July evenings at the 92^nd Street Y, the piano trio of Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, and Jeremy Denk, with guest artists, probed deeply into Gabriel Fauré’s distinctive style, described by one writer as “poetic classicism.” (DW)

Ian Niederhoffer and his chamber orchestra Parlando excel in eclectic repertoire played with polish and passion. In February, their program “Mystic Chords” featured Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine, and Bryce Dessner’s Aheym, in a feast of shimmering musical colors and deep emotion. In the Messiaen, Suzanne Farrin infused the music with mystery and eerie beauty on the ondes Martenot. (RP)

Best What-If Premiere

Besides the familiar St. Matthew and St. John Passions by J.S. Bach, the libretto and other evidence of his Passion According to St. Mark exist, and have formed the basis for over a dozen recent attempts to reconstruct the work, fitting (as Bach himself did) the biblical text to his existing compositions. The latest of these, by the British musicologist Malcolm Bruno, was unveiled in April at Corpus Christi Church in Morningside Heights, and presented by Music Before 1800. The result was a deeply affecting staged performance by The Sebastians with players from Chatham Baroque, vocal soloists, and actor Joseph Marcell as the Evangelist. (DW)

S.O.S.

With the dissolution of On Site Opera, New York City is down to one regular opera company, and that is bad for music, opera, and cultural life. The New York City Opera brand has been in zombie-like stasis for several years, meaning it could possibly return. But its orchestra’s February concert showed an organization that, despite talented musicians, seems in danger of turning into a pet project for moneyed know-nothings. (GG)

Most Golden Weekend

By coincidence, the reigning gold-medal laureates of America’s two most prestigious music competitions gave recitals on successive nights at Carnegie Hall in April. In the Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Van Cliburn winner Yunchan Lim became the latest Romantic piano star to score a success with Bach’s intellectually formidable “Goldberg” Variations. Then, downstairs in Zankel Hall, Indianapolis top violinist Sirena Huang and the excellent pianist Chih-Yi Chen branched out effectively from Beethoven and modern classics to other cultural territory with works of Coleridge-Taylor, Perkinson and Chen Gang. (DW)

Best Low-Budget, High-Concept Opera Update

It was Metaphor Gone Wild at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in May as the Heartbeat Opera’s production of Gounod’s Faust was inspired by a Tolstoy quotation about “light and shadow.” Viewers might have risked overlooking the production’s excellent singing, acting and staging while they counted the myriad visual ways the creators found to tell the story with lights, screens and scrims, not to mention some randy puppets. (DW)

Best Farewell

In a February concert at the 92nd Street Y that was billed as their last New York appearance, the Hagen Quartet, which plans to retire after 44 years onstage, brought its special brand of sibling power and Salzburg authenticity to works of Haydn and Schumann. (DW)