For decades, Kurtág, one of the most highly lauded composers alive, has been writing epigrammatic pieces for two- and four-hand piano under the title “Játékok” (Hungarian for “games). “Documents of my life,” as he calls them, they number in the hundreds — quick scenes, passing thoughts, memorials for friends. Some are as short as half a minute. Aimard, who is as close to this project as any pianist, curates a selection of 81 pieces in this indispensable two-disc set. Every one of them shows how much emotional force can be compressed into the tiniest of forms.
Brahms, Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3; Krystian Zimerman, piano, et al (Deutsche Grammophon)
Zimerman’s recordings have become a vanishingly rare commodity, especially when it comes to chamber music. So this release would be noteworthy even had the level of musicianship not been as exalted as it is. Zimerman and his colleagues — violinist Maria Nowak, violist Katarzyna Budnik, and cellist Yuya Okamoto — get maximum intensity out of these burly scores while maintaining exacting ensemble balances. The pianist’s tone — deep and resonant — remains gloriously consistent. One hopes for more from this stellar ensemble, and soon.
Chris Thile, ‘Bach, Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2’ (Nonesuch)
When the omnivorous mandolinist Chris Thile recorded his first volume of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for violin, the result was a skillful, faithful rendition of the composer’s work. Here, he frees himself to adapt Bach’s music to the particulars of his instrument and to Thile’s own character: He adds a brief intro here, some distortion there, a new rhythmic feel that wouldn’t work on violin but seems perfect for the mandolin. Some tracks were recorded in a public park, some on a farm. By the end, he just seems to be jamming a Bach jam session — spontaneous, alive, and wholly engrossing.
Alice Sara Ott, ‘John Field: Complete Nocturnes’ (Deutsche Grammophon)
We almost reflexively associate the nocturne with Chopin, but the Irish composer John Field is thought to be the first composer to publish works with that title. They’re rarely played today, so kudos to the pianist Alice Sara Ott for not only reviving them but for bestowing on them the ravishing tone and scrupulous musicianship they deserve. Try the “Noontide” Nocturne in E major; near the end, its gorgeous cantabile melody suddenly breaks off as a muted note sounds, bell-like, as if from a great distance. The effect is pure magic.
Thomas Adès, ‘The Exterminating Angel Symphony,’ Violin Concerto; Leila Josefowicz, violin; Minnesota Orchestra, Thomas Sondergard, conductor (Pentatone)
Adés is a master at mining his stage works for concert music. In this symphony derived from his 2016 opera “The Exterminating Angel” (based on the 1962 Buñuel film), you hear guests arrive at a dinner party which, mysteriously, they are unable to leave. Bewilderment turns to fear and then briefly to calm before a series of waltzes ends the piece in pure terror. Together with the symphony is a sensuously beautiful performance of Adès’s Violin Concerto by Leila Josefowicz, all played with crack precision and understanding by the Minnesotans.
Telegraph Quartet, ‘Edge of the Storm’ (Azica)
In the second entry in its exploration of 20 th -century quartets, the Telegraph Quartet offers three underheard works from the turbulent decade between 1941 and 1951. The three quartets — by Grazyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg — share little aesthetically, but the Telegraph’s crack performances make clear how each composer was responding to either the reality or memory of war. Of special interest is Weinberg’s Sixth Quartet (1946), an unflinching artistic reflection of the war’s horrors. Little wonder that it was banned by Soviet authorities and had to wait 60 years to be played.
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 15; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, conductor (BR Klassik)
Shostakovich’s works often frustrate interpretation, and few do so more than his final symphony. By turns childlike and world-weary, it includes quotes from Rossini and Wagner, to no obvious end. Does the clatter of percussion at the conclusion stand for death’s inexorability? Whatever the interpretive key, it’s a difficult piece to bring off in performance, but it was a specialty of the late Bernard Haitink, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s prized conductor emeritus. In this, his third recording of the symphony, he lets the music unfold with unerring naturalness, which somehow makes the whole effect even more chilling.
Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi, conductor; The Complete Decca Recordings (Decca)
It’s never easy taking over for a legend. But that was the situation that Dohnanyi, who died this past September, faced when he became the Cleveland Orchestra’s music director in 1984, knowing that his work would be judged against the benchmarks set decades earlier by George Szell. But his 18-year tenure was a triumph, as Dohnanyi (who was also a treasured BSO guest) maintained the orchestra’s high standards while making its sound and repertoire his own. Here is the proof: 40 CDs of almost uniformly marvelous recordings, including some (Schumann, Dvorak, Bartok) that set new standards of their own.
Scriabin, ‘Poem of Ecstasy’; Tchaikovsky, ‘Romeo and Juliet’; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon)
Abbado made just a few recordings in Boston, all early in his career, but each remains eminently worth hearing. These readings, made at Symphony Hall in 1971, feature the wealth of color and distinctive solo playing that has long been the orchestra’s calling card, all magnificently shaped by the young Italian conductor. This reissue in Deutsche Grammophon’s “Original Source” series — mixed and cut from the original tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl — makes it all sound better than ever.