- Selig ist der Mann (Blessed is the man)
- Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (May our mouth be full of laughter)
- Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen (We must pass through great sadness to enter into the Kingdom of God)
- Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt (Sweet comfort, my Jesus comes)
Barber - Die Natali
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Beethoven - String Quartets 13 and 14
Brahms
- Symphonies 1 and 2
- String Quartet No.3
- Neue Liebeslieder
- Sonnet: When Most I Wink
- If I Could Choose
- The Primrose
- A Dirge
- The Devon Maid
- Dawn and Evening
- Two Songs after Heine
- Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
- Go Not, Happy Day
- Night Lies on the Silent Highways
- A Dead Violet
- Cradle Song
- Capriccio No.1
- Etude Rhapsodique
- Dramatic Fantasia
- 3 Sketches for piano
- 3 Pieces for piano
- Miniature Pastorals, Set 1
- Fairy Tale Suite
- The Hour Glass
- Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire
- Three Melodies (Verlaine)
- Les Angelus
- Two songs (Romance / Les Cloches)
- Nuit d'étoiles
- Fleur des blés
- Mandoline
- Voici que le printemps (Romance)
- Symphony No.7
- Piano Trios 1 to 3
- Serenade for flute, violin, viola and triangle
- Romance in F minor (version for violin and piano)
- Nocturne (version for violin and piano)
- Capriccio for violin and piano
- Mazurek for violin and pinao
- Ballad for violin and piano
- Slavonic Dances, series 1 (piano version)
- Legends (piano version)
- Dumka and Furiant for piano
- Furiant for piano
- Humoresque in F sharp for piano
- Cinq mélodies "de Venise"
- La bonne chanson
- La chanson d'Ève
- Three songs, op.23
- Clair de Lune
- Au Bord de l'Eau
- Apres un reve
Mozart
- Symphony No.36
- Piano Concertos 13 and 17
- Piano Sonata No.12
- Five pieces for piano, op.3
- Three piano pieces, op.59
- Symphonic Suite
- Festival Prelude for the New Century
Schubert - Piano Trio No.2
Schubert - String Quartet No.12, 'Quartettsatz'
Schumann
- Lieder und Gesänge, Volumes 1 (op.27) and 2 (op.51)
- Spanisches Liederspiel
- 4 Duets, op.78
- Adagio and Allegro for horn and piano
- Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces) for clarinet and piano
- Waldszenen
- Symphony No.1
- Two Romances to Lyrics by Lermontov
- Four Songs to Lyrics by Dolmatovsky
- Four Monologues to Words by Pushkin
- Greek Songs
- Five Songs to Lyrics by Dolmatovsky (Songs of Our Days)
- Spanish Songs
- Five Romances on Words from Krokodil Magazine
- A Foreword to my Complete Works and a Brief Contemplation with Respect to this Foreword
- Pohjola's Daughter
- The Oceanides
- Violin Concerto
- Suite for violin and orchestra
- Piano Sonata
- Ten pieces for piano, op.24
- Six Impromptus, op.5
- Bagatelles, op.34
- Narciss
- Små flickorna
While some of this big haul consists of small items (such as songs that are only a few minutes in length), the reason many of those items appear on the list is that I made another large purchase. Well, technically it was multiple purchases from different shops, but it was essentially one decision-making process about what to buy.
I didn't immediately start listening to everything that I bought, but purchases on this list include songs and piano pieces by Frank Bridge, songs by Debussy, chamber music (including piano duet works) by Dvorak, songs by Faure, piano pieces by Nielsen, songs by Shostakovich and piano pieces and the Violin Concerto by Sibelius.
I'm not going to discuss all of those just now, but I do want to make particular mention of some. The piano pieces by Bridge are performed by Mark Bebbington, and the ones by Sibelius are performed by Janne Mertanen. In both cases the pianists do a simply superb job of making the most of small-scale pieces. I had picked them over rival performances (yes, in both cases rival performances of this repertoire do exist) because they'd given that impression in samples, but it's a different thing again to sit down and properly listen to a work. Time and again these two performers make really satisfying music.
The other album that deserves special mention is the recital of Faure songs by Veronique Dietschy and Philippe Cassard. Faure is one of my favourite composers, and I went looking for alternative versions of certain songs because I was dissatisfied with my existing recordings on the Hyperion label (generally good, but unfortunately Jennifer Smith is a glaring weak spot). I came across Dietschy and Cassard's version of La chanson d'Ève and it was magic.
Unfortunately I cannot get hold of a physical copy of the album, so I've bought it on iTunes. The whole recital has the same magic. Dietschy is a simply exquisite singer. She has the kind of smooth, liquid voice that Faure's long flowing lines need. The combination of music and performance makes this one of the most enjoyable classical albums I have.
As well as the new purchases, there's room to mention one part of the existing material. I reached the end of my "chronological chunks" exploration of my Beethoven collection. This included listening to the Diabelli Variations for the first time, as I'd saved the recording purchased last year until the appropriate chronological slot. The very last thing I listened to was the C sharp minor string quartet, truly a masterpiece.
I started the process in January 2016, so it took 2.75 years to work through my Beethoven collection. I'm not a quick listener, but also I have quite a bit of Beethoven. And what's striking is the incredibly high proportion of music that is of the highest quality. To my ears he truly is one of the greatest composers the world has known.
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