The year was 1992. The USSR had split apart and the Cold War had ended – albeit temporarily. In the UK, the Conservative Party under John Major won a fourth term, while the Queen’s Ruby Jubilee could not brighten an otherwise ‘annus horribilis’. But a far more notable event was on the horizon – in September, the first issue of BBC Music Magazine was published.
During the 30 years since that auspicious landmark, the world has changed almost beyond recognition – politically, culturally and by way of the all-encompassing digital revolution. In pop music, all but the most tenacious of artists have faded to make way for a new generation of polished stars, and the classical world, too, has borne witness to exciting new trends – not least in the acceptance of period performance as a mainstream idea (see our interview with Roger Norrington, p44).
But what have been the landmark classical recordings of those 30 years? To try to answer that question, we’ve asked 30 of our reviewers to name their standout recording – the album that raised the bar technically or musically, introduced us to fascinating new works or presented a new way of understanding well-loved repertoire. No easy task, the exercise has, we think, produced a wonderful tribute to the passion and inventiveness of the classical music world over the past 30 years…
Gounod Mors et Vita
Barbara Hendricks (soprano, below), Orféon Donostiarra; Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse/Michel Plasson EMI Classics CDS754 4592 (1992)
After Gounod’s last three operas had bitten the dust, his reputation was rescued by his oratorios La Rédemption and Mors et Vita at successive Birmingham Festivals in the 1880s. In the latter work, lasting two-and-a-half hours, he displays his command over an extended structure, released from the importunities of staging and operatic sopranos. After the two parts ‘Death’ and ‘Judgment’, where his habitual suavity is counterbalanced by intriguingly chromatic harmonies, ‘Life’ beyond the grave is portrayed majestically – overall this is a Gounod I never expected: the fruit, one imagines, not only of profound talent and long experience, but of constant prayer. Roger Nichols
Delius Sea Drift, Songs of Farewell, Songs of Sunset
Bryn Terfel (baritone) et al; Bournemouth SO & Chorus/Richard Hickox Chandos CHAN 9214 (1993)
The huge power of Bryn Terfel’s singing was already making remains as remarkable and disturbing as ever. Exceptional choral singing also contributes to the best-ever recording of , whose high-altitude perils are superbly negotiated, while Terfel and mezzo-soprano Sally Burgess both excel in the very different soundworld (hothouse rather than epic) of .
