Ancient and Modern. Of those recordings I tagged as Outstanding, two are in the historical category (although post-dating by decades Edison’s phonograph) and germane to us today, keeping in touch with great musicians: Boult’s Boston VW Job, http://www.colinscolumn.com/rvw150-somm-releases-sir-adrian-boult-conducting-the-boston-symphony-orchestra-in-ralph-vaughan-williamss-job-a-masque-for-dancing-1946/, and Celibidache’s Haydn & Tchaikovsky from Stuttgart, 1959, http://www.colinscolumn.com/swr-classic-releases-sergiu-celibidache-conducting-symphonies-by-haydn-no-102-and-tchaikovsky-no-6-pathetique/, and do please note reader Mr Bennett’s comment regarding the latter.

Of more-recent fare in terms of recording date, piano releases I would not want to be without include Jablonski’s Chopin, http://www.colinscolumn.com/peter-jablonski-records-chopins-complete-mazurkas-for-ondine-volume-one/, and Osborne’s Debussy, http://www.colinscolumn.com/steven-osborne-records-early-and-late-debussy-for-hyperion/.

String Quartets by W. H. Reed proved to be a pleasing discovery, http://www.colinscolumn.com/the-cirrus-string-quartet-records-music-by-william-henry-reed-for-mpr/, but if the Desert Island loomed, I really could not choose between Bychkov’s Mahler Five, http://www.colinscolumn.com/semyon-bychkov-the-czech-philharmonic-record-mahlers-fifth-symphony-for-pentatone/, and Andrew Davis’s Stravinsky, http://www.colinscolumn.com/sir-andrew-davis-and-the-bbc-philharmonic-record-stravinsky-for-chandos/, of which friend and colleague Bob Matthew-Walker’s comment says it all.