I am not one for musical league tables or for pigeonholing musicians, so what follows, while far from arbitrary, is in no order whatsoever; it’s simply as I recalled a particular release that I regard as special I included it below, so something has no doubt escaped my memory bank, and anyway I didn’t want a long/unmanageable list…

Sergei Babayan records Rachmaninov for Deutsche Grammophon.

A brace of BIS beauties – Andrew Litton conducts Enigma Variations & The Planets | Pascal Rophé conducts Dukas’s Sorcerer & Roussel’s Spider.

Michael Collins records Finzi & Vaughan Williams with the Philharmonia Orchestra for BIS.

RELEASED TODAY, October 30: Martyn Brabbins & BBCSO record Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony and Pilgrim’s Progress for Hyperion.

RELEASED TODAY, July 3 – Hallé: Mark Elder records Debussy’s Images & Faune [Hallé own label]

Martin Roscoe records Beethoven’s Appassionata for Deux-Elles.

Christian Thielemann records Bruckner 8 with the Vienna Philharmonic for Sony Classical.

A bag of bagatelles … Nicolas Hodges records Beethoven & Birtwistle for Wergo.

Barry Douglas – Schubert – Works for Solo Piano, Volume 5 [Chandos]

Rhapsody in Navy Blue [Channel Classics]

Federico Colli – Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas, Volume 2 [Chandos]

Pavel Kolesnikov records Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Hyperion.

Paavo Järvi records Franz Schmidt’s Four Symphonies in Frankfurt for Deutsche Grammophon.

Danny Kaye – Hans Christian Andersen | Tubby the Tuba [Eloquence]

RELEASED TODAY, July 24: Christopher Rouse – Symphony 5, Supplica, Concerto for Orchestra – Giancarlo Guerrero conducts the Nashville Symphony [Naxos]

Sir John Barbirolli: The Complete Warner Recordings.

Sir Adrian Boult: A Musical Legacy [London Philharmonic Orchestra own-label]

George Szell: The Warner Recordings 1934-1970.

JoAnn Falletta & the Buffalo Philharmonic record Florent Schmitt for Naxos.

RELEASED TODAY, August 28: Leonard Slatkin conducts the world premiere recording of Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers (1914-17) [Naxos]

That’s twenty selections, for 2020, and following are some (ten) favourite concert reviews, again impromptu…

Orchestre de Paris – Klaus Mäkelä conducts Mahler 9 [live webcast]

Mark Padmore & Mitsuko Uchida @ Wigmore Hall – Schubert’s Winterreise – Live on BBC Radio 3 and in HD Video.

Sir Mark Elder conducts BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra [live YouTube webcast]

Berliner Philharmoniker – Kirill Petrenko conducts Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony [live webcast]

Shostakovich – Discoveries: Nine World Premieres – Daniil Trifonov, Yulianna Avdeeva, Dmitry Masleev [live webcast]

Brabbins conducts Britten [live BBC Radio 3 broadcast on Thursday 12 November 2020 from City Halls Glasgow at 7.30 p.m.]

Post #550: Live on BBC Radio 3 from City Halls Glasgow – Steven Osborne plays Schubert.

Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the Vienna Philharmonic on BBC Radio 3.

Stephen Kovacevich at Wigmore Hall – Bach & Schubert [live YouTube webcast]

Wigmore Hall – Jonathan Plowright plays Brahms & Chopin [live webcast]

Bonus entry (difficult to leave Blomstedt out!)

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra – Herbert Blomstedt conducts Schubert’s ‘Great C-major’ Symphony & Johan Dalene plays Mozart’s Violin Concerto K219 [livestream]