Earlier this month, the Oxford English Dictionary named “brain rot” — defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging” — its 2024 Word of the Year.
While we can’t promise that our favorite 2024 classical albums and experiences are a cure-all for brain rot, we emphatically believe that they have stimulated our minds and souls to find greater depth, meaning, and purpose in the last 366 days. As you listen and reminisce on your own year in music, we hope you’ll feel the same! — Zev Kane
Join host Mark Pinto for Sunday Classical from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5th to hear music from each of our favorite 2024 albums.
Album: Karen Slack and Michelle Cann, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price
Karen Slack’s Beyond the Years, with collaborative pianist Michelle Cann, is a stunning showcase of Florence Price’s art songs — charming, ecstatic, and profoundly moving. Slack, a CAPA and Curtis alumna, soars in “Ships That Pass in the Night,” and the Helden-qualities of her voice elevate “Song is So Old” to a Beethoven-like intensity. Most importantly, this treasure trove of musical gems by Price is sure to endure on concert stages for years.
Concert: Julia Bullock and Bretton Brown, Perelman Theater, Jan. 11
Classical singer Julia Bullock has redefined the recital with her personal stamp and message. Her riveting program with Bretton Brown for PCMS stood out for its wide-ranging repertoire (Barber, Poulenc, Weill, Burleigh, Rodgers & Hammerstein). While their Altenberg Lieder (Berg) thrilled this listener, folk musician Connie Converse’s songs of humor in despair made the night. A brilliant evening.
Album: Gesualdo Six, Queen of Hearts
The British ensemble made their Philadelphia debut in November to a sold-out crowd, but I already had their sound in my ear thanks to this impeccably researched and beautifully sung album of (mostly) 16th-century polyphony.
Concert: Riccardo Muti Leads Verdi’s Requiem, Marian Anderson Hall, Oct. 25
The last time I saw Muti conduct Verdi, it was Otello in Carnegie Hall with the Chicago Orchestra and Chorus. That performance brought all of us to our feet, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see him conduct our own fabulous Philadelphians in this iconic work. It was wonderful to see and hear the energy and committed playing of the Orchestra as they reunited with the 83-year old maestro.
Album: Gabriela Ortiz, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Revolución diamantina
Inspired by the Mexican “glitter revolution” in protest of state violence against women, “Revolución diamantina” powerfully incorporates folkloric elements in a ballet that also invokes Stravinsky, Messiaen and Glass. Ortiz balances these and other allusions with a steady hand, secure in a longstanding working relationship with the L.A. Phil. That mutual trust is just as clear on “Altar de cuerda (String Altar),” a violin concerto stirringly performed by Maria Dueñas, and on “Kauyumari,” a tone poem to herald a hopeful post-pandemic age.
Concert: Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou, Perelman Theater, Dec. 10
There’s no language to fully capture the astonishing command that soprano Barbara Hannigan brought to her PCMS recital with French pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Opening with Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle Chants de terre et de ciel, the concert peaked with John Zorn’s extraordinary Jumalattaret — a custom-fitted piece inspired by Finnish mythology, and a near-unsingable feat that Hannigan handled with otherworldly polish, embodied presence and dramatic flair.
Album: Latvian Radio Choir, Angele Dei
The 24-member Latvian Radio Choir is remarkable for its intentional combination of contemporary design and timeless purpose, illuminating sacred text with experimental polyphony from modern Latvian composers. Angele Dei, their new album, is deeply stirring and contemplative. The choir’s immersive sound is so disciplined that it becomes a beautiful breathing organism of its own, cloaked in a haunting tapestry of spectral harmony, microtonality and cavernous reverb. Let this music seep into you like a waking dream, especially “Sensus” from composer Krists Auznieks.
Concert: Turangalila-Symphonie, Yuja Wang and Cécile Lartigau with BSO (Andris Nelsons, conductor), Symphony Hall, April 11
My daughter and I made a quick trip to Boston this spring for college visits, and bought rush tickets for a rare treat: Olivier Messiaen’s lone symphony performed by the commissioning orchestra in the hallowed space where Leonard Bernstein premiered the work 75 years ago. Hearing this maelstrom of sound was its own adventure, full of impossible piano parts executed with Yuja Wang’s brisk and cheerful readiness and swirling electronics on the ondes Martenot delivered with a low-key intensity from Cécile Lartigau. Messiaen’s ecstatic music hit a peak during the fifth movement, “Joie du sang des étoiles.” I’m glad to know the event was recorded and is now available digitally.
Album: Yunchan Lim, Chopin: Etudes, Opp. 10 & 25
If youth is wasted on the young, Yunchan Lim has been mercifully spared. In his debut studio album, the 20-year old South Korean phenom romps through Chopin’s Opp. 10 and 25 Etudes with astounding dexterity, interpretive daring, subtlety, wit, and joie de vivre. The sky feels like a vast underestimation of his limit.
Concert: Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marian Anderson Hall, May 1
Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is his most psychologically fraught — from its unremitting opening march to the piercing fortissimo eruptions of its finale, it hisses, roils, and burns. In a one-night swing through Marian Anderson Hall in May, conductor Simon Rattle and Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra managed the seemingly impossible: taking Mahler’s overwhelming existential outpouring head on, while shading it with exceptional clarity, color, and compassion.
Album: Charles Ives: The RCA and Columbia Anthology
As a child, I discovered at my local public library an LP called “Old Songs Deranged,” featuring the music of Charles Ives, an unfamiliar name. After hearing it, I was instantly hooked on the quotations, strange harmonies and rhythms, and the Americana in the music of this unique composer. I must have checked the album out 20 to 25 times in the ensuing years, eventually making a cassette copy. When I saw that it was included in this anthology, I was beyond elated. I’m grateful to have the entire set, but this was a childhood dream come true!
Concert: The Chesco Pops, Fugett Middle School, Oct. 20
Over the years, as a volunteer with the Chesco Pops, I’ve experienced how the orchestra has risen to new heights of musicianship and been gratified at how audiences have expanded and responded with increasing enthusiasm. Their October concert series featured the orchestra in a nontypical program of rock music — “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” a Michael Jackson medley, etc. — and the audience ate it up! Yes, I enjoyed it, too, but hearing all the hoots, hollers, and whistles after every selection was amazing and heartwarming.
Album: Maya Beiser x Terry Riley, In C / Caroline Shaw, Sō Percussion, To Music
Cellist Maya Beiser took Terry Riley’s seminal piece of aleatoric minimalism and brought out multiple sides of her instrument, as well as her voice and percussion, for a really cool interpretation of this 60-year-old classic. I also cannot go without mentioning one other reinterpretation that came out this year – Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion’s incredible, half-tempo, wordless take on Franz Schubert’s “An die Musik,” titled in English as “To Music.”
Concert: We Have Gone As Far As We Can Together, FringeArts, Nov. 8
Dubbed a “ritual opera” by its creators, this was a musical experience in which the audience was part of the performance, invited to add their own singing and move around the room to change their perspectives. A friend of mine in the performance told me that one of the nights spilled out into Fringe’s main bar area, which was only separated from the house by a curtain.
Album: La Serenissima: Vivaldi X2²
This album is what Vivaldi should sound like. After their hit album Vivaldi x2, released in 2018, La Serenissima is back with another installment of Vivaldi concertos for two instruments. The energy in these performances is through the roof, and breathes life into these 300-year old works. My personal favorite is Concerto for Two Cellos, RV 531, a great place to start on this almost 70-minute album.
Concert: The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Mahler 7, April 11
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra once again proved they are one of the world’s best pairings with a performance of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. It’s not an easy piece to pull off, and the Orchestra’s performance was both powerful and tender. It was also expertly led by Esteban Batallán, who shortly after was appointed as the orchestra’s new principal trumpet player.
Album: Antonio Pappano, Gautier Capuçon, London Symphony Orchestra, Edgar/Walton: Cello Concertos
Whether in chamber music or with orchestra, cellist Gautier Capuçon commands attention, his passion and elegance in perfect balance. Elgar’s elegiac Cello Concerto proves a marvelous vehicle for his gifts. Capuçon confesses a fondness for the work since childhood — ever since he first heard Jacqueline DuPre’s classic recording, which brought the Elgar concerto back into favor more than 50 years ago. But even with this touchstone, his interpretation is entirely his own, and utterly absorbing. Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony provide sensitive accompaniment in both the Elgar and the underappreciated but thoroughly enjoyable Walton Cello Concerto.
Concert: Triomphi — Piffaro with TENET Vocal Artists, First Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Oct. 11
I really looked forward to this immersive event assembled by Piffaro member Grant Herreid, inspired by the “Triumphs” of the visionary Italian Renaissance scholar Francesco Petrarca. Herreid juxtaposed madrigals on Petrarch’s poems with complementary popular songs and instrumental pieces of the time, presented before massive visual projections. I wasn’t disappointed. The clear and expressive voices of TENET proved perfect partners for Piffaro’s multi-talented players. I had to keep reminding myself to look at the projected images, because the smooth and continuous choreography of the performers, forming varying ensembles and dramatic groupings, was thoroughly absorbing in itself. A “triumph,” indeed.
Join host Mark Pinto for Sunday Classical from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5th to hear music from each of our favorite 2024 albums.