ROTYs & GROTYs

Thanks, David, for the sneak preview of this year's ROTYs. As ever I am amazed at the range of music covered; so much still to discover and so little time. But reading all those comments I wondered whether we should have an unofficial category as well, Ghastliest Recordings of the Year (GROTYs).

Thankfully there weren't too many of those - well, not for me anyway - although the ones that did crop up were pretty grim. Perhaps the worst was Volume 5 in the Naxos Tchaikovsky songs series with Ljuba Kazarnovskaya (soprano) and Ljuba Orfenova (piano). I could scarcely believe the awfulness of this recital, followed closely by another Naxos offering, this time of Tchaikovsky ballet transcriptions from the Aurora Duo. All magic sadly lacking there, too.

There were a few others - the Edo de Waart Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 from PentaTone, which managed to couple a dull performance with a dull recording, and the same conductor's Also sprach Zarathustra from Exton, which just sounded bizarre. And then there was Neeme Jarvi's return to the RSNO with The Ring: an orchestral adventure, which didn't begin to suggest the grandeur and sweep of Wagner's tetralogy.

But really it's the gems that make this reviewing lark so worthwhile. There are many more discs I would have nominated for a ROTY this year, including Kenneth Fuchs' Canticle to the Sun (Naxos), Volume 2 of Rossini's piano works from Sollini (Chandos), and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's Brazil! (Telarc). Not to mention the sumptuous d'Indy disc from Rumon Gamba (Chandos), Volume I of Franck's organ music played on the wondrous instrument at Memmingen (Audite) and the Eloquence reissue of David Del Tredici's Final Alice.

The fact that there is still an enticing and eclectic range of music appearing every month surely flies in the face of those like 'Cassandra' Lebrecht, who constantly bemoan the demise of classical music in general and the recording industry in particular. Clearly ROTYs far outnumber GROTYs, and for that we must all be grateful.