- Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov, Chen Reiss: “Mahler: Symphony No. 4” (Pentatone)
- Vicky Chow, Jane Antonia Cornish: “Sierra” (Cantaloupe)
If you know anything about Proust’s mammoth In Search of Lost Time, it’s a moment from the first installment, Swann’s Way. In it, Proust describes the moment of unlocking an old memory of Sunday mornings spent with his aunt, a tiny madeleine cake, and lime-flower tea when, as an adult, he unwittingly recreates the same meal. Memory played a role in my picking up (so to speak in the age of streaming) Semyon Bychkov’s new recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Not only was his devastatingly eloquent statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still fresh in my mind, but also a 2018 performance I’d seen him give with the New York Philharmonic of Luciano Berio’s “Sinfonia” and Strauss’s “Eine Alpensinfonie.”