- Sabine Devieilhe, Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion: “Bach & Handel” (Erato)
- Sean Friar, NOW Ensemble: “Before and After” (New Amsterdam)
- Anthony Roth Costanzo, Justin Vivian Bond: “Only an Octave Apart” (Decca)
All easygoing years are alike; each exhausting year is exhausting in its own way. For 2022, I can place my breaking point at West Elm Caleb. It’s the sort of story I didn’t need to know—and one I have no real desire to recap here—but one that exemplifies the unique brand of noise that’s grown out of most people reconciling time spent increasingly, aggressively online and the slippery, concrete events of the offline world. There’s an algorithm-fuelled tempest in a teacup, parasocial relationships to actual human beings, a fever pitch of ubiquity no matter what website or app you’re on, and a series of psychotherapy metaphors so tortured that it should be prohibited by the Geneva Convention.