- Third Coast Percussion: “Between Breaths” (Cedille)
- Wild Up: “Julius Eastman, Vol. 3: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” (New Amsterdam)
- Kirill Gerstein, Berlin Philharmonic, Kirill Petrenko: “Rachmaninoff 150” (Berliner Philharmoniker)
- Het Collectief: Messiaen: “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” (Alpha)
- Haymarket Opera Company, Craig Trompeter, Nicole Cabell: “Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: L’amant anonyme” (Cedille)
Are we still meant to be listening to music? This is something I’ve been struggling with over the last two-and-a-half months, even when I am, by virtue of my profession, actually meant to be listening to music. Either the political ramifications of a work start to become too foregrounded (try listening to Maria Callas in Cherubini’s “Medea” in this climate) or the chasm between what’s being played and what’s playing out in the real world feels too vast to bridge (which was, ironically, my experience of Peter Sellars’s refugee-“inspired” staging of Charpentier’s “Medée” at the Berlin Staatsoper).