I would like to share my best musical experiences of the past year and
would be interested in hearing about those others have experienced.

The recording that most excited me was the Brewaeys' orchestration or
"recomposition" of Debussy's preludes, which I wrote about here at the
end of June 28 (link below).

As far as both live and recorded experiences are concerned, this is the
year I really learned to appreciate the Shostakovich string quartets,
with exciting live performances from the Fine Arts Quartet in Milwaukee,
and the Philharmonia Quartet (Berlin) in the Kammermusiksaal, which I
reported on last winter.  In addition I can recommend the recent release
of the Julliard String Quartet's recording on Sony of quartets no.  3,
14 & 15, in addition to the Piano Quinted with Bronfman (the last a
reissue.) Performances and recording are both fine, in contrast to the
rather disappointing sound of the old Borodin Quartet's collection of
1-13.

This is cheating a bit, but the live performance I most wanted to hear--
but had to miss because of a family priority, and I thought long and
hard about that!--was Hilary Hahn playing the Britten Violin Concerto
with the Milwaukee Symphony in October.  The review confirmned that I
had indeed missed something special.  Her recording will appear rather
sooner than later, I assume.  Not quite the same, though.

   http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/t/tal81004a.html

Jim Tobin