The 10 Best Classical Albums of 2023

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/13/ [login to see] /the-10-best-classical-albums-of-2023
"Since the pandemic began, I've not been going to concerts — as in none since March 2020 — until this year. So far, I've dodged the COVID bullet (yes, an outlier), though I'm still squeamish about large crowds. Still, this year I did jump back in the saddle to experience a carefully curated selection of live performances.

Conductor Rafael Payare led the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in a dynamic, youthful account of Mahler's 5th, while Yuja Wang's blur of fingers made for a ripsnorting Bartók Piano Concerto No. 2. To hear flutist Claire Chase and the Helsinki Philharmonic brilliantly navigate the dreamscape sounds of Kaija Saariaho, who suddenly died three weeks after that May performance, now seems like a balm for a deep musical wound. And I'm still a little buzzed from a visit to Cologne, Germany — a modernist music stronghold — to bask in a centennial György Ligeti concert (including Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes), conducted by Matthias Pintscher"