Year’s favourite returns to streaming charts
NewsApple’s announcement that John Field’s Nocturnes were the most popular stream of 2025 has propelled the album back to this week charts:
1 John Field: Complete Nocturnes Alice Sara Ott
2 Sleep Max Richter
3 Violin Café Nicola Benedetti, Plínio Fernandes, Samuele Telari, Thomas Carroll
4 Schubert: Four Hands Bertrand Chamayou, Leif Ove Andsnes
5 Baroque Encores David Fray
6 Chopin Eric Lu
7 Piano Book 2 Lang Lang
8 Bach: Goldberg Variations Antoine Morinière, Thibaut Garcia
9 Bach: Cello Suites Anastasia Kobekina
10 Renaissance Shani Diluka
Top 100 here.
I was struck the huge volume of new music. After the premiere at the symphony, concert goers must be heading in droves to online music stores to pick up copies of what they just heard and loved (local premier) or similar music by the same composer. This list demonstrates that orchestras’ are not simply promoting new music for the sake of doing it but rather are promoting new music that the audiences are craving to hear. We see that trend every year in radio station end of the year countdowns.
Field. Mmhhh…Not bad, but prefer Chopin or Fauré.
Alice Sara Ott, mmhhh…
Deutsche Grammophon: waiting for Mikhail Pletnëv’s Scriabin’s Preludes Op. 11 and Chopin’s ones.
His Master’s Voice.
I certainly enjoy Pletnev, though I frankly don’t share your dismissive attitude of Ms. Ott. I find her technique estimable and her playing delicate, sensitive, often inspired. Though Frederic Chopin and John Field are apples and oranges, I’m with you on preferring Chopin. When it comes to piano, no one compares.
Gentile Amar, sorry if my comment on Alice Sara Ott appeared to you as dismissive, which absolutely wasn’t my will.
As an excuse I could say English isn’t my mother language, and that in Italian (or French, as I’m 100% bilingual) muttering “mmhhh” doesn’t sound so offensive.
But even more important explanation is myself being the high passions type, in stile italiano, per dirlo nella mia lingua.
No mysteries: between my preferred musicians stand Yudina, Tamarkina, Michael Rabin, Christian Ferras, Samson François, unjustifiabely underrated Sergio Fiorentino, Cortot of course, Annie Fischer, Maria Tipo, Marcelle Meyer, almost all so called “Golden Age” artists, Jon Vickers, Callas, Karl Richter, Peter Schreier, Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Pasolini, Douglas Sirk, Dumas, Hugo, Dostoïevski, Goya, van Gogh, Shakespeare (basta!) plus a long serie of eastern or oriental names I’m not able to correctly digit.
Almost all of them, as you may notice, have a sort of crazy side as artists…
Yes because I wait from a true artist a sort of epiphany, a Stendhal syndrome.
I expect to live, during any artistic experience (book, painting, movie, theatre, photo, music of course being musician myself) from an artist to embody onstage “trite” Prince Mishkin’s statement:
“Beauty will save the world.”
Today not many, alas, touch profoundly my soul. Il Signor Pletnëv è uno di questi.
Sounds like you live for art. Brava!
Imagine a duo CD with Vikingur Olafsson — wouldn’t it be loverly?
On the positive side, Tharaud’s utterly abominable Pianosong is largely absent, and critics seem unwilling to discuss it. Mr. Lang has been beaten at his own game.