A Non-Traditional Year-End Sampler : Something old (and reissued), something new, something mid-price--there’s something for everyone among the best of 1992

The following suggestions for year-end gift giving should not be mistaken for an assemblage of holiday-themed music; rather, they simply represent some of the best of my listening in 1992. Opera heads the list, from Handel’s “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” to Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen.” Then there’s the recital of British folk songs by the late English contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Also of note is a wonderful concert by Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and friends.

The compact disc has been particularly effective by exposing and exploiting the kind of vocal talent that exists today: singers not necessarily equipped with the large voices to do justice to Verdi or Wagner, but with the agility and stylistic smarts to serve previously little-known or misrepresented works of the Baroque and 20th Century.

Take, as one shining example, Handel’s “Giulio Cesare.” This grandiose, decidedly adult masterpiece has finally been done recorded justice in a period-instrument edition conducted by Rene Jacobs and with a uniformly strong cast headed by a pair of stunningly gifted young Americans--mezzo Jennifer Larmore as Caesar (originally written for an alto castrato ) and countertenor Derek Lee Ragin as the slimy Ptolemy--with veteran German soprano Barbara Schlick as a coolly seductive Cleopatra.

This splendid recording might have been created expressly for those who doubt the ability of “old opera” to touch modern sensibilities (Harmonia Mundi 901385/7, 3 CDs).

The music of Czech composer Leos Janacek is a tense confrontation of Romantic and 20th-Century styles, of art music and folk music--a melding of seemingly disparate elements to form a dramatic style that only now, some 70 years after its creation, is finding its audience.

Janacek is at his most inspired and original in “The Cunning Little Vixen” (1923), an opera populated by singing foxes, badgers, grasshoppers, owls, frogs and a few human beings. If that sounds impossibly twee, be informed that the text (also by Janacek) is a profoundly touching story of the courting of the titular Vixen by her Fox and of her ultimate death at the hand of man. Under its charming surface runs a current of life-goes-on toughness less reminiscent of “Bambi” than an episode of PBS’s “Nature”--but with a better score.

Two brilliant recorded editions of “Vixen,” each on a pair of CDs, appeared this year. One, under the baton of Vaclav Neumann, is sung in Czech by native forces (Supraphon 103471/2). The other, in English and conducted by Simon Rattle, has its origins in a production by London’s Royal Opera House (EMI 54212).

Individual singers’ names are not of paramount importance in this very model of an ensemble opera. Suffice to say that the denizens of both versions, down to the last anthropomorphic baby mosquito, know their business.

Although 1992 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gioachino Rossini, little new repertory ground was broken. Still, Rossinians could celebrate the reappearance of the connoisseur edition of their man’s most durable and popular creation, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (EMI 64162, 2 CDs, mid-price).

It’s based on the 1962 Glyndebourne Festival production, under the quicksilver baton of Vittorio Gui, with Sesto Bruscantini (Figaro) and Victoria de los Angeles (Rosina) topping a cast that savors wit and finesse over yocks and sloppy self-indulgence.

Although lacking spoken dialogue and the now obligatory surprise-guest party scene (“Look who’s about to sing us a Neapolitan ditty! Fat man with hanky!”), the newly reissued 1950 Vienna recording of Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” (London 425 990, 2 CDs) remains the all-time sparkler.

The cast includes such top Viennese stylists of the immediate post-World War II years as Hilde Guden, Julius Patzak and Anton Dermota, under the slyly idiomatic baton of Clemens Krauss, who also leads the Vienna Philharmonic in the batch of Strauss waltzes and polkas included for excellent measure in this priceless--but mid-priced--set.

Forty years after the fact, some of us old-timers still mourn the death of Kathleen Ferrier at the peak of her brief career, which has just been documented in a series of mid-priced reissues, again on the London label.

Two discs that might gain her a whole new following are a recital of British folk songs (433 475)--the likes of “I know where I’m going,” “O Waly, Waly” and “Blow the wind southerly”--and a Brahms-Mahler collection including the former’s “Alto Rhapsody” and the latter’s “Ruckert” Lieder (433 477), all showcases for Ferrier’s plush, indescribably expressive instrument.

But there’s further evidence that our own, supposedly leaden vocal age has its veins of precious metal: to wit, some rare and sublime Mozart concert arias sung with stratospheric mastery by soprano Edita Gruberova (Teldec 72302) and the youthful mezzo Cecilia Bartoli offering an ear-tickling hour’s worth of gloriously convoluted Rossini arias (London 436 075).

Among the worthwhile uncategorizables of 1992 was a quite wonderful concert, as distinct from yet another over-polished example of the producer’s art, taped before a wildly enthusiastic audience in Berlin’s Schauspielhaus on Dec. 31, 1991 (Deutsche Grammophon 435 617).

But don’t expect waltzes. What you get is a nearly 80-minute-long CD devoted to an off-center Beethoven program in which Claudio Abbado conducts the Berlin Philharmonic and friends.

The friends include pianist Evgeny Kissin, with a super-flashy reading of the delectably tacky “Choral Fantasy,” and Cheryl Studer, the classy soprano soloist in “Ah! Perfido” and the songs from “Egmont” (most of whose incidental music is included). To top it all off, Abbado and his players rattle the roof with the “Leonore” Overture No. 3.

Consider, too, compositions that are bidding to crack the Top-However-Many classics known as the Standard Repertory.

Prime example: The hair-raising Tenth Symphony of Shostakovich, which appeared this year in two sumptuous recordings, one by the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi (London 430 844), the other from the Leningrad Philharmonic and the late Evgeny Mravinsky, who conducted the work’s premiere in 1953 (Erato 45753, mid-price).

Is it coincidence or the latest attempt at creating another crossover category that 1992 saw the resurgence on recordings of Classical Jazz (that is, jazz-inspired classical music)?

Heading the list was “La Creation du Monde” (1923), Darius Milhaud’s steamily bumping, grinding retelling of the Adam and Eve story in an African jungle setting. It’s part of a nifty program that also includes Milhaud’s loopy, samba-flavored “Le Bouef sur le Toit” and musical jokes by Poulenc and Ibert, all served to perfection by the Ulster Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier (Chandos 9023).

There was also the still undervalued 1927 Piano Concerto of Aaron Copland--impressionism meets, and marries, the blues--sizzlingly played by Earl Wild under the late composer’s direction (Vanguard 4029, with Menotti’s pretty Piano Concerto).

Most welcome was the return, in handsome remasterings, of George Gershwin’s jazzy concert music--the Piano Concerto, “Rhapsody in Blue,” Preludes, etc.--pungently delivered by Oscar Levant, not the depressive clown of ‘50s TV shows, but the stylish pianist regarded by many as the composer’s preeminent keyboard spokesman (Sony Masterworks Portrait 47681, mid-price).

This year provided rare opportunities for meaningful local boosterism, with the arrival of Esa-Pekka Salonen and Christof Perick on the podia of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, respectively, and both recording with their new charges.

The Salonen-LAPO union produced a thunderous, virtuosic Sibelius program, the “Lemminkainen Legends” and “En Saga” (Sony 48067). And Perick-LACO gave us a rousing trio of Haydn symphonies: the familiar ones nicknamed “The Bear” and “London” and the nicknameless, amazing and unheralded (we hadn’t met before) No. 38 in C (Dorian 90168).

And don’t let another year pass without making the acquaintance of, and introducing friends to, one of the most eccentric, imaginative orchestral works of our century: the Sixth Symphony of Denmark’s Carl Nielsen, from Salonen and his other band, the Swedish Radio Symphony (Sony 46500, with Nielsen’s Third Symphony).

They cost around $5 each (yes, a CD for a fin), so call ‘em stocking-stuffers if you must. But the following would be competitive at any price.

Four are on the upstart Naxos label: Beethoven’s quirky “Bagatelles,” small in size, not content, smartly dispatched by pianist Jeno Jando (550474); the Kodaly Quartet’s dashing performances of Haydn’s matchless Opus 76 Quartets on two individual discs (550314 and 550315); Schubert’s heaven-sent String Quintet, from Ensemble Villa Musica (550388), and Tchaikovsky’s schmaltzy Serenade for Strings and “Souvenir de Florence” in the expert hands of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under Philippe Entremont (550404).

Two other budget marvels to be scooped up in fistfuls are the String Quartets of Debussy and Ravel, in the classic interpretations by the Guarneri Quartet (RCA 60909), and a pairing of the Brahms Fourth and Dvorak Eighth symphonies in incendiary performances by the Boston Symphony under Charles Munch (RCA 61206).

Finally, a suggestion for those who have wised up to the fact that nobody wants yet another “Messiah” recording, the audio equivalent of the holiday fruitcake: Why not present the Hanukkah classic instead?

Yes, there is such a thing: Handel’s mighty and hardly overfamiliar “Judas Maccabaeus”--the story of Judas and his Israelites’ defeat of the Syrians and of their subsequent victory celebration, in effect the world premiere of the Festival of Lights, a.k.a. Hanukkah.

“Judas,” like most Handel oratorios, uses the Bible to illuminate contemporary events. In this instance, the Maccabee chief is a stand-in for the Earl of Cumberland, who slammed the door (while slamming numerous Stuart heads) on Bonnie Prince Charlie’s bid for the English crown.

“Judas Maccabaeus” is rich in the ringing choruses, florid arias and telling characterization that signal the Handel oratorio in fullest flower. And, like “Giulio Cesare,” which headed this list, it has after several failed attempts finally received a recording worthy of its grandeur.

The responsible parties are Robert King, who leads the period-instrument King’s Consort, the Choir of New College Oxford and a solo contingent of Baroque paragons including James Bowman, Emma Kirkby, Michael George and, in the title role, a resoundingly named newcomer, Jamie MacDougall (Hyperion 66641/2).

Buy! Give! Enjoy!