Simon Mayo's Essential Albums of 2022
Simon Mayo ended his last show of the year with a rundown of the must-have records released this year
Last updated 6th Jan 2023
Every Saturday afternoon at 3pm, Simon Mayo celebrates the ultimate classical albums you should have in your collection.
On his final show of the year, he presented a special show highlighting some of the essential classical albums released over the past 12 months.
Featuring music from Mari Samuelsen, Freddie de Tommaso, and Raffaele La Ragione, Simon also showcased some of the best Mozart (his favourite composer) recordings of 2022, including music by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, and French horn player Sarah Willis.
Listen back as Simon Mayo runs down his Essential Albums of 2022
See all of Simon Mayo’s Essential Albums of 2022 here:
Mozart Momentum: 1786 - Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra follow their "triumphant" (Gramophone), "sparkling" (New York Times) and award-winning Mozart Momentum 1785 release with its partner album, focusing on the composer's extraordinary creativity in the year 1786.
In 1786 the white-hot inspiration of Mozart's work on his opera The Marriage of Figaro spilled over into the composer's piano concertos and chamber music. Suddenly, Mozart's music was filled with a new spirit of conversation, deeper layers of meaning, and fuller explorations of instrumental and human character. In these works, Mozart was looking far beyond the confines of public taste and writing, apparently, to satisfy himself.
The double-album Mozart Momentum 1786 includes Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24, Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Piano Trio in B-flat major and Recitative and Aria Ch'io mi scordi di te? featuring guest soprano Christiane Karg.
Raffaele La Ragione: Mandolin on Stage
Mandolin on Stage is the first recorded collaboration of Il Pomo d'Oro with Italian mandolinist Raffaele la Ragione. The programme, conducted by Francesco Corti, the principal guest conductor of Il Pomo d'Oro, presents some of the best known works for this instrument. From Vivaldi's famous mandolin concertos, by way of the typically Neapolitan examples by Paisiello and Lecce, to the two more Classical concertos of Hummel (these last in their world premiere recording on historical instruments), four concertos and three precious instruments restore this repertory to its rightful place and relate almost a century of mandolin history. The album was released in April 2022 on Arcana.
Freddie De Tommaso: Il Tenore
The first recording of opera arias from the star tenor, Freddie de Tommaso. Following his chart-topping debut album, 'Amore e Morte' (Love and Death) celebrates the greatest tenor hits by Puccini and Bizet including 'Nessun dorma', 'E lucevan le stelle' and 'The Flower Song' from Carmen. Veteran Italian conductor Paolo Arrivabeni conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra, with guest appearances from three outstanding singers: sopranos Lise Davidsen and Natalya Romaniw and the sensational mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina as Carmen. 'It was a rare thrill to hear a tenor voice of this ease and brilliance. The new Pavarotti? We've heard that before. This time it might just be true' - Observer.
Elsa Dreisig: Mozart X 3
Elsa Dreisig credits Mozart with being the composer who first inspired her to become a professional singer. Now the French-Danish soprano pays him tribute with an album devoted entirely to arias from his operas. Its title, Mozart x3, reflects a programme constructed around the three masterpieces composed to libretti written by Lorenzo Da Ponte: Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Elsa Dreisig sings arias allocated to three different characters in each of these operas. The total of nine 'Da Ponte arias' is complemented by three arias from examples of the dignified genre opera seria: La clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo and Lucio Silla. Accompanying Elsa Dreisig is the Basel Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Louis Langrée, now director of Paris's celebrated Opéra-Comique.
Sinfonia Of London & John Wilson: Hollywood Soundstage
Sinfonia of London and John Wilson present an album that celebrates the golden age of Hollywood. Sinfonia of London rose to fame in the 1950s as the leading recording orchestra of the day, appearing in the musical credits of more than 300 films, including the 1958 soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann for Hitchcock's Vertigo. Reformed by John Wilson in 2018 as a recording orchestra, and made-up of some of London's finest orchestral musicians. Korngold's Overture from The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex which opens the programme is an excellent demonstration of his rich, chromatic sound-world that set a blue-print for the Hollywood sound and so many composers that followed.
Mari Samuelsen: LYS
Mari Samuelsen's latest Deutsche Grammophon album explores the phenomenon on which so much of life on earth depends. 'Lys' - Norwegian for 'Light' - presents music by thirteen female composers, from Hildegard of Bingen to Hildur Guðnadóttir, combining specially commissioned works with new arrangements of existing pieces. The tracks are woven together to create a meditation in sound on something so fundamental that it is often taken for granted. The Norwegian violinist's eclectic programme moves through light's infinitely subtle qualities to reveal a musical world of boundless shades of emotion and expression.
Vikingur Olafsson: From Afar
Celebrated for his innovative programming and award-winning recordings, Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson is offering a window into his musical life story with his new album 'From Afar'. The highly personal double album reflects Olafsson's musical DNA, from childhood memories growing up in Iceland to his international career and contemporary inspirations, recorded on both grand and upright pianos.
Cristina Gómez Godoy: Mozart & Strauss: Oboe Concertos
"I couldn't have imagined a better constellation for my first album!" says Cristina Gómez Godoy about her first recording. She has chosen this repertoire because these pieces made her fall in love with the instrument and music. As a musician in Daniel Barenboim's Berlin-based orchestra, she feels very privileged to have recorded her first album with him, accompanied by the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, with whom she has played for many years
Bach St Matthew Passion
Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon's new recording of a sacred oratorio, which sets to music the 26th and 27th chapters of St Matthew's Gospel from the German Lutheran bible.
Marking a major stage in this fifteen-year companion between the composer and the ensemble. The culmination of a body of work characterized by it's precision and humility.
Sarah Willis - Mozart y Mambo: Cuban Dances
Following the phenomenal success of the first Mozart y Mambo album, Sarah Willis returns to Cuba not only to record two more Mozart horn concertos but also to create a landmark original work that takes its place in Cuban music history. In Mozart y Mambo - Cuban Dances, Sarah commissions the very first Cuban horn concerto – calling on six young talented Cuban composers to each write an original dance for solo horn, strings, and percussion inspired by the most famous dance rhythms from across different regions of Cuba.