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- January 3, 1983 MUSICBEST OF '82
-
- CLASSICAL
-
- Bach Goldberg Variations (CBS Masterworks). Eloquent,
- insightful playing from the late pianist Glenn Gould.
-
- Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (Philips, 2 LPs). Bernard Haitink
- leads Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra in a serene, glowing
- performance.
-
- Elliott Carter: The Early Music (CRI). The cerebral composer
- has his roots in the folksy American idiom of Ives and Copland,
- as this disc surprisingly shows.
-
- Elgar: Violin Concerto (Deutsche Grammophon). Itzhak Perlman
- triumphs in Elgar's most restrained major work.
-
- Handel: Water Music (Erato). This buoyant, vital performance
- on original instruments by John Eliot Gardiner and the English
- Baroque Soloists is simply the best available.
-
- Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (RCA, 2 LPs). The Song of the Night
- defeats most conductors. James Levine and the Chicago Symphony
- crack its secrets with a powerful performance.
-
- Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (London, 4 LPs). Matchless Mozartean
- Sir Georg Solti leads the London Philharmonic and a cast
- including Kiri Te Kanawa in a sparkling reading.
-
- Reich: Tehillim (ECM/Warner Bros.) In the year of minimalism,
- Steve Reich's hypnotic psalms are a modern ode to joy.
-
- Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Archiv). Forget the 45 other
- versions in the catalogue. Violinist Simon Standage's dashing
- performance, with Trevor Pinnock leading the English Concert,
- is the one to have when you're having only one.
-
- Alexander Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony (Deutsche Grammophon).
- Lorin Maazel leads a vivid performance of this lush, intense
- late romantic song cycle.
-
- ROCK
-
- Ry Cooder: The Border (Backstreet/MCA). Texas blues and a
- theme song straight from the heart: the sound track from the
- hard-boiled movie.
-
- Greg Copeland: Revenge Will Come (Geffen). A tough mix of
- lilting melodies with wracking romanticism and Christian
- mysticism.
-
- Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Imperial Bedroom
- (Columbia). A funny valentine from a man who is still delighted
- to be one of rock's most idiosyncratic talents.
-
- Billy Joel: The Nylon Curtain (Columbia). Joel's longest reach
- and his strongest shot yet.
-
- David Johansen: Live It Up. (Blue Sky/CBS). He was supposed to
- be too wild to be wrestled onto record. But they finally pinned
- him, live. A dance-'till-dawn classic.
-
- Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul: Men Without Women
- (EMI America). Anthems for back alleys and high spirits by the
- most exciting new band since the Clash.
-
- Paul McCartney: Tug Of War (Columbia). He is still rock's
- supreme balladeer, and Here Today is the simplest and best
- memorial to John Lennon anyone has written.
-
- Lou Reed: The Blue Mask (RCA). An exorcist whose major struggle
- is with his own ghosts, Reed still keeps a few paces ahead with
- a rearing cycle of autobiographical songs.
-
- Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska (Columbia). Just guitar, harmonica
- and ten songs: a nightmare geography of America.
-
- Richard and Linda Thompson: Shoot Out the Lights (Hannibal).
- Stifled emotion, broken marriages, betrayal: a series of linked
- love songs on the year's most pitiless, passionate disc.
-
-