Three CDs top the stack of '06 Classical Tracks

In just a few short days, millions of eyes will be dazzled by the sparkling Waterford Crystal ball as it drops in Times Square on New Year's Eve. In the meantime, here's a brief look back at three recordings released in 2006 that may very well dazzle your ears.

First, there's Norwegian guitarist Rolf Lislevand's "Nuove Musiche," which remains on the top of my personal stack of CDs. Lislevand has taken something from the past and given it a voice in the present. He does it by adding fresh new elements to old music, following a precedent established long ago. In early 17th-century Florence, a group of musicians, scholars and scientists wanted to revise approaches they had inherited from the previous century and come up with something completely new. While 16th-century polyphony featured many voices and a complex structure, this new music, or "Nuove Musiche," would be simpler and more expressive, with new instruments and a new palette of colors.

Through the use of effective improvisation, Rolf Lislevand and his musical colleagues stretch beyond the sketchy original scores to conceive something elegant, graceful and quite compelling.

Another personal favorite of this past year is the world premiere recording of Vivaldi's "Dixit Dominus," RV 807. This is the composer's third known setting of the text based on Psalm 109. It's a large-scale piece for six soloists, choir and orchestra that's worthy of standing alongside Vivaldi's other well known choral composition, "Gloria." Just like "Gloria," this sacred work makes me want to crank up the speakers and sing along. The clean sound and exceptional balance between the orchestra and chorus make this performance with conductor Peter Kopp, the Komerscher Sing-Verein and Dresdner Instrumental-Concert quite striking.

The last personal favorite on my 2006 list is a recording released this past fall by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Scottish conductor Douglas Boyd that provides added insight into two symphonies by Franz Schubert.

Boyd believes Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony is one of those miracles of civilization. You can talk about its structure, harmony and melodies, he explains, but that's not the crucial point. "The most important thing to get across," he says, "is that composers like Beethoven and Schubert were capable of expressing every human emotion. There are elements of beauty and soothing qualities, but there are elements of terror and that's why it's more relevant today than in the 1800s."

Rolf Lislevand's "Nuove Musiche," the world premiere of Vivaldi's "Dixit Dominus," and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's new collection of Schubert symphonies are just three of my favorite recordings of this past year. I'm looking forward to sharing many more New Classical Tracks with you in the New Year. As Aaron Copland once said, "To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable."

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