10

Spectacular 10 cd box set of the great jazz musicians of the genre, instrumental and vocal, highly recommended!

It is said that Haydn's hands (and brilliant compositions) lifted the piano sonata from the drawing room to the concert hall. Not even Mozart would outdo this Austrian master in this particular medium-and, as for faithful performances of these Haydn masterpieces, no one outshines Rudolf Buchbinder, the youngest student (then age five) ever admitted to the Vienna Musik Hochschule. He went on to an illustrious career as a performer and recording artist, and here are his treasured 1974-75 recordings of Haydn's complete piano sonatas.

Having earned his composing stripes after the 1960s, John Adams had the pioneering work of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley close at hand as he ventured into his trade. And, while minimalism's historical continuum helps place Adams, he used Reich, Glass, and Riley (among others) only as a starting point. And here's proof: a 10-CD retrospective of nearly all Adams's recorded compositions on Nonesuch Records, the label that also issued Steve Reich 1965-1995 and Kronos Quartet: 25 Years. Adams's Harmonium, a choral work of startling energy and effervescence, appears here in a new recording, as do distillations of both The Death of Klinghoffer and Nixon in China, two path-clearing operas.