Once again this year there was much gnashing of teeth throughout the music business about the ongoing "demise" of classical recording. But CD sales are slumping across the board in a weak economy. And while classical Goliaths like BMG, Decca and Philips have cut back on the number of releases, this has had the positive result of halting much wasteful duplication of repertory. The fact remains that 2002 still brought plenty of important and interesting classical releases, many of them from smaller independent companies (Naxos, Harmonia Mundi, ECM, Cedille, Albany and others) that are now the shining hope of a battered industry.

1. Richter Live in Kiev. Sviatoslav Richter, piano (TNC Recordings, 16 volumes, available separately): Here is a trove for admirers of the art of Sviatoslav Richter -- some 20 hours of live performances the great Russian pianist gave in Kiev between 1958 and 1982, when he was in his prime. The local radio station dutifully taped every concert and recital, and here they are, arranged over 17 discs. Most of them are devoted to solo repertory, but there also is chamber music, including both Dvorak piano quintets and the only available recording of Richter playing the Shostakovich Viola Sonata, with Yuri Bashmet. The sound is acceptable despite the variable condition of the original tapes and some out-of-tune pianos. Many of the performances are touched with genius -- for starters, try Richter's Beethoven and Prokofiev sonatas, and his magisterial Schubert B Major Sonata.
2. Mahler: Symphony No. 9. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, conductor (DG): How appropriate that Abbado should be bidding farewell to his Berlin directorship with the greatest of all valedictory symphonies. For my taste, the conductor balances Mahler's musical architecture and emotional subtext superbly in this concert performance, taped at the Berlin Philharmonie in September 1999. The achingly beautiful finale is followed by nearly a minute of silence before the audience begins applauding; their awed silence says it all.
3. Leopold Stokowski and the New York Philharmonic, complete Columbia recordings, 1947-49 (Cala, 2 separate CDs): Admirers of the old magician will cheer the reissue (and, in some cases, first issue) of all the recordings he made with the Philharmonic during his brief but fruitful term as guest conductor. The programs range from Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius to Schoenberg, Vaughan Williams and Messiaen's "L'Ascension," all played at a superlative level of collaboration Stokowski would seldom equal in the studio.
4. Saariaho: Prisma ("Lonh," "Pres," "NoaNoa," "Six Japanese Gardens"). Dawn Upshaw, soprano; Anssi Karttunen, cello; Camilla Hoitenga, flute; Florent Jodelet, percussion (Montaigne Naive): Kaija Saariaho, the extraordinary Finnish composer who won this year's Grawemeyer Award for her opera "L'Amour de Loin," gives us four works for live musicians and electronics, each remarkable for its poetic, sensuous use of technology to extend the expressive scope of traditional instruments. The disc is worthy buying just for the accompanying CD-ROM, which is packed with nearly 15 hours of information about the composer and her music.
5. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K.467; Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491. Piotr Anderszewski, piano and conductor; Sinfonia Varsovia (Virgin Classics): As much a maverick explorer as a thoughtful modern musician, the young Polish pianist takes nothing for granted in these two familiar works. The result is some of the most beautiful, characterful Mozart playing I have heard.
6. Berg: "Wozzeck." Soloists, Swedish Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Leif Segerstam, conductor (Naxos, 2 CDs): The budget label Naxos has done it again, producing a version of a major opera that is a bargain in every respect. You gain a theatrical immediacy from this live recording (taped in Stockholm in February 2000) that makes up for the somewhat recessed placement of the orchestra. Segerstam's vital conducting and a strong cast give this "Wozzeck" the edge over more expensive rivals.
7. Part: "Orient Occident." Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Tonu Kaljuste, conductor (ECM New Series): From contemporary music's best-known spiritualist comes another disc that shows him enriching his musical vocabulary. The longest work here, a choral drama titled "Como Cierva Sedienta," has the distinctive spareness and purity of sound one associates with Part but with a new dramatic intensity and wealth of instrumental color. Two shorter works, the lamenting "Song of Pilgrimage" and gently flowing "Orient and Occident," conclude a disc that is short on duration (only 47 minutes) but long on listening satisfaction.
8. Leontyne Price Rediscovered: Carnegie Hall recital debut. Leontyne Price, soprano; David Garvey, piano (RCA Red Seal): The American soprano was 38 and at the height of her vocal powers on Feb. 28, 1965, when she made her Carnegie Hall recital debut with this wide-ranging program of arias, French and American art songs, and spirituals. RCA recorded the recital but never issued it complete until now. The audience knew from the start they were hearing one of the greatest voices America had ever produced, and their delight in Price's luscious vocalism is obvious.
9. Ligeti: "Lontano," "Atmospheres," other orchestral works. Berlin Philharmonic, Jonathan Nott, conductor (Teldec): Volume 2 of Teldec's valuable Ligeti Project contains several of the expatriate Hungarian composer's seminal orchestral works from the 1960s, including the first recording of his "Apparitions" (1958-59), a rigorous example of the technique he called micropolyphony, or music made up of complex interwoven textures. The five challenging and ear-grabbing scores are faithfully served by conductor, orchestra and engineers.
10. Roy Harris: Symphony No. 2; Morton Gould: Symphony No. 3. Albany Symphony Orchestra, David Alan Miller, conductor (Albany): Two important CD premieres of all-but-forgotten American symphonies from the 1930s and '40s. Both works are filled with striking ideas, bursting with rhythmic vitality and muscular optimism. In many ways the Harris Second (1934) foreshadows his popular Third Symphony, but on a broader canvas. The Gould is an especially welcome discovery, with its mixture of high seriousness and jazzy playfulness.

Honorable mentions:
The world premiere recording of Robert Kurka's "The Good Soldier Schweik," presented by Chicago Opera Theater (Cedille); Steve Reich's "Triple Quartet," played by the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch); Strauss' "Four Last Songs," with soprano Soile Isokoski and Marek Janowski conducting (Ondine); George Flynn's "American Rest" and "Pieces of Night" (Southport); Baroque violin sonatas by Heinrich Biber ("Unam Ceylum"), with violinist John Holloway (ECM); "The Call of the Phoenix" (15th Century English sacred music) by the Orlando Consort (Harmonia Mundi); and "Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet," with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (Sony Classical).

Also, John Adams' "Naive and Sentimental Music," with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen (Nonesuch); Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, with pianist Jorge Federico Osorio and Maximiano Valdes conducting (Artec); Pierre Boulez's "Pli Selon Pli," with Boulez conducting the Ensemble Intercontemporain (DG); "Cantigas de Santa Maria," with the Camerata Mediterranea under Joel Cohen (Erato); Janacek's "The Diary of One Who Disappeared" and piano works performed by tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Thomas Ades (EMI); Mendelssohn and Shostakovich violin concertos played by Hilary Hahn (Sony); and Offenbach arias and scenes sung by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (DG).

John von Rhein is the Chicago Tribune classical music critic.

Originally published Dec. 15, 2002.