Despite the ongoing retraction of the classical recording industry (longtime American independent label Telarc ceased producing CDs last spring after three decades), it's been an artistically fulfilling year.

So, here's our annual top-10 list, with the usual reminder that these may not arbitrarily be the best of 2009's releases worldwide, but those (listed alphabetically) that provided this writer special satisfaction.

Dichotomy: The Sonatas of Ernest Bloch Vincent P. Skowronski, violin; Dana Brown, piano. Skowronski Plays! S: CR-09. Available from Skowronski Classical Recordings, 1726 Sherman Ave., No. 2, Evanston, IL 60201, or at skowronskiplays.com. Skowronski, the renowned Chicago-area concert artist and violin pedagogue, has been issuing performances from his concert and broadcast archives on CD for many years, and this latest addition is devoted to the music of Ernest Bloch (1880-1959). Pianist Dana Brown proves an ideal collaborator in these performances taped at the WFMT studios as part of its "Live from Studio One" series. -- Bill Gowen, Daily Herald Correspondent

Published in Daily Herald, 01/01/2010