Brahms has always been a significant composer for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. They played his first two symphonies in their inaugural 1881-82 season, back when Brahms had only written two. Today, a revitalized BSO and their young music director, Andris Nelsons, have won two consecutive Best Orchestral Performance Grammys for acclaimed Shostakovich recordings. This combination of history and acclaim might create artificially high hopes for a complete Brahms Symphony cycle, but the result avoids the weight of expectation. What comes across most in these live recordings is the affection that exists between conductor, orchestra and repertoire. These performances are confident and polished but also vividly expressive.

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I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that I am obsessed with a small set of living composers. Here again are some of the biggest names of the contemporary music world: Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Richard Reed Parry, Bryce Dessner. But in addition to this list of touted young composers, Black Mountain Songs has two key elements that elevate the piece. First, the work was conceived as a staged multimedia presentation about Black Mountain College and the intense creative energy associated with that institution. Second, the compositions were written to fit the skills of the highly talented Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The result is a set of pieces that are fresh and direct while also deeply meaningful. Standout examples include Parry’s “Spaceship Earth” and Muhly’s “Fielding Dawson in Franz Kline’s Studio.”

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The set of impromptus assembled for this disc by pianist Shai Wosner is delightful. Nineteenth and 20th century composers sit comfortably side by side, in no small part due to Wosner’s masterful playing. He is commanding but also relaxed enough to embody the spirit of improvisation that links these compositions. The sequencing of pieces leads to unexpected juxtapositions, with the final trio as an excellent illustration. The unexpected success of having a Charles Ives improvisation serve as the bridge between impromptus by Chopin and Schubert is a testament to Wosner’s imagination and insight as a performer.

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This disc finally presents the premiere recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s cello concerto “Azul” more than a decade after the piece debuted in 2006. Yo-Yo Ma has played the piece with some of the biggest orchestras in the country (Boston, Chicago, New York), but The Knights are the perfect orchestra for this type of piece. The group specializes in coloring its performance with a wide palette of genres and styles. Many members of the orchestra have worked with Ma in the Silk Road Ensemble, including founding brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen. The Knights readily channel Golijov’s unique blend of South American, Eastern European, and Jewish cultural influences. Azul is a vivid work that showcases Ma’s unique touch with connecting musical complexity and raw emotion. The other highlight on the disc is a suite of music by indie-pop musician Sufjan Stevens called “Run Rabbit Run,” especially the hauntingly elegiac “Year of Our Lord.”

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Eugene Ysaye’s set of six solo violin sonatas stand alongside J.S. Bach’s solo violin pieces for good reason: Ysaye was inspired to write his pieces after hearing the Bach works. They are also a notoriously difficult set of pieces to play, and not only because of the incredibly demanding technique needed to play the notes. Even Ysaye warned of the danger in focusing too much on technical fireworks at the expense of the emotional core of each Sonata. Boulder’s Sharon Park delivers a recording that satisfies all of the varied demands of Ysaye’s challenging works. Her technical delivery is jaw-dropping but more importantly she animates the musical heart of each passage. The ability to connect in a directly human way though seemingly superhuman virtuosity is indeed special, and lucky for us this level of musicianship exists within our local community.

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