Discs that shaped careers

01 October 2008
Gramophone
James Jolly

As our awards enter their fourth decade, we've paused and looked back over the first 30 years. It's gratifying to see how many of the recordings singled out for the prestigious Record of the Year have gone on to become classics of the catalogue. One thinks of Sir Charles Mackerras's Janacek operas, or Karajan's still-astounding Mahler Ninth, or one of the most heart-warming of all recordings of an entire oeuvre - the Beaux Arts Trio in Haydn's piano trios. Then there are the discs that shaped careers - violinists Nigel Kennedy (in Elgar) and Maxim Vengerov (in Prokofiev and Shostakovich) - to which you might add The Tallis Scholars' stunning disc of Masses by Josquin Desprez, a disc that elevated Early Music to the "mainstream".