10 Classical Albums To Usher In The Next Decade

Traditions worth saving still need need practitioners and advocates who are willing to propel them forward. Classical music boasts a long, rich history — about 1000 years — of transformation, adaptation, tumult and triumph. From radical, boundary-bashing composers to brave and bold interpreters, the music has remained vibrantly alive even as prognosticators routinely forecast its demise.

The list below offers tip-of-the-iceberg evidence that those who compose and perform this music have, in the past year, been thinking about the future. Here are 10 amazing albums from 2019 that ask — sometimes demand — that we look inward to ourselves and outward to humanity as we listen.

Caroline Shaw / Attacca Quartet

Orange

The Pulitzer-winning composer's debut album, still in her 30s, looks back to master practitioners such as and — sprinkling traces of them into the mix — to create her kinetic, forward-looking music. The six compositions on are rigorously constructed and presented with precision and utter joy by the Attacca Quartet.