NG Farrell Marketing

Even at my advancing age, I still enjoy moments of pure rapture from certain pieces of music that I have loved for a lifetime. And then to heighten those moments, there are performances by specific artists, which overwhelmingly remind me why it is just simply awesome to be alive.

So as a way of welcoming in the new year, I'd like to share my top five pieces of music, as performed by five of my all-time favourite artists. Note that as a former pianist, my preference does lean towards keyboard music. And vocal music. Toss in some ballet, and I'm happy. Make it mostly from the 20th century? Pure bliss.

This listing isn't in any particular order, but I do hope you can take the time to enjoy each and every one!

1. America's jewel, Jessye Norman singing....anything. But here is her awesome interpretation of "Beim Schlafengehen", from the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss.

2. The late Canadian icon Glenn Gould performing J.S. Bach's "Goldberg Variations". Regardless of his seemingly oafish manner, he had an unsurpassed musical vision and capacity that was captured in this video of his second recording of Bach's masterpiece for keyboard. When I was learning this piece as a teenager, his first recording of it from the 1950's was my muse.

3. Here are ballet legends Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nurejev performing Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet". I could watch, or just listen to this over and over...

4. Dawn Upshaw performing Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs". Written in 1976, Dawn Upshaw's 1992 recording of this then-obscure piece - by an equally obscure Polish composer - ended up selling more than 1 million copies worldwide. Here's why:

5. In his heyday, he was always controversial. And then, still a young man, he disappeared for several years after his wife passed away. But I always thought Ivo Pogorelich's austere physical style of performing only helped accentuate his musicality and awe-inspiring technique. Here he is playing "Scarbo", from Maurice Ravel's "Gaspard de la nuit" - considered to be one of the most difficult solo piano pieces ever composed, due to its technical difficulty and profound musical structure. But watch how easy - and mesmerizing - Pogorelich made it all seem back in 1983.