The BEST OF 1982

CLASSICAL

Bach Goldberg Variations (CBS Masterworks). Eloquent, insightful playing from the late pianist Glenn Gould.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (Philips, 2 LPs). Bernard Haitink leads Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra in a serene, glowing performance.

Elliott Carter: The Early Music (CRI). The cerebral composer has his roots in the folksy American idiom of Ives and Copland, as this disc surprisingly shows. Elgar: Violin Concerto (Deutsche Grammophon). Itzhak Perlman triumphs in Elgar's most restrained major work.

Handel: Water Music (Erato). This buoyant, vital performance on original instruments by John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists is simply the best available.

Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (RCA, 2 LPs). The Song of the Night defeats most conductors. James Levine and the Chicago Symphony crack its secrets with a powerful performance.

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (London, 4 LPs). Matchless Mozartean Sir Georg Solti leads the London Philharmonic and a cast including Kiri Te Kanawa in a sparkling reading.

Reich: Tehillim (ECM/ Warner Bros.). In the year of minimalism, Steve Reich's hypnotic psalms are a modern ode to joy.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Archiv). Forget the 45 other versions in the catalogue. Violinist Simon Standage's dashing performance, with Trevor Pinnock leading the English Concert, is the one to have when you're having only one.

Alexander Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony (Deutsche Grammophon). Lorin Maazel leads a vivid performance of this lush, intense late romantic song cycle.

ROCK

Ry Cooder: The Border (Backstreet/ MCA). Texas blues and a theme song straight from the heart: the sound track from the hard-boiled movie.

Greg Copeland: Revenge Will Come (Geffen). A rough mix of lilting melodies with wracking romanticism and Christian mysticism.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Imperial Bedroom (Columbia). A funny valentine from a man who is still delighted to be one of rock's most idiosyncratic talents. Billy Joel: The Nylon Curtain (Columbia). Joel's longest reach and his strongest shot yet.

David Johansen: Live It Up. (Blue Sky/CBS). He was supposed to be too wild to be wrestled onto record. But they finally pinned him, Live. A dance-'till-dawn classic.

Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul: Men Without Women (EMI America). Anthems for back alleys and high spirits by the most exciting new band since the Clash.

Paul McCartney: Tug Of War (Columbia). He is still rock's supreme balladeer, and Here Today is the simplest and best memorial to John Lennon anyone has written.

Lou Reed: The Blue Mask (RCA). An exorcist whose major struggle is with his own ghosts, Reed still keeps a few paces ahead with a rearing cycle of autobiographical songs.

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska (Columbia). Just guitar, harmonica and ten songs: a nightmare geography of America.

Richard and Linda Thompson: Shoot Out the Lights (Hannibal). Stifled emotion, broken marriages, betrayal: a series of linked love songs on the year's most pitiless, passionate disc. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.