The most distinctive disks of 2002.(classical sound recordings)(Buyers Guide)

"Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade" (Philips)--Rimsky-Korsakov's sensuous masterpiece has never lacked for great interpreters, but this opulent new recording, with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra in top form, has a sweep that sets it apart; encores by Borodin ("In the Steppes of Central Asia") and Balakirev are rendered with a startling clarity.

"Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music" (Nonesuch)--In this grand, arresting work, a symphony in all but name, John Adams synthesizes his conflicting compositional personae--the dreamy romantic and the skeptical modernist--with the visionary detachment of a master. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the perfect champions, give the piece their own distinctive mix of lyrical ardor and merciless forward drive.

"Schoenberg: Gurrelieder" (EMI)--Simon Rattle, making his mark as the Berlin Philharmonic's new maestro, saves this colossal late-Romantic masterwork from its own excess with a performance swathed in Impressionist colors and dispatched with boyish energy. Karita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Thomas Quasthoff are among the estimable vocal soloists.

"Alexei Lubimov: Der Bote" ("The Messenger") (ECM)--While none of the alluring miniatures (by such composers as Glinka, Debussy, Chopin, and Cage) on this album are especially well known, this Russian pianist's impulsive, jazzlike style--crisp attacks emerging from gentle vapors of pedal--is so hauntingly persuasive that each one seems indispensable.

"Glenn Gould: A State of Wonder" (Sony)--At first glance, reissuing Glenn Gould's 1955 and 1981 interpretations of Bach's Goldberg Variations in one album seems like the ultimate non-event: who doesn't have at least one of the eccentric Canadian's Bach recordings? But the impressive remastering of ...