However, I have to admit that a very particular performance did spring to mind despite the overwhelm of other options: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Julius Drake’s performance of Brahms‘s “Unbewegte laue Luft,” recorded live at their October 1999 Wigmore Hall recital (and released in 2008 as one of the Wigmore Live recordings).

This song is, to me, one of the greatest Brahms ever wrote, and Lorraine and Julius bring it to life flawlessly. The way they create this atmosphere of that “unbewegte laue Luft” (or “still, balmy air”) from the very first tone is the sort that stills my breathing almost automatically virtually every single time I listen to it. And yet, it is the crescendo out of this stillness that leaves me truly breathless… Lorraine and Julius ride the peaks and valleys of Brahms’s harmonic journey like a lover’s heart pounding with inspiration and purpose. For a piece which is under 5 minutes in total, it feels like the emotional journey equivalent of an entire opera to me. I just love it.