Alex Ross rounds up 10 of the best classical music recordings released in 2012:

Here is a selection of notable classical releases from 2012, which may be of assistance as you seek the perfect gift for your decadent niece who worships Wagner. A few audio and video samples are embedded. Two of the selections—the “Winterreise” and the Vivaldi—were, in fact, released at the end of 2011, but they reached my desk too late to make last year’s list…

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Nick Paumgarten, who writes about Grateful Dead “tapeheads” in this week’s issue, breaks down his thirteen essential, commercially ignored Dead recordings.

Tweet us your favorite Dead shows at #tnydead.

Read Nick Paumgarten’s Annals of Obsession “Deadhead,” in this week’s magazine.

Photograph by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty.