• Thomas Quasthoff with Sebastian Weigle/Staatskapelle Dresden: Consider, My Soul: Sacred Arias


• Simon Rattle/Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Karita Mattila and Thomas Quasthoff: Shostakovich: Symphonies 1 & 14

All right, then. The confetti is out of your hair (or at least off the top of your head), the new calendar is up, the hangovers have subsided, and the bills are paid and the leftovers eaten -- well, that we should not expect.

But the men of the Vienna Philharmonic have bellowed, "Prosit Neujahr!" at their New Year's Day audience one more time, and we can resume what we were doing before the holiday season descended.

Or can we? In these confusing times, perhaps a new plan is in order.

Resolutions for 2007:

1. Everybody needs to start learning the lyrics for "Auld Lang Syne" NOW, preferably with authentic Scottish pronunciation, all the better to be ready for next Hogmanay. (Look it up.)

2. Casual listeners must remember that "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana has nothing to do with either The Omen or devil worship, no matter how many times that choral work is trotted out in movie trailers.

3. Let's declare a moratorium on the label "the next Pavarotti." I'm on my knees here.

4. Today is the time to start hunting for more ways of means of keeping classical music as accessible and alive to American audiences as possible, particularly to the young. That also goes for jazz, folk, bluegrass, and other supposedly non-commercial types of music.

5. Welcome your little bluebirds of happiness wherever you find them. For example, rumor has it that WETA may resurrect its classical programming. In further encouraging news, The Washington Post put Il Divo on its "Out" list and Thomas Quasthoff on its "In" list. Is this a great city or what?

Quasthoff, a bass-baritone, is not only a formidable singer but a music educator back in his native Germany. I recall seeing the guy interviewed during a break on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center and being blown away his charm and presence, to say nothing of his fluid, idiomatic English. No doubt much of that comes from his years as a radio host.

But it's his musicianship, currently on display in two very different albums, that will draw you back again and again.

The first, more accessible album is Consider, My Soul: Sacred Arias. These are sung prayers of wonder and rejoicing, as well as lamentation and pleading, from vocal works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. Quasthoff is masterful with the Bach and Handel, and there's palpable energy, even sprightliness to his reading of Haydn. Then he astonishes with his sensitive, even intimate rendering Mendelssohn's "Es ist genug."

There's a further surprise in the program: two African-American spirituals. If Quasthoff seems a natural for German cantatas and oratorios, his ease with and feeling for "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" might catch you by surprise.

Thus spiritually refreshed, contemplate the next project: Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic's live recording of Shostakovich's 1st and 14th Symphonies, with soprano Karita Mattila and our man Quasthoff taking the vocals in the latter work.

The pairing of the 1st and 14th Symphonies is a little audacious: the teenaged Shostakovich's maiden effort paired with a song cycle about death. The first possesses energy, passion, even humor. The second reveals an unsettling beauty and a disturbing range of emotions -- demanding for both Mattila and Quasthoff, but they acquit themselves well.

Quasthoff has built a repertoire of essential recordings for a top baritone -- Schubert's Die Winterreise, Bach cantatas, Mahler song cycles, and of course romantic lieder. But just when you're getting comfortable he switches gears, as with the Shostakovich above and this spring's jazz album (Yes, really). Watch and listen.