The 2011 Deceptive Cadence Holiday Gift Guide

NPR | By Anastasia Tsioulcas,

Tom Huizenga

Published December 5, 2011 at 3:25 PM EST

The 2011 Deceptive Cadence Gift Guide includes some of santa's favorite classical jams.

Now that December is in full swing, our thoughts have turned to all sorts of goodies to be tied up with strings.

For more inspiration, be sure to check out NPR Music's dizzyingly diverse "50 Favorite Albums Of 2011" — which includes recordings by artists from Alexandre Tharaud to the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing Mahler's Symphony No. 2 — and our more-than-slightly tongue-in-cheek guide to what not to give. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the violin loo seat seems to have been the biggest hit (or miss?) amongst our readership.

We have even more in store for you this week. Stay tuned for Deceptive Cadence's own list of 2011 favorites. In the meantime, happy gift giving and getting!

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Anastasia Tsioulcas

Anastasia Tsioulcas is a correspondent on NPR's Culture desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including the trial and conviction of former R&B superstar R. Kelly; backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; and gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards.

Tom Huizenga

Tom Huizenga is a producer for NPR Music. He contributes a wide range of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and is the classical music reviewer for All Things Considered. He appears regularly on NPR Music podcasts and founded NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence in 2010.