Well you could always go with C++ but C# has a solid balance of high level features, good libraries, good tooling, a feature full (if not slick) threading mode, performance features when you need them and good interoperability with native code.

Its not always fun or sexy to rewrite a reference type to a value type to get around your GC but you _can_ do that in C#. Its a have your cake and eat it sort of language.