A collection of little-known Finnish composers are highlighted on the new album from Oulu Sinfonia and Rumon Gamba, while award-winning pianist Yunchan Lim shares a deeply personal collection of Tchaikovsky’s The Four Seasons. Harmonia Mundi releases a six-album box set celebrating the career so far of German countertenor Adreas Scholl. The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo present three first symphonies in a row. Rounding out the contemplative mood are Reena Esmail’s new work for double choir and brass quintet, plus Joshua Brown’s debut album of violin sonatas.
New Releases Sept. 9: Contemplative Collections
Andreas Scholl (Photo: Marco Borggreve)
Rumon Gamba and Oulu Sinfonia present a fascinating picture of Finnish orchestral music, their second program of works from their native land. The album takes its title from Selim Palmgren’s four-movement suite, written in 1904, offering richly atmospheric character pieces celebrating the changing seasons. Several works take inspiration from the natural world, such as Kurkikohtaus (Scene with Cranes) which Sibelius composed as incidental music for a play by his brother-in-law, Arvid Järnefelt. Robert Kajanus is often considered the father of Finnish music. As a young man, he was one of the standard bearers in the drive for Finnish independence, and he developed a keen artistic interest in Finnish folklore and vernacular traditions. His Second Finnish Rhapsody, Op. 8, dates from 1886 and is the oldest work here. The album also features works by two further key Finnish composers: Väinö Raitio and Leevi Madetoja – the latter a native of Oulu. All works but the Sibelius selection are new to the WFMT library.
Washington’s distinguished Cathedral Choral Society presents EXALTATIONS by award-winning Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. Commissioned by the Cathedral Choral Society, EXALTATIONS is a three-movement work for double choir and brass quintet that draws inspiration from the monumental works of Giovanni Gabrieli and Anton Bruckner. Each movement is set in a different Hindustani raga, reflecting Esmail’s deep engagement with her bicultural heritage. “I’ve always seen myself as someone who is a connector… between traditions, between people. Just as music for choir and brass grew out of the Roman Catholic tradition,” writes Esmail, “Indian classical raga grew out of the Hindu religious practice. This music interweaves the richness of both.”
Yunchan Lim shares a deeply personal and thoughtful interpretation of one of Tchaikovsky’s most intimate piano works: The Seasons. Recorded live at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, Yunchan Lim views the twelve pieces not merely as a set of months, but as a story portraying someone’s final year of life “It begins with a man who is lost in memories, feeling sadness for no clear reason,” says Lim. “Then new experiences bring hope. Strong feelings and tears turn into daydreams as the smoke from a cigarette curls through the air. While crying, he falls asleep, pulled into forgotten memories and always hesitating at the edge of the past. But then he returns to the present, accepts everything, and as the bell rings, he closes the day that will never come again.”
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and its music director Kazuki Yamada — a great lover of the French symphonic repertoire — present the first symphonies of three giants of French Romantic music. Camille Saint-Saëns was only fifteen years old when he composed his first symphony in 1850, which is known as his Symphony No. 0 — his official Symphony No. 1 would not arrive for another three years. Gounod was thirty-seven years old when his La nonne sanglante was removed from the repertoire of the Paris Opera by a new director; he swiftly restored his spirits by composing a symphony for the Société des Jeunes Artistes in March 1855. Bizet, aged seventeen, began work on his Symphony in C major that same year. Gounod’s symphony clearly influenced Bizet’s work, as Bizet had just completed a transcription of it for piano four hands.
Thirty years ago, a young German countertenor recorded his first disc for Harmonia Mundi. Since then, Andreas Scholl has recorded numerous albums for the label that have been met with great critical acclaim. To celebrate this outstanding artist, a box set combining six of his iconic recitals retraces some of the highlights of his career to date. This special reissue includes the albums German Baroque Songs (1995), English Folksongs & Lute Songs (1996), German Baroque Cantatas (1998), Ombra mai fu (1999), Il Duello Amoroso (2007), and Crystal Tears (2008). This is a glorious testimony of a singer at the peak of his career.
Violinist Joshua Brown is an alumnus of the Music Institute of Chicago, recipient of a 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and 2nd Prize-winner and Audience Award-winner of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He presents his debut solo album of violin sonatas by Robert Schumann with pianist Paolo Giacometti. “The struggle that Schumann so openly expresses through his music continues to bring me solace and companionship in difficult times,” says Brown. “I hope that you can find similar comfort in it, and enjoy the perspective that Paolo and I have brought to this music that we both love.”
