A plethora of audience favorites have ventured forth with new releases in the height of summer. Two of the world’s most distinctive vocal ensembles — VOCES8 and the Swedish barbershop champions Ringmasters — join forces for a program that moves effortlessly from Renaissance polyphony and Romantic choral works to folk song, contemporary composition, and iconic popular repertoire. Legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida presents Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas, Opp. 109, 110 and 111, recorded live at Suntory Hall in Tokyo in October 2025, marking Uchida’s second and final recording of these works. Japanese composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with celebrated harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, in a major world premiere recording that pairs his Symphony No. 3, “Metaphysica” with his new genre-defying harp concerto.
Debuts also continue this season. Brass for Uncommon Times, an all-star collective of 40 brass and percussion performers, tackle the subject of modern-day concerns in their premiere album. Meanwhile, the father-son duo of Leonard and Jan Schultsz debut rare musical miniatures for horn and piano.
Two of the world’s most distinctive vocal ensembles — VOCES8 and the Swedish barbershop champions Ringmasters — join forces for a program that moves effortlessly from Renaissance polyphony and Romantic choral works to folk song, contemporary composition, and iconic popular repertoire. Alongside music by Gabrieli, Rachmaninov, Praetorius, and Whitacre sit imaginative arrangements of Loch Lomond, The Fool on the Hill, and I’ll Be There, culminating in a thrilling version of The Bells of Notre Dame. The album features two new compositions and two arrangements by tenor Blake Morgan, who has recently stepped down as a member of VOCES8 to focus on composing. Beginning in the 2026-27 season, Morgan has transitioned who into a new role as VOCES8 Ambassador and Associate Artist.
Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of classical and romantic repertoire, Dame Imogen Cooper presents Beethoven’s Sonatas No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, and No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. “It has taken many years for me to perceive the last three sonatas by Beethoven as the evolving journey I now feel them to be,” writes Cooper. “Now it would be hard for me to play any of the last three sonatas alone, so potent is the journey from first to last. And how privileged my hands feel, having wondered and wandered in the heavenly heights of the last pages of Op. 111, to travel down the keyboard and bring this astonishing last sonata, and indeed the whole body of thirty-two sonatas, to a close, with a quiet chord of C major – no long note value, no fermata. Just silence.” This marks the final recording of the acclaimed British pianist who has announced her retirement from public performance, concluding her illustrious 60-year career in early 2027.
Japanese composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with celebrated harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, in a major world premiere recording that pairs his Symphony No. 3, “Metaphysica” with his new harp concerto. The virtuosic, genre-defying concerto received its world premiere in 2024 performed by Ceysson and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the composer’s direction. Drawing on his decades of experience in film music, Hisaishi crafts a concerto that challenges traditional perceptions of the harp. Far from the instrument’s conventional delicacy, this three-movement work reveals a bold, dynamic voice — one that aligns closely with Ceysson’s distinctive, powerful playing style. The album also features Symphony No. 3, “Metaphysica,” a work that premiered in 2021 demonstrating Hisaishi’s mastery of large-scale orchestral writing while reflecting the influence of his symphonic hero, Gustav Mahler.
Brass for Uncommon Times is an all-star collective of 40 top-notch brass and percussion performers who hail from the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) and who are affiliated with the region’s most celebrated orchestras, military bands and universities. Directed by Brian Kaufman, their debut album features seven works composed between 2004 and 2022 that reflect the concerns and crises of our time. These include the pandemic, racial unrest, global conflict, reflections on the realities of war, the pervasive use of gun violence, pollution and social strife. The music oscillates between struggle and celebration and gives powerful glimpses of redemptive hope in our shared experiences, one that values civic identity and collective expression and offers a fanfare for those who shape our future for the better.
Dutch hornist Leonard Schultsz and his father, the conductor and pianist Jan Schultsz present music for horn and piano, in which rare musical miniatures engage in a new dialogue alongside familiar masterpieces. The selection brings together late Romantic, modern era and contemporary works including forgotten gems from the Russian-Ukrainian repertoire, early works by Glazunov and Tcherepnin, as well as pieces written especially for the performers by Swiss composers such as Daniel Schnyder and Thüring Bräm.
