James Ehnes debuted with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1993 when he was 17 and has since shared the stage with the ensemble countless times. He was the Orchestra’s first-ever Artist in Residence from 2021 to 2024 and a featured artist on several national and international tours. Ehnes reunites with the musicians of the NAC Orchestra to perform Bach’s …

Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion mark their 20th anniversary with a new recording of Bach’s Mass in B minor, a work that has been central to the group’s repertoire. Having first performed the piece in 2013 and revisited it regularly since, Pichon now presents a recording shaped by over a decade of performance experience with a close-knit group of …

On his new album Canadian virtuoso pianist Jan Lisiecki brings the diverse sounds of the prelude to life, illustrating the genre’s potential to be more than just a curtain-raiser to something else. Frédéric Chopin’s extraordinary 24 Preludes Op. 28 are inspiration and centerpiece of this recording. For Lisiecki, Chopin was a “master of the short form” who “brought the prelude …

Oboist Debra Nagy, founder and artistic director of the Cleveland-based period instrument ensemble Les Délices, presents an album on the eponymous label with her longtime collaborator, harpsichordist Mark Edwards. The program features François Couperin’s 1er Concert in G major from Concert Royaux and J.S. Bach’s Oboe Sonata in G minor, BWV1030b (better known as Flute Sonata in B minor, BWV …

Beatrice Rana performs four of Bach’s keyboard concertos (BWV 1052 in D minor, 1053 in E, 1054 in D, and 1056 in F minor) in a new recording with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The internationally acclaimed Italian pianist describes Bach as “an important figure in my life … My piano studies began when I was very young, and Bach was there …

In his second album for Warner Classics, cellist, vocalist, and composer Abel Selaocoe celebrates his South African heritage with traditional Bantu music played alongside cello-centric “Western Classical” baroque or baroque-inspired works. Much of the album features Selaocoe original compositions or arrangements on which he sings and plays both percussion and cello with a full band that includes string ensemble (the …

A genuine masterpiece inspires musicians to adopt, adapt, or transcribe it without losing any of its greatness. Period-instrument ensemble Nevermind (Anna Besson, flute; Louis Creac’h, violin; Robin Pharo, viola da gamba; and Jean Rondeau, harpsichord and organ) has taken a creative look at Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations and made their own stylishly insightful “variations” on the work. As they themselves …

Pianist Dmitry Masleev, who took first prize in the 2015 Tchaikovsky International Competition, leads the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra (a.k.a. Russian State Symphony Orchestra) from the piano in a program that centers two piano concertantes utilizing the chant melody Dies irae: Liszt’s Totentanz, and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The program also includes Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole in a version …

The music of Bach is a major cornerstone for Michael Houstoun, who has recorded the 96 pieces that comprise Bach’s Preludes and Fugues Books 1 & 2 on a four-CD set. As Houstoun says, “For a pianist like myself, someone for whom music virtually begins with Johann Sebastian Bach, he provides a series of bottom lines of incalculable value everywhere …

Lieder specialist Benjamin Appl celebrates Christmas with sacred arias by Bach and Mendelssohn, carols from Germany, Austria, America, Britain, Sweden and France. Appl is accompanied by instrumentalists (including his own mother on guitar), the Munich Radio Orchestra, and Germany’s most famous children’s choir, Regensburger Domspatzen, of which he was a member in his youth. “I returned to my hometown to …

Francesco Tristano is a Luxembourgish classical and experimental pianist and composer who also plays the clarinet. In his new album, Tristano interprets some of JS Bach’s most challenging pieces written for keyboard. The album is branded with Tristano’s own imprint intothefuture, making its debut on the Naïve label. Tristano has previously released three other albums dedicated to the music of …

The latest album from the prolific 25-year-old trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary features a collection of winter-themed popular songs by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Chaplin, and Hugh Martin alongside short movements from the classical repertoire by Dvořák, Rossini, Falla, Kreisler, Bach, and Vivaldi. Winter Gardens, which features the Paris Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sascha Goetzel, also features a work new to the …

Inspired by the musical soirées curated by J.S. Bach, this new release from Apollo’s Fire features repertoire that is believed to have been performed at the Café Zimmerman in Leipzig. Selections include Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with virtuoso soloists Alan Choo, violin, and Daphna Mor, recorder; and the Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin featuring oboist Debra Nagy and …

Rinaldo Alessandrini adds a generous helping to the baroque orchestral repertoire with his original transcriptions, arrangements, and adaptations of works by J.S. Bach. Stylishly performed by Concerto Italiano, the album features an orchestral transcription of the Overture in the French Style, BWV 831 (for solo harpsichord), a pastiche Partita for Traverso and String Orchestra, and a pastiche Overture for String …